The Science and Technology Committee visits Toronto

Guest blogger Dr. Elizabeth Rough, Committee Specialist on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, spent a month getting rained on in Toronto – all in the name of science.

For a month in Spring, the Toronto Office of SIN Canada became my adopted home. Normally you can find me in Westminster working as a Committee Specialist for the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee. The Committee is one of the cross-party groups of MPs appointed by the House to scrutinise the expenditure, administration and policies of Government departments. My regular day job involves managing the Committee’s inquiries and providing specialist information and briefings to Committee Members.

On 30 March 2015, Parliament was dissolved ahead of the General Election. With no Committee to brief, or inquiries to manage, a month dedicated to training and development was on the horizon, but how best to use it?

Well, I decided it was time for me to leave my comfort zone, look beyond science policy in the UK and learn more about how science, and scientific cooperation, can be used to create bridges between countries. So, with support from both Parliament and SIN Canada, I have spent time at the British Consulate-General in Toronto doing just that.

To give you a flavour of the diverse topics that a SIN Officer might be working on in any given month, so far my time in Toronto has involved taking steps to organise a multi-country dementia hackathon, enhance cross-country cooperation on health technology assessments, and bring an international science communication competition to Canada. And, as I write this, I’ve only been here a few weeks.

In addition to gaining valuable insights into John Preece’s work in Ontario, I’m also meeting with people working in science policy to learn more about how science advice is delivered at the Federal level. And, as you might expect, I’m taking the opportunity to talk to my new colleagues about select committees, their relevance to science diplomacy, and how they might engage with their work.

I’ve found Toronto to be a vibrant, easy to navigate, and very friendly city. However, if you visit in Spring, be prepared for rain. Lots of it. Despite wearing my trusty waterproof coat, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been drenched walking to and from the Consulate. Though a bit of sunshine wouldn’t go amiss, it has made acclimatising to life in Toronto, after winter in the UK, very straightforward. Every cloud…