25th January 2013 Toronto, Canada

Eight great technologies

Earlier this week, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts gave a speech at the Policy Exchange on “eight great technologies” which will help the UK grow and prosper over the next decade. You can read the speech here, the BIS press release here and the Policy Exchange pamphlet here. Let’s look at each technology […]

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11th October 2012 Toronto, Canada

A preview of CSPC 2012

The 4th Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC), subtitled Building Bridges for the Future of Science Policy, will take place in Calgary between 5 and 7 November 2012. We have excellent UK representation this year, with speakers in two panels and SIN Officers in attendance: The Fundamental Research as a Driver for Long-Term Canadian Innovation panel […]

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9th October 2012 Toronto, Canada

Collaboration Development Awards 2012

Back in July, we announced our first ever Collaboration Development Award(CDA) programme. The CDAs are small mobility grants for researchers to travel between Canada and the UK and set out plans for longer-term collaborations in areas of strategic importance to SIN. The quality of applications was very high, with many proposals strong enough to qualify […]

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4th September 2012 Toronto, Canada

SIN launches engineering innovation workshop at the Paralympics

The XIV Paralympic Games open in London on 29 August, with around 4,200 athletes competing in 503 events across 20 disciplines. Assistive technologies play a huge part in these Games, allowing the competitors to perform at the highest level and bringing new developments and innovations to the non-sports markets. Aiming to capitalise on the concentration […]

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22nd August 2012 Toronto, Canada

Canada releases report on International Education Strategy

The Advisory Panel on Canada’s International Education Strategy wrapped up last week, tabling a 98-page report International Education: A Key Driver of Canada’s Future Prosperity. In it, the Panel sets out its vision for the Canadian education system (“to attract top talent and prepare our citizens for the global marketplace, thereby providing key building blocks […]

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16th August 2012 Toronto, Canada

DECC releases new innovation assessments for low-carbon technologies

DECC, the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change, has released the latest round of Technology Innovation Needs Assessments (TINAs). These reports “aim to identify and value the key innovation needs of specific low carbon technology families to inform the prioritisation of public sector investment in low carbon innovation.” Currently available on the DECC website […]

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19th July 2012 Toronto, Canada

Public access to publicly-funded research

The question of whether the public should be allowed to freely access publicly-funded research has been raging for years now, culminating recently in an all-out assault on the restrictions of traditional publishing models dubbed the Academic Spring. Read on for some history and what the UK is doing about it. The “traditional” model of research […]

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9th July 2012 Toronto, Canada

Council of Canadian Academies reports on assessment of research performance

The Council of Canadian Academies (@scienceadvice) reported back last week on a year-long Expert Panel assessment of how research performance is measured in science and engineering disciplines. The 16-member panel included Sir Keith O’Nions (Rector, Imperial College London), and was co-reviewed by Claire Donovan (Reader, Brunel University). The specific question the panel was asked to […]

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About John Preece

I cover science and innovation for Ontario (excluding Ottawa), liaising with all relevant research institutions and companies. In 2015 I expect to be working on future cities, high-performance computing and…

I cover science and innovation for Ontario (excluding Ottawa), liaising with all relevant research institutions and companies. In 2015 I expect to be working on future cities, high-performance computing and innovation in healthcare, as well as continuing prior work on dementia, regenerative medicine and science outreach. In the free time that I have after managing multiple small children, I enjoy home improvement and board/computer gaming. You can follow me on Twitter at @jcpreece