Professors Jennifer Chandler, Jeremy de Beer, and Teresa Scassa have each been recognized with Tier 1 CRCs for their research – Professor Chandler and Professor de Beer are new CRC holders, while Professor Scassa’s Chair has been renewed. Their work will help to shape law and policy frameworks to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time – from neurotechnology and AI to global innovation and data governance.
Exploring the Law and Ethics of Brain Technologies – Professor Jennifer Chandler
Professor Jennifer Chandler has been awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Law and Ethics of Brain Technologies. Impairments of the brain and nervous system are common, but effective therapies remain limited. People with these impairments are often stigmatized and neglected. Neurotechnologies that interface directly with the nervous system are among the most rapidly evolving new domains of assistive technology being developed to address these kinds of impairments. Given the implications of interfacing directly with the nervous system to “read out” brain data, and to “write in” to the brain through electromagnetic and other forms of stimulation, there is a need to address the impact for fundamental values like mental privacy, autonomy, and equality, among others. Professor Chandler’s research will propose legal and regulatory structures and concepts to respond to the capabilities of these technologies, including the possibility of recognizing novel “neurorights.”
This research will break new ground in using microphenomenological interview techniques to understand the experiences of living with and acting through neurotechnologies. Professor Chandler seeks to integrate and centre the voices of the actual and intended users in the design and policy debates surrounding these devices. Her research program will also support and train the next generation of thinkers to take forward the work of understanding how these evolving technologies affect individuals and societies, and how to respond to the new powers they offer.
Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Global Challenges – Professor Jeremy de Beer
Professor Jeremy de Beer has been awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Intellectual Property Law. Innovation in the global knowledge economy is governed by a multi-layered network of legal rules, economic policies, and socio-cultural norms surrounding intellectual property rights. The intellectual property system now regulates, directly or indirectly, nearly all exchanges of the ideas, information, and data underpinning innovative solutions to some of humanity’s most important challenges. The objective of Professor de Beer’s CRC program is to address one of the most vexing issues in the field: how to simultaneously encourage innovation and distribute benefits more equitably, within Canada and across the world.
Professor de Beer's research as a chairholder will explore the intersection of intellectual property with education, food security, global health, and climate innovation. In confronting all of these seemingly disparate challenges, the integrated research program will tackle a common denominator: the fact that exclusive intellectual property rights are widely used in trying to promote inclusive technology innovation for human development. Through mutually beneficial partnerships, robust evidence-gathering methods, and imaginative knowledge translation strategies, this CRC is committed to improving Canada and the world’s intellectual property system.
Data Governance and AI Regulation – Professor Teresa Scassa
Finally, Professor Teresa Scassa’s Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy has been renewed for a second term. Professor Scassa’s research provides a holistic, grounded, interdisciplinary and novel approach to the study of the relationship between new technologies and their legal frameworks. She explores the governance of both data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, balancing innovation and public good with privacy and human rights. The proposed research program builds upon her work from the first term of her Tier 1 CRC, combining doctrinal legal methods with theories of regulation and interdisciplinary approaches to develop a rich understanding of the different ways to regulate AI technologies. Professor Scassa’s proposed research addresses two broad themes: 1) developing and shaping the legal infrastructure of AI and data governance in a way that respects human rights; and 2) ensuring fair and appropriate access to and use of data. A third theme cuts across these two, namely 3) understanding and critically assessing the evolving technological and normative tools for AI and data governance.
Dr Scassa’s research insights are enriched by her understanding of data from both technical and critical data studies perspectives; and from her approach to AI regulation that embraces a broad understanding of the regulatory tools available and the different theories and approaches to regulation in this context. Her work is also enriched by her ongoing interactions with actors engaged in AI and data governance from diverse perspectives, including policymakers, regulators, national and subnational governing entities, private sector organizations, and civil society groups. This work will continue to have a major impact across a broad range of communities.
With this most recent round of Canada Research Chair funding, the federal government has invested more than $153 million in support of 179 new and renewed CRCs at 38 research institutions. The CRC Program is a tri-agency initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Tier 1 Canada Research Chairs (CRC) are awarded to outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. A Tier 1 CRC carries a term of seven years and is renewable once.
View the announcement from the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry.
Congratulations to Professor Chandler, Professor de Beer and Professor Scassa on these incredible achievements!