The National Research Council in the Innovation Policy Era

The National Research Council in the Innovation Policy Era

Author: G. Bruce Doern

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2002-01-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780802035363

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The authors show how the NRC's history is interwoven with the evolution of Canada's economic and industrial development and with the fostering of science at Canada's universities, in industry, and within the federal government.


Copyright in the Digital Era

Copyright in the Digital Era

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-05-30

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13: 0309278953

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Over the course of several decades, copyright protection has been expanded and extended through legislative changes occasioned by national and international developments. The content and technology industries affected by copyright and its exceptions, and in some cases balancing the two, have become increasingly important as sources of economic growth, relatively high-paying jobs, and exports. Since the expansion of digital technology in the mid-1990s, they have undergone a technological revolution that has disrupted long-established modes of creating, distributing, and using works ranging from literature and news to film and music to scientific publications and computer software. In the United States and internationally, these disruptive changes have given rise to a strident debate over copyright's proper scope and terms and means of its enforcement-a debate between those who believe the digital revolution is progressively undermining the copyright protection essential to encourage the funding, creation, and distribution of new works and those who believe that enhancements to copyright are inhibiting technological innovation and free expression. Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy examines a range of questions regarding copyright policy by using a variety of methods, such as case studies, international and sectoral comparisons, and experiments and surveys. This report is especially critical in light of digital age developments that may, for example, change the incentive calculus for various actors in the copyright system, impact the costs of voluntary copyright transactions, pose new enforcement challenges, and change the optimal balance between copyright protection and exceptions.


Policy

Policy

Author: G. Bruce Doern

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0773537120

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Essays in honour of one of Canada's finest scholars of public policy.


Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Author: G. Bruce Doern

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2016-06-01

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 0773598995

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Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy presents new critical analysis about related developments in the field such as significantly changed concepts of peer review, merit review, the emergence of big data in the digital age, and the rise of an economy and society dominated by the internet and information. The authors scrutinize the different ways in which federal and provincial policies have impacted both levels of government, including how such policies impact on Canada’s natural resources. They also study key government departments and agencies involved with science, technology, and innovation to show how these organizations function increasingly in networks and partnerships, as Canada seeks to keep up and lead in a highly competitive global system. The book also looks at numerous realms of technology across Canada in universities, business, and government and various efforts to analyze biotechnology, genomics, and the Internet, as well as earlier technologies such as nuclear reactors, and satellite technology. The authors assess whether a science-and-technology-centred innovation economy and society has been established in Canada – one that achieves a balance between commercial and social objectives, including the delivery of public goods and supporting values related to redistribution, fairness, and community and citizen empowerment. Probing the nature of science advice across prime ministerial eras, including recent concerns over the Harper government’s claimed muzzling of scientists in an age of attack politics, Canadian Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy provides essential information for academics and practitioners in business and government in this crucial and complex field.


Handbook on Science and Public Policy

Handbook on Science and Public Policy

Author: Dagmar Simon

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 1784715948

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This Handbook assembles state-of-the-art insights into the co-evolutionary and precarious relations between science and public policy. Beyond this, it also offers a fresh outlook on emerging challenges for science (including technology and innovation) in changing societies, and related policy requirements, as well as the challenges for public policy in view of science-driven economic, societal, and cultural changes. In short, this book deals with science as a policy-triggered project as well as public policy as a science-driven venture.


From Neurons to Neighborhoods

From Neurons to Neighborhoods

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-11-13

Total Pages: 610

ISBN-13: 0309069882

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How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.


Asleep at the Switch

Asleep at the Switch

Author: Bruce Smardon

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2014-11-01

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 0773596542

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Since 1960, Canadian industry has lagged behind other advanced capitalist economies in its level of commitment to research and development. Asleep at the Switch explains the reasons for this underperformance, despite a series of federal measures to spur technological innovation in Canada. Bruce Smardon argues that the underlying issue in Canada's longstanding failure to innovate is structural, and can be traced to the rapid diffusion of American Fordist practices into the manufacturing sector of the early twentieth century. Under the influence of Fordism, Canadian industry came to depend heavily on outside sources of new technology, particularly from the United States. Though this initially brought in substantial foreign capital and led to rapid economic development, the resulting branch-plant industrial structure led to the prioritization of business interests over transformative and innovative industrial strategies. This situation was exacerbated in the early 1960s by the Glassco framework, which assumed that the best way for the federal state to foster domestic technological capacity was to fund private sector research and collaborative strategies with private capital. Remarkably, and with few results, federal programs and measures continued to emphasize a market-oriented approach. Asleep at the Switch details the ongoing attempts by the federal government to increase the level of innovation in Canadian industry, but shows why these efforts have failed to alter the pattern of technological dependency.


Keeping Canada Running

Keeping Canada Running

Author: G. Bruce Doern

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2021-09-29

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 0228007259

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The federal government's promises to "build back better" and "build back green" highlight opportunities to reimagine Canadian infrastructure. In this groundbreaking study, authors Bruce Doern, Christopher Stoney, and Robert Hilton provide the first comprehensive overview of Canadian infrastructure policy, examining the impact and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid technological change as Canada looks to recover and rebuild. Covering more than fifty years across many sectors, the authors identify numerous challenges that have contributed to Canada's growing infrastructure deficit and suboptimal outcomes including political interference in the choice of infrastructure projects; challenges for multilevel governance such as distortion of local priorities, blurred accountability, and unsustainable maintenance costs for municipalities; the growing reliance on public-private partnerships that limit transparency and public scrutiny; and increased corruption associated with infrastructure projects. Transforming infrastructure is notoriously difficult yet vital at a time of rapid technological change. It is estimated that 75 percent of the infrastructure that will exist in 2050 does not exist today. This makes it crucial that Canada invest in future-proof infrastructure with the capacity to facilitate economic growth and the expansion of urban centres, mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, and ensure resilience in response to crises and disasters. Keeping Canada Running offers a timely assessment of these issues, Canada's COVID-19 response, and the potential contribution of the newly launched Canadian Infrastructure Bank.


Exploration of the Seas

Exploration of the Seas

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2003-11-04

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0309166802

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In the summer of 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on a journey to establish an American presence in a land of unqualified natural resources and riches. Is it fitting that, on the 200th anniversary of that expedition, the United States, together with international partners, should embark on another journey of exploration in a vastly more extensive region of remarkable potential for discovery. Although the oceans cover more than 70 percent of our planet's surface, much of the ocean has been investigated in only a cursory sense, and many areas have not been investigated at all. Exploration of the Seas assesses the feasibility and potential value of implementing a major, coordinated, international program of ocean exploration and discovery. The study committee surveys national and international ocean programs and strategies for cooperation between governments, institutions, and ocean scientists and explorers, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in these activities. Based primarily on existing documents, the committee summarizes priority areas for ocean research and exploration and examines existing plans for advancing ocean exploration and knowledge.


Rising to the Challenge

Rising to the Challenge

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-08-06

Total Pages: 598

ISBN-13: 0309255511

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America's position as the source of much of the world's global innovation has been the foundation of its economic vitality and military power in the post-war. No longer is U.S. pre-eminence assured as a place to turn laboratory discoveries into new commercial products, companies, industries, and high-paying jobs. As the pillars of the U.S. innovation system erode through wavering financial and policy support, the rest of the world is racing to improve its capacity to generate new technologies and products, attract and grow existing industries, and build positions in the high technology industries of tomorrow. Rising to the Challenge: U.S. Innovation Policy for Global Economy emphasizes the importance of sustaining global leadership in the commercialization of innovation which is vital to America's security, its role as a world power, and the welfare of its people. The second decade of the 21st century is witnessing the rise of a global competition that is based on innovative advantage. To this end, both advanced as well as emerging nations are developing and pursuing policies and programs that are in many cases less constrained by ideological limitations on the role of government and the concept of free market economics. The rapid transformation of the global innovation landscape presents tremendous challenges as well as important opportunities for the United States. This report argues that far more vigorous attention be paid to capturing the outputs of innovation - the commercial products, the industries, and particularly high-quality jobs to restore full employment. America's economic and national security future depends on our succeeding in this endeavor.