Welcome to the first blog of the ISSP’s 2024-2025 academic year. In it, I give a preview of our main research, teaching and outreach activities in the coming months. All of our activities aim to advance the ISSP’s five-year strategic vision: helping Canada transform decision-making to meet the grand challenges of our time by strengthening science-society-policy relations within and among the academic, public, private and civil society sectors.
Our activities focus on the three thematic areas identified as priority topics in our strategic plan: public trust in expertise and expert-based decision-making, co-production of policies by public, private, civil society and Indigenous actors, and weaving together social and technological innovation. Initiatives feature leading-edge knowledge mobilization approaches and deep interdisciplinarity, hallmarks of the Institute’s research, teaching and outreach.
Below I profile some of our key activities. Please visit our website to see the full range of activities of our research clusters and individual members.
Speaking of members, we are delighted to announce the appointment of ISSP Core Member Professor Patrick Fafard as Research Chair in Science Diplomacy. This Chair, co-led by Professor Fafard and his counterpart Professor Pascal Griset at Sorbonne University, is a collaborative initiative between the University of Ottawa and the Embassy of France in Canada. Congratulations Patrick!
We are also pleased to have renewed Dr. Jeff Kinder as the ISSP’s Executive-in-Residence for a two-year term. Jeff, Project Director at the Council of Canadian Academies, will spend one day a week at the Institute, contributing to a number of signature Institute initiatives, including Confluences and the Bromley Memorial Event and Lecture.
The Institute is also thrilled to announce the renewal of Bryce Bogie as the ISSP’s Graduate Fellow. Bryce joins us from the Faculty of Medicine, where he is completing his MD and PhD in Neuroscience. Bryce will provide invaluable support to Confluences, and to our initiatives on teaching/training and on equity, diversity and inclusion.
Confluences: Grand Challenge Action Dialogues
The grand challenges facing society – from climate change to global pandemics, inequality and beyond – require solutions at the intersection of science, society and policy. Cutting edge research is being done in this space at the ISSP, but there is untapped opportunity to co-produce and mobilize this knowledge with decision-makers. Last year the Institute launched Confluences, an initiative that takes a strategic, innovative approach to knowledge mobilization, combining the co-creation of an annual knowledge mobilization series with an edited book on science, society and policy.
Confluences has enjoyed high levels of traction with science policymakers, early career researchers and thought leaders from a variety of sectors. In 2024-2025, Confluences is launching Grand Challenge Action Dialogues to incorporate more direct engagement with seasoned and emerging leaders on grand challenges and to broaden mobilization of knowledge at the science-society-policy interface.
The ISSP will convene a series of four Action Dialogues this year:
- Beyond Endless Frontiers: Rethinking the science-society relationship (early fall 2024): Explore the findings of an ISSP-led SSHRC Partnership Development Grant project that seeks to build a new relationship between science and society that reflects our times. Themes include building public trust, advancing inclusive innovation, considering Indigenous knowledge, and mission-directed research.
- Confronting Disruption (late fall 2024): Explore with Confluences. Explore with contributing authors how to address issues at the intersection of science, policy and society under an overall theme of “Confronting Disruption”.
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research (January 2025): In collaboration with internal and external partners, dive into implications for practitioners of cutting-edge research on EDI in research.
- Science Diplomacy in an Increasingly Fragmented and Uncertain Geopolitical World (February 2025): In collaboration with ISSP Core Member Professor Patrick Fafard, the new uOttawa/Embassy of France Research Chair in Science Diplomacy, examine the interface between science, diplomacy and foreign policy.
Each event will consist of:
- A publicly accessible, interactive engagement with guest speakers or panels of speakers to speak to a key grand challenge and related research and practice to address it successfully.
- A discussion with seasoned and emerging leaders across multiple sectors to provide a neutral forum for an off-the-record, deep dive into the grand challenge to generate new insights, programs and practices, and to identify areas for collaboration among academics and practitioners.
- Meaningful opportunities for graduate students and early career researchers to participate in the sessions, whether as speakers, attendees, or student-run sessions with guest speakers.
Developing the next generation of science-society-policy leaders
The ISSP helps equip emerging leaders with the skills, sensibilities and competencies to align science, society and policy on complex issues. In addition to our Collaborative Master’s program, we partner with and support national and local graduate student organizations Science & Policy Exchangeand the Ottawa Science Policy Network. We offer opportunities for their members to participate in our research, teaching and outreach as researchers, moderators, and advisors.
This year, we are very excited that our Annual Bromley Memorial Event and Lecture undertaken in partnership with The George Washington University, will take place in Washington DC. This spring event convenes graduate students from both universities to learn about science policy and Canada-US science relations, and to meet with science policy leaders and researchers in both countries. The centrepiece of the event is the prestigious Bromley Memorial Lecture, delivered each year by a science policy leader. Stay tuned for the announcement of this year’s speaker and your invitation to the Lecture, which will be broadcast live from Washington.
Inclusive Innovation Speakers Series
The Inclusive Innovation Research and Engagement Cluster (IIRC) launched an Inclusive Innovation Speakers Seriesin 2023-2024. The IIRC is continuing this highly successful series this year. It features presentations and discussions that view inclusive innovation through multiple lenses, from the current and future effects of science and technology on society, through to organizational practices and policy needed to improve inclusion and accessibility. The series is intended for all audiences, from policymakers, practitioners and community members, to academic researchers. Events are either virtual or hybrid.
The inaugural panel in the Series takes place on September 24 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (EST) on the topic of How Inclusive Innovation Shapes Understandings of Public Problems: Examining Tech for Sanitation and Hygiene in India. The speaker is Shobita Parthasarathy from the University of Michigan. Learn more about the event.
Communications with our network
In an effort to focus our communications on promoting upcoming events and activities, we are moving to a quarterly newsletter (two in the fall, two in the winter). Each newsletter will share key research, teaching and outreach activities at the Institute, and email communications in between newsletters will promote our upcoming events.
https://uottawa.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=e8572a67a7739209f5333bdc9&id=e00fb005bf
Join us as we help Canada address the grand challenges of our time
Canada must successfully confront a growing number and range of grand challenges. One need look no further than the devastating forest fires and flooding this summer for heart-wrenching examples of grand challenges facing the country. And the fall looks set to bring yet another wave of COVID-19.
Durable solutions to climate change, global health pandemics and other complex challenges require that we align science, society and policy imperatives. This means weaving together technological, social and policy innovations; fostering robust public trust in expertise and evidence used in decision-making; and convening researchers, governments, business, Indigenous peoples and civil society to co-produce knowledge and policy.
The ISSP is uniquely positioned to help identify how this can be done and, in so doing, help Canada secure prosperity, environmental resilience, health and social equity at home and abroad. This blog outlining our key research, teaching and outreach activities is a preview of how we’re advancing our vision this year. We look forward to working with you to advance our collective efforts to transform decision-making. Join us.