So it’s 2013 already! My how time flies when you’re having fun! It’s about this time of year when I like to take a step back and look at what we’ve accomplished over the last 365 days, and to start looking forward to the adventures the coming year will bring.
Well, what did last year look like exactly?
January saw the Global Science & Innovation Network (Who and where are we? See our map below!) convene on London for our biennial meeting, re-establishing links with our international colleagues and our UK stakeholder base.
View Global SIN in a larger map
In February Vancouver hosted the AAAS, which included many UK participants, including colleagues from the Royal Society, as well as Dr. Jason Hall-Spencer, marine scientist from the University of Plymouth (check out Paolo‘s podcast with him here).
March saw the first meeting of the Startup Nations, in the margins of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool. A fantastic event that saw Startup Britain, Startup Canada, Startup Malaysia, Startup Chile and Startup Spain (as well as representatives from several other countries looking to get their own movements off the ground) – this event was followed up with a second Startup Nations event, hosted by Startup Canada, in Ottawa!
In March I also had the opportunity to meet with several of our UK Marine Energy Stakeholders, at the RenewableUK Wave & Tidal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.
This set some of the groundwork in place for what followed, a veritable Marine Energy marathon from my perspective – all this towards the delivery of the Priministirial Joint Declaration, signed in September 2011, which states:
“We will encourage the development of technology systems necessary for commercial-scale electricity production from marine energy. We plan to lead the world in moving forward from pilot wave and tidal energy devices to exploring actual power generation stations connected to our respective electricity grids.”
We topped March 2012 with a visit from the FCO‘s Chief Scientific Advisor, Prof. David Clary. While in Ottawa, he spoke at the Office of the Auditor General‘s Science Forum, did several calls, and presented at a Science Salon here at the High Commission (Yay, Science Diplomacy)!
April saw the Science and Innovation Network (Lead by Nicolina in Montreal) pair up with PROMPT, an organisation aimed at stimulating university-industry R&D partnerships in the ICT sector, to deliver a UK/Canada workshop on ICT/Digital Health.
The International Polar Year: From Knowledge to Action conference was also held in April, in Montreal, and featured a great cast of characters from the UK including Elisabeth White from the BBC’s Frozen Planet series (and a screening of episode 7 – On Thin Ice), as well as representatives from the British Antarctic Survey, and the Scott Polar Research Institute (see our High Commissioner’s blog on the subject here).
SIN also partnered with the United Nations University – Institute for Water Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) in April for the delivery of the K* Conference, held in Hamilton, Ontario. Specifically, SIN Canada supported the participation from key UK stakeholders in this space.
May was a big month for SIN Canada, as it saw the signing of the Canada/UK Joint Innovation Statement by ministers Lord Green and Ed Fast, which is basically our activities blueprint for the next few years!
Areas of focus will include: health research; sustainability, renewable energy and clean technologies; advanced manufacturing; innovation policy; entrepreneurship and social innovation! In the beginning of the month, we (lead by John) also collaborated with the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) on a Canada/UK Rare Diseases workshop held in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
In May we also had a visit, and hosted a Science Salon that featured James Wilsdon, professor from the University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU). Dr. Wilsdon and two of his students, Chux Daniels and Claudia Ruiz Garcia also participated in the events surrounding the D. Allan Bromley Memorial Lecture, hosted in 2012 by the University of Ottawa (See our Video Blog with them on YouTube).
The summer months saw the launch of our first ever Collaboration Development Awards, the opening of our new Consulate General in Calgary, and the welcoming of our new Consul General, Tony Kay (see his blog about coming to Calgary here).
In support our Science & Innovation links in the province of Alberta; August saw Paolo and myself joining Tony in a Science & Innovation tour of Calgary and Edmonton. This visit featured discussions with the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta, Alberta Innovates, the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) among others.
This was followed closely by a cross Canada Carbon Capture and Storage mission, lead by Paolo that took UK stakeholders through (West to East) Calgary, Edmonton, and Regina finishing up in Ottawa.
This was a very successful event, and included the signing of an MoU between the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centere and the Petrolium Technology Research Centre.
The fall is always a busy time for the SIN Canada team, and this year was no exception.
September brought in what I consider the true start to my marine energy work, with a collaborative effort between SIN Canada, the Canadian High Commission in London, and Scottish Development International to bring in a mission of UK participants to this year’s OREG (now Marine Renewables Canada) conference in Halifax.
All in all an excellent event, with some fantastic connections made on all sides, including an MoU Signed between Acadia University, and the University of St. Andrews.
September 28th saw the awarding of our Collaboration Development Awards to eight fantastic applications, from winner who applied from all across Canada and the UK! As we move forward on these projects, we hope to use their successes to leverage funding for another round in the coming financial year… fingers crossed.
In October we held our annual SIN Canada Summit, which provided us the opportunity to do our forward planning for the next FY, and to host our annual Science Quiz, my favourite event of the season!
We also hosted a Science Salon with Jason Blackstock, visiting fellow at Oxford’s Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, who gave an excellent presentation on Climate Geopolitics.
October also saw the second leg of our marine energy work, with a Canada/Brazil mission to the UK, Edinburgh, Orkney (check out my panoramic view of the Billia Croo WaveTest site on the day of our visit) and London to be specific, finishing off at the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE), which took place in neighbouring Ireland (Dublin).
The Science & Innovation Network was also involved in a Food Safety workshop that took place in the margins of the Innovet 2012 conference in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
Nicolina worked with the UK’s Institute for Food Research, and Agriculture and Agrifoods Canada to pull together a Canada/UK side event that brought together experts both sides of the pond to identify collaborative opportunities. This follows on a very successful workshop on “Gut Health” we held at the University of Guelph in early 2011.
The Marine Energy work continued in November with a panel that presented at the Energy themed Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC), which took place in Calgary, Alberta.
The panel included Phil Gilmour, from Marine Scotland, and Joe Hulm from NAREC Capital, who spoke to the UK’s advancements in the areas of Marine Renewable Energy, particularly wave and tidal.
This was followed by stops in Ottawa (and a one day workshop hosted by NRCan) and Halifax (hosted by Marine Renewables Canada). The UK contribution to CSPC’s line up also included Tony McBride, the Director of the Royal Society’s Science Policy Centre.
The end of the month wrapped up with a Startup Nations Summit, hosted in Ottawa, by Startup Canada!
Here‘s what our Startup Britain folks had to say about their experiences with Startup Nations.
Just in time for the holidays, things started to slow down a bit. December saw a visit from the Raspberry Pi foundation’s Rob Bishop (check out his interview on CBC‘s Spark). We also convened all SIN Americas team members in Orlando for a team building and strategy session, before heading back in our separate directions and off on some well deserved leave!
I know this is only a fraction of the things we’ve been up to, and the rest of my team will certainly be able to point out many activities that I’ve missed, but at least this can give you a quick flavour for the activities of the UK in Canada Science and Innovation team here in 2012.
I’m looking forward to a fun and productive 2013!