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There is evidence in the literature that technological inventions have an increasing connection to scientific knowledge. This raises two related questions: (1) Are firms increasingly conducting scientific basic research? (2) Is being at the scientific forefront helping firms to be closer to the technological frontier? This paper examines scientific output, as measured by numbers of papers, and technological output, as measured by patents granted to all Canadian firms, during the 1980 to 2005 period. Though the number of firms publishing papers and obtaining patents is increasing, scientific research and patenting by Canadian firms are at near 'homeopathic' levels. Firms that both publish papers and obtain patents (1) perform research that is more basic than firms that only publish scientific papers; (2) publish in more highly cited journals than firms that only perform scientific research; (3) publish papers that are more highly cited; and 4) hold patents that are more frequently cited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a data set integrating information about researchers' funding and publications in Quebec (Canada), this paper identifies the main determinants of citation counts as one measure of research impact. Using two-stage least square regressions to control for endogeneity, the results confirm the significant and positive relationship between the number of articles and citation counts. Our results also show that scientists with more articles in higher impact factor journals generally receive more citations and so do scientists who publish with a larger team of authors. Hence the greater visibility provided by a more prolific scientific production, better journals, and more co-authors, all contribute to increasing the perceived impact of articles. All else being equal, male and female receive the same number of citations. These results suggest that the most important determinants of researchers' citations are the journals in which they publish, as well the collaborative nature of their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supercluster is a new initiative promoted by the Canadian federal government to strengthen Canada's most promising clusters and allow innovative firms to operate more productively in sourcing inputs and accessing information, knowledge, and technology. This paper contributes to the scientific research on superclusters and pursues two objectives. First, we discuss the origins of the supercluster initiative and trace its roots back to major research traditions on regional agglomerations and territorial innovation models, in particular the cluster theory, the regional innovation system, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem approaches. Second, we conduct a critical analysis and identify four critical questions (or challenges) that need to be addressed to clarify the scope and objectives of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sector environmental management involves complex and dynamic interactions between those responsible for the science, management and policy responsibilities of government. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study into the perspectives, experiences and understandings of senior bureaucrats from provincial/state and federal government agencies dealing with environmental issues across Canada and Australia. Participants described numerous social capital-related factors as influencing the use of science-based knowledge in government policy processes, including a lack of communication, trust and collaboration. Further, knowledge integration was raised as a major challenge facing governments seeking to enhance co-ordination among agencies and foster innovation. Participants also outlined a desire for more inter-disciplinary and socially robust environmental science to increase its understanding, legitimacy and relevance to decision-making. This paper offers grounded insights into some of the contemporary challenges and opportunities facing senior bureaucrats as they work to improve the connection between environmental science and policy in government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale international scientific collaborations (ISCs) are one of several mechanisms that allow governments and businesses to tap into the global knowledge base. Participating in ISCs to access scientific knowledge from around the world is vital for a relatively small country like Canada to ensure success in building science and science-based capabilities and as a way to establish a respected reputation among nations. This paper explores the views of Canadian senior scientists and science managers from government laboratories on collaborations in large-scale ISCs with foreign countries and how Canada and its scientists are perceived on the international scientific scene. This knowledge is important as perceptions of a country's science capabilities and performance can affect international positioning for economic and science strength, ability to attract business investment, and even international political power. The results of the interviews lead to the conclusion that ISCs can be expected to deliver advantages, as reflected in the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ANet, the science/policy network, which was created through a Canadian research funding initiative embodying the new knowledge production regime. The network's goal was to develop policy-oriented research in genetics through collaboration between knowledge producers and users from Quebec and the provinces of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This four-year ethnographic case study shows that ANet succeeded in supporting transdisciplinarity and in creating a unique collaborative structure in which students and many researchers enthusiastically participated. However, ANet did not generate all of the research and user-friendly knowledge-based tools that were initially planned. The network's outcomes are discussed in the light of the current literature on transdisciplinarity and science policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an integrated research program involving three related studies that examined successful foresight programs. It analyzes the key factors that appear to determine whether or not foresight, once launched by a government, can be successful. The study was performed by a team of researchers in Canada in the period 2005-2007. It found eight key factors, beyond the usual ones associated with the application of leading edge methods. The overall conclusion is that the methodology, appropriate budget and techniques alone are insufficient factors to explain the success of foresight programs. The interview results indicate that success is ultimately defined as the impact of the foresight exercise on government policy, and as the growth of the foresight function. Taken together, the results should help organizations establish the parameters for a successful foresight program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National and international organisations have implemented governance mechanisms to address a diversity of ethical, security and policy challenges raised by advances in research and innovation. These challenges become particularly complex when research or innovations are considered ‘dual-use’, i.e. can lead to both beneficial and harmful uses, and in particular, civilian (peaceful) and military (hostile) applications. While many countries have mechanisms (i.e. export controls) to govern the transfer of dual-use technology (e.g. nuclear, cryptography), it is much less clear how dual-use research from across the range of academic disciplines can or should be governed. Using the Canadian research and policy context as case study, this paper will first, examine the governance mechanisms currently in place to mitigate the negative implications of dual-use research and innovation; second, compare these with other relevant international governance contexts; and finally, propose some ways forward (i.e. a risk analysis approach) for developing more robust governance mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Formal cross-sector research networks in Canada face enormous organizational challenges to attain the goals of enhancing the economic and social relevance of science, attracting and retaining world-class researchers, fostering innovation, and improving science communication between societal sectors. This paper presents the results of an exploratory concept mapping policy Delphi exercise that aimed to map the essential characteristics of an ideal cross-sector research network in the natural resource sector. The results suggest that the most important and feasible design features for a future research network are the scope of research, knowledge management and knowledge exchange, which relate to three critical functions of research networks: knowledge production, coordination, and translation. The results also suggest that a future research network should involve all stakeholders affected by, and affecting, natural resource management and that the network be flexible and responsive to various stakeholders' research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions of timing, phasing and sequence have been central to recent critiques of science policy-making, which have highlighted sustained disjunctures between the relevance and importance given to different stakeholders at different moments in the policy-making process. In this paper we expand upon this recent 'upstream/downstream' literature through a case study analysis of xenotransplantation (XTP), one of the defining controversies of 1990s UK biotechnology regulation. Drawing on insights from the sociology of expectations we trace the emergence of a UK policy narrative concerning the future of XTP and explore how the policy role became narrowly defined as a process of 'reflex regulation', based upon technologically determinist assumptions and producing extremely short-term decision-making. We draw attention to the concrete costs of this delineation of the policy role and reveal that it is neither inevitable or necessary, by considering contrasts between the policy temporalities of the UK, Canada and the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an ongoing trade dispute over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) between the European Union (EU) and the United States and Canada, in recent years there have been some signs that North American regulators are beginning to accept a more precautionary approach to the regulation of GMOs such as that adopted in the EU. One such sign was the Government of Canada's proactive response to a 2001 report written by a Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Expert Panel. This paper examines efforts to enhance Canada's regulatory regime for GMOs based on the RSC Panel's recommendations in order to ascertain whether the regulatory approach has really changed in that country since 2001. The author concludes that, while some efforts have indeed been made, the Government of Canada continues to fall far short of meeting the RSC Panel's expectations in key areas, including food safety, environmental assessment, peer review, transparency, and monitoring and surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In discussions of science policy, an ever-present task is that of mapping the ways policy actors construct competing boundaries between science and politics. This paper proposes a novel combination of two approaches, which, when combined, offer a mutually reinforcing window into science policy. The two approaches are David Guston's principal-agent theory, which conceptualizes science policy as the problem of delegation, and Stephen Hilgartner's dramaturgical perspective on science advice, wherein science advice is treated as performance. An analysis of Canada's Nuclear Waste Management Organization displays the promise of combining the two perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our objective is to study Canada's patenting activity over time in aggregate terms by destination country, by assignee and destination country, and by diversification by country of destination. We collect bibliographic patent data from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We identify 19,957 matched Canada–US patents, 34,032 Canada-only patents, and 43,656 US-only patents from 1980 to 2014. Telecommunications dominates in terms of International Patent Classification technologies for US-only and Canada–US patents. At the firm level, the greatest number of matched Canada–US patents were granted in the field of telecommunications, at the university level in pharmaceuticals, at the government level in control and instrumentation technology, and at the individual level in civil engineering. We use entropy to quantify technological diversification and find that diversification indices decline over time for Canada and the USA; however, all US indices decline at a faster rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities can play critical roles in regional industrial development through innovation and entrepreneurship clusters. Formally managing this function in an integrated fashion is not well practiced by many universities. To improve this practice, we define the roles that universities can play and numerical indicators to measure them. Most world regions are 'peripheral' to a few core areas where academic research concentrates. Peripheral regions depend heavily on natural resource industries in both developed and developing countries. Therefore, we study universities involved with wine, salmon culture, mining and eco-tourism, and collect original comparative data from four universities in Canada and four in Chile. They are mostly small schools in peripheral regions, but among the national leaders in involvement with the local resource industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first Science Meets Parliament event in Canada was held in November 2018 in Ottawa, where twenty-eight Tier II Canada Research Chairs (a specific class of Canadian university professor acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field) from diverse disciplines met with forty-three Members of Canadian Parliament and Senators. The main goal of this event was to facilitate communication between these two key pillars of the society, to promote mutual understanding of the nature of their respective work, roles, and responsibilities, and to build long-term relationships. Here, we, representatives of the first cohort of scientists to participate in the program, summarize our experiences and lessons learned from this event, as well as our assessment of the benefits of attending this event for scientists, policy decision-makers, and institutions. Furthermore, we provide suggestions for similar future events in Canada and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the use of university technology transfer reporting standards developed under the aegis of the US-based Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in Canada. Given the importance to policy-makers internationally of improving the contributions of universities in transferring technology to industry, these indicators are regarded as critical to informing the policy debate. We analyze federal science and technology policy and identify how these metrics have influenced the framing of policy problems and alternatives. Next, a micro-level analysis of Canada's largest research university unveils several major weaknesses of the survey. Our study points to the need for a more critical use of the AUTM licensing data in the Canadian policy debate, and provides recommendations on the future development of these indicators and their use in public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable interest in public participation in new and controversial technologies in the last two decades, less attention has been paid to how different 'publics' and 'participation' are constructed and defined in the context of policy development and the contingencies (historical, cultural, and situational) that can contextualize these processes. This study examines the development of xenotransplantation policy in the US, Canada and the UK in order to understand the emergence of different publics and versions of participation in the social appraisal of a controversial biomedical technology. By examining publics in invited arenas and those that operate in public spaces outside of these official rooms (paying special attention to animal rights and welfare groups), we suggest that a broader understanding can be gained of the nuances in policy trajectories. Contrasting experiences in three case countries with close cultural and historical traditions further elucidate the nature of the framing activities of policy-makers around public participation and the boundary work around different practices that emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's research policy has aimed to facilitate technology transfer from universities and induce innovation in industry for the past three decades. This article examines the policy instruments currently employed by the federal government in Canada to stimulate university-industry research linkages. First, the article examines the national landscape of industry R&D and its interface with university research. Then, multiple policy instruments are identified, and their goals and functions are examined. Finally, the article discusses the main features and implications of Canada's policy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User engagement, stakeholder involvement, and public consultation in sustainability research have received increased attention over the last decade. Key driving factors behind this are that social outcomes, policy relevance, and user engagement have all become requirements for securing research funding. Many articles have provided compelling arguments for the need to reconsider why, when and how users are engaged within the research process. We propose a typology of user engagement strategies in research, focusing on the actual research process and emphasizing types of engagement in research. We illustrate these types with a comparative analysis of empirical examples from three interactive sustainability research projects, based in Canada and Switzerland. The article discusses the challenges that require a reconfiguration of institutional and organizational structures to seize the full potential of interactive sustainability research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Innovation Systems Research Network is a collaborative Canadian initiative to undertake and disseminate research results concerning the diverse nature of regional and local innovation systems across the country. The network was established on the premise that, because of their diversity, regional innovation systems in Canada could not be treated as similar, and that single nation-wide innovation policies would not be successful. This project is, itself, an experiment in research management, in that, because of its regional focus in a geographically diverse federation, it is organized as a federation of regional innovation studies networks. A consequence is that the network has been productive and has provided opportunities for graduate students to meet their peers (and future colleagues) across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]