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There might not be a more timely moment to discuss the societal impact of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) than this fall. The global COVID-19 pandemic has posed and is still posing societal challenges that call for (interdisciplinary) research evidence that can be transformed into practical knowledge for a variety of societal stakeholders. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly apparent that SSH research has an important role to play in identifying, assessing and meeting objectives that touch upon matters such as accountability, equity and inclusiveness. In all, it seems that in these unique times, “change’’ is the new key word. We and our partners feel that in order to create a positive connotation to this word, it is of the utmost importance to assess, facilitate, and enhance the impact of SSH on society.
The AESIS Network is proud to announce that its next edition on ‘The Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities on Society’, hosted from Ottawa, Canada, and broadcasted online to a global audience. For this edition, we are aiming to foster a discussion on how one can assess and stimulate impact of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) through an interdisciplinary approach. In order to generate a profound impact of SSH on society, we believe collaborations with parties from business, government and not-for-profits, and engaging with the broader public are all vital aspects in this process.
We start the event with an attempt to both map and assess the impact of SSH; what does impact mean in the context of different segments of society, and through which indicators can you measure it? Then, we will identify different opportunities of collaborations with societal stakeholders, and discuss how co-creations of knowledge with other scientific disciplines may play a role in stimulating impact. Subsequently, we will engage in interactive discussions on which skills can enable one to optimise impact for the sake of the public as a whole and close with some targeted recommendations for the Canadian science policy system and beyond drawn from the conclusions of the meeting.
The momentum of a great need for interdisciplinary research and focus on addressing nation and global societal challenges in Canada’s research eco-system make it an excellent and indeed inspirational context to foster the worldwide discussion on impact. At the same time, several international perspectives can offer valuable and critical evaluations to the current progress and obstacles in Canada. The AESIS Network and its partners are excited to (virtually) welcome you to the ‘Impact of Social Sciences and Humanities 2020’ conference.
Dates:
14-16 October 2020
Location:
Hosted from Ottawa, Canada, but broadcasted online.
Organisation:
This conference is organised by the AESIS Network.
| Description | Price (€) |
|---|---|
| Conference fee Members of AESIS & partner networks | € 150,00 (CAN $235) |
| Conference fee Non-members | € 195,00 (CAN $300) |
Payment of the participation fee should happen before the conference starts. You will receive an invoice together with the confirmation. Payments have to be made in Euro (EUR) or Canadian Dollars (CAD) at your discretion and free of all bank and other charges. Please note that the exact price in Canadian Dollars may vary depending on conversion rates. Personal or company checks are not accepted. All amounts are excluding VAT, if applicable.
If you are unable to attend the conference it is permitted to allow someone else to participate in your stead, if the name of the replacement is communicated before the start of the conference to the organisers. Cancellation without cost is possible until September 2nd 2020. If you cancel between September 3rd 2020 and September 23rd 2020, we will invoice €50 administration costs. After September 23rd 2020, you owe us the full amount.
Photographs and / or recordings may be taken at the conference. By attending this event, you acknowledge and agree that your likeness maybe included in photos and recordings of the event and used by AESIS in connection with communications about the course or other AESIS communications and promotion. If you do not agree to this usage, please send us a written notification at least 3 days before the event.
Donna van Eerd - Project Manager
d.vaneerd@aesisnet.com
AESIS Network
Mauritskade 5
2514 HC The Hague
+31 (0) 70 217 2018
info@aesisnet.com
www.aesisnet.com
Frédéric Bouchard is Full Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Université de Montréal, and, since June 1st 2017 is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to that, he was Deputy Vice-Rector for Research, Discovery, Creation and Innovation at Université de Montréal, professor and was the first holder of its ÉSOPE chair of philosophy (2014-2016). Member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie which he was the director (2014-2015). He was elected president of the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS) for a two-year term (2015-2017) and was President (2014-2015) of the Canadian Philosophical Association.
As a philosopher of science and philosopher of biology, his interdisciplinary research focuses on the theoretical foundations of evolutionary biology and ecology as well as on the relationship between science and society. He also contributes his time and expertise to several organizations involved in the development of academic research.
He is member of the Social sciences and humanities research council (SSHRC) and of MILA, the AI institute affiliated with UdeM. He is the President of the governing board of Érudit, a research platform.
Dr. Mona Nemer is Canada’s Chief Science Advisor. Her role is to provide science advice to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. An internationally renowned cardiovascular scientist and a distinguished academic leader, Dr. Nemer has made seminal contributions to several fields ranging from gene regulation to molecular cardiology. She is Professor in the department of Biochemistry, Immunology and Microbiology of the University of Ottawa and served as the University Vice-President of Research for 11 years. Prior to that, she was Professor of Pharmacology at the Université de Montréal, Director of the Cardiac Development Research Unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Cell Differentiation. Dr. Nemer holds a PhD in Chemistry from McGill University and did post-doctoral training in molecular biology at the IRCM and at Columbia University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the Order of Canada. She is also a Knight of the Ordre national du Québec and a Knight of the French Republic’s Ordre national du Mérite.
Prof.dr. Emile Aarts (1955) is a full professor of Computer Science at Tilburg University. He holds an MSc. and PhD. degree (cum Laude) in mathematics and physics After completion of his academic studies he joined Philips Research in 1983 where he worked in various research and management positions until he was appointed in 2009 as Chief Scientific Officer. In 2012 he left Philips to resume a full time academic career as dean of the faculty of Mathematics and Computing Science of the Eindhoven University of Technology. From 2015 until 2019 he has been the rector of Tilburg University. He seeks to combine both Social and Technological Innovation in the context of generating impact for society. Current activities concentrate on the development of strategies and policies on the subjects of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in his capacity as a member of the Dutch National Artificial Intelligence Coalition responsible for Ethical, Legal, and Societal Aspects of AI. In addition he enjoys teaching on these subjects both at academic bachelor and master level as well as at the level of professional education and training.
Thomas Alslev Christensen works as Senior Vice President for Impact at the Novo Nordisk Foundation. He is the former Head of Operations at the Novo Nordisk Foundation. He has worked in the Foundation as from August 2014. He acts as international STI policy advisor and evaluation expert in international research programmes and policy advisory committees in Germany, Norway, Ireland, the European Commission and Singapore. He is also the chairman of RegLab a national STI-network organisation.
He has previously worked 27 years in several ministries, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office where he was an advisor to the vice prime minister and the prime minister, respectively in European economic and monetary integration and international economic affairs. He has also worked as Head of the Department for Innovation Policy at the Ministry for Science, Innovation and Higher Education 2005-2014 and as Head of Department for analyses on science and innovation 2013-2014. He was the Head of Secretariat at the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation 2006-2014.
Thomas Alslev Christensen holds a master degree in economics at the University of Copenhagen and a PhD in international finance and monetary policy at the Copenhagen Business School.
Bartlomiej Banaszak holds a position of a director of the Department of Science of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MSHE). He used to be a member of a ministerial drafting group for the new law on higher education and science which has come into force in 2018. Bartlomiej Banaszak used to represent MSHE in the framework of the European Higher Education Areas. He was a member of the Bologna Follow-up Group. He was a co-chair of working groups the framework of the European Higher Education Area: the Working Group on Fostering Implementation of Agreed Key Commitments (2015-2018) and Working Group on Structural Reforms (2012-2015). From 2011 to 2016 Bartlomiej Banaszak was holding a position of the Ombudsman for Graduate Affairs. During the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (from July to December 2011), he was a vice-chair of the Education Committee and was responsible for negotiating the draft Council conclusions on the modernisation of higher education. From 2009 to 2010, he was the President of the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland.
Brent Barron is Director, Strategic Projects, Knowledge Mobilization at CIFAR where he is responsible for engaging the policy community around cutting-edge science. He played an important role in the development of the CIFAR Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and now oversees CIFAR’s AI & Society program, examining the social, ethical, legal, and economic effects of AI. Prior to this role, Brent held a variety of positions in the Ontario Public Service, most recently in the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science. Brent holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Toronto, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies from Western University.
PhD in Sociology. Executive Secretary of CLACSO. Professor of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the Republic (Uruguay). Member of the National Research System of Uruguay. Advisor to several international organizations: ECLAC, UN Women, ILO. Author of numerous publications on the subjects of social welfare, gender, public policies, unpaid work and care.
Brian Belcher is a Professor in the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Royal Roads University. As the Ashoka Chair in Research Effectiveness, he is leading a research program that is developing theory, methodology and methods for evaluating research in complex transdisciplinary contexts. The program is conducting a series of outcome evaluations and comparative analyses of a range of completed research projects. This work helps to demonstrate the societal value and impact of research and learns lessons to improve future research. Prof. Belcher teaches in the Doctor of Social Sciences program and supervises master's and doctoral students. He is also a Senior Associate Scientist with the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Consortium Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
Larissa is a diversity, equality and inclusion advisor for companies and institutions using the research done by the think tank Equilibre which she manages. She is also a digital transformation advisor and manages integration projects. Both activities involve change management practices and a bottom up approach which she uses in her daily work.
Larissa is also a member of the board of the Luxembourg Business Angel Network and is a jury member for the European Commission in the EASME SME 2 program as well as for the Cyprus Innovation Council.
Finally, she is a lecturer at the University of Luxembourg and she is a club manager for a French Entrepreneurial Club APM in Luxembourg.
A forest engineer, with a Master and Doctorate in Forest and Wood Sciences from Colorado State University in the USA, born in Mozambique, and staff of Eduardo Mondlane University since graduation in Forest Engineering in 1981.
She has held senior positions in Mozambique such as Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of Eduardo Mondlane University and Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology.
She joined UNESCO in November 2009 as Director for Science Policy and Sustainable Development, in Paris, and currently she is the UNESCO Regional Director for Sciences in the Latin-America and Caribbean region.
Her areas of expertise range from forestry and sustainable management of Natural Resources to Higher Education, Science and Technology policies and programmes as part of public policies for sustainable development. She has chaired several commissions and task teams in particular in Higher Education and STI for Sustainable Development.
She co-chaired the Scientific Organizing Committee for Planet Under Pressure Conference in London, a major conference for the preparation of Rio+20, and she has been a member of several international Boards such as African Foresters Forum Governing Board, UNU Governing Board, CHET Board, Stockholm Environmental Institute Governing Board, Bioversity Governing Board among others.
Currently she is the co-chair of the Organizing Committee for the 3rd Open Science Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean (CILAC 2021).
Tracey Brown has been the director of Sense about Science since 2002. Under her leadership, the charity has turned the case for sound science and evidence into popular campaigns to urge scientific thinking among the public and the people who answer to them. It has launched important initiatives including AllTrials, a global campaign for the reporting of all clinical trial outcomes; and the Ask for Evidence campaign, which engages the public in requesting evidence for claims. In 2010, the Times named Tracey as one of the ten most influential figures in science policy in Britain and in 2014 she was recognised by the Science Council for her work on evidence-based policy making. In June 2017 Tracey was made an OBE for services to science.
David Budtz Pedersen (b. 1980) is Professor of Impact Studies and Director of the Humanomics Research Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. His research focuses on science communication, impact assessment, science and innovation policy with a special interest in the Humanities and Social Sciences. He regularly acts as a policy adviser for international funding agencies, universities and knowledge-intensive companies. He holds PhD, MA and BA degrees in philosophy of science and science policy studies from University of Copenhagen and University of Vienna. He is a former Visiting Scholar at New York University. Alongside his research, David Budtz Pedersen has an international public presence with outreach activities in science policy, speaking frequently on the topics of Open Science, Responsible Impact Assessment and Evidence-Informed Policy-Making. More recently, David was Director of the Science Policy Programme during Denmark’s presidency of the largest interdisciplinary conference in Europe, Euroscience Open Forum 2014. In 2018, he was appointed member of the Danish Governments’ Commission on Rewards and Reputation in Research.
Michael Carmichael is the Head of Visual Media at SAGE Publishing and based in Toronto, Canada. He has over 20 years of commissioning and editorial experience developing print and digital products for the higher education and academic market. Michael joined SAGE in 1998 where he first spent many years developing textbook, journal and reference titles across the social sciences. Since 2014, he has been overseeing the Editorial team on SAGE's streaming video collection portfolio (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/sage-video) and subsequently leading the strategic direction for the streaming video product line more generally. More recently, he has moved into an additional role of Head of Academic Relations, Canada where he is helping to build stronger relations between SAGE’s library publishing teams and the higher education/academic community in Canada, especially within the social and behavioural sciences.
Scott is an evaluation and strategy specialist with over 22 years’ experience working with civic, public, and private organizations promoting socially and environmentally responsible solutions for sustainable development. Notably, he was the former Director of Evidence, Measurement and Evaluation for the climate change portfolio at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and prior to that he was a Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for over a decade with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. Scott specializes in information generation, management, and use, with an emphasis on complex systems thinking for transformational learning and change. His graduate studies in Geography (UCLA) focused on cultural and political ecology; the former examines human adaptations to social and physical environments and the later examines political and economic factors that shape how we shape the environment. The tenants of both disciplines have instilled an appreciation of complex systems to inform realistic solutions for sustainable impact. Scott is an active member in a variety of collaborative fora, including the American Evaluation Association, EvalPartners, EVALSDGs, and the Transformational Change Learning Partnership. Scott has authored articles, books, guidelines and other resources on development, evaluation, civil society organizations, and sustainable urban agriculture. www.ScottChaplowe.com
Nushi Choudhury is a researcher with at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Boucherville, Quebec. She leads the Cognitive Health Technologies team that is currently developing bWell, an interactive and immersive software platform with cognitive tasks for assessment and rehabilitation. The research focus is on advancing long term collaborative research agreements with multiple clinical sites across Canada to adapt and customize the bWell platform for therapeutic use. The goal is to improve clinical relevance, sensitivity, acceptability and feasibility in eventual trials with clinical populations.
Nushi has previously focused on medical education research and the development of interactive simulation for the acquisition and assessment of technical skills in various surgical specialties such as neurosurgery, ENT and orthopedic applications.
She received her undergraduate education and Master’s degree in engineering from McGill University in 2005. Her thesis was on the biomechanics of the human ascending aorta, in collaboration with the Montreal Heart Institute.
Her field of expertise includes interactive simulation, virtual reality, user experience, instructional design, as well as biomechanical testing. She is currently interested in the integration of physiological sensors with virtual real-life scenarios with the aim to relate mental and physical processes while doing everyday tasks.
Amy Cook is the Senior Director of Knowledge Mobilization at CIFAR, bringing over ten years of experience in fostering conversation and the exchange of ideas at the frontiers of research and practice. In this position, Amy connects global thought leaders across academia, industry, government, civil society, and healthcare to the knowledge and ideas emerging from CIFAR’s research programs. She also convenes such experts around issues related to the implications of AI on society as part of CIFAR’s AI & Society program. Amy holds a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph and a Ph.D. in Experimental Oncology from Western University.
Dr. Cote-Meek is Anishinaabe from the Teme-Augama Anishnabai. She joined York University as the inaugural Vice-President, Equity, People and Culture in October 2019. Cote-Meek leads a team that includes Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion, Labour Relations and Human Resources in order to ensure the development and implementation of a progressive strategy and structure that advances and cultivates an equitable, inclusive and respectful work environment.
Prior to this she was the Associate Vice-President, Academic and Indigenous Programs at Laurentian University where she played a leadership role in advancing Indigenous education including, for example, leading the development of the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre, the Master of Indigenous Relations program, the Maamwizing Indigenous Research Institute as well as increasing Indigenous scholars at the university. She also worked extensively on the faculty relations portfolio in collaboration with Human Resources and the Provost Office.
Author of Colonized Classrooms – Racism, Trauma and Resistance in Post-Secondary Education (2014) and two recent Co-Edited books, Decolonizing and Indigenizing Education in Canada (2020) and Critical Reflections and Politics on Advancing Women in the Academy (2020) Dr. Cote-Meek is well-known provincially and nationally for her work in promoting equity and inclusion in higher education.
Dr. Jennifer Crosbie is a Clinical Psychologist and Health Clinician Scientist within the Department of Psychiatry at the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Crosbie is an Associate Scientist within the SickKids Research Institute, Neuroscience and Mental Health Program, and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Crosbie’s research and clinical work are focused on understanding the neurobiological determinants of neurodevelopmental disorders. Four integrated domains of research create the foundation of her research program; 1) Development of novel cognitive rehabilitation interventions for neurodevelopmental and brain based disorders, 2) Cognition and behavioural phenomenology of ADHD and related disorders in children, youth and their families using cross sectional and longitudinal methods, 3) Understanding the genetic etiology of ADHD and other neurodevelopmental disorders, and 4) Utilizing general population samples to investigate the relationship of genes and environment on pediatric psychiatric traits, health and cognition. Dr. Crosbie holds externally funded grants including CIHR, the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders (POND)/ Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), and CHILD BRIGHT a CIHR funded SPOR Network.
Dr. Wendy Cukier is one of Canada’s leading experts in disruptive technologies, innovation processes, and diversity and inclusion. She co-authored the bestseller “Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park” and has done pioneering work on innovation, inclusion and work-integrated learning. She is the Founder of Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute and leads a number of large partnership-based projects aimed at promoting the economic inclusion of underrepresented groups including women, racialized minorities, Indigenous, LGBTQ and persons with disabilities. Wendy developed multiple action-research projects including the ADaPT (Advanced Digital and Professional Training) program which bridges the employment gap for recent graduates and underrepresented groups through skills development and work placement. In collaboration with the Brookfield Institute and Ted Rogers School of Management, Wendy leads the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, funded by the Government of Canada which brings together key stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem to support diverse women entrepreneurs by drawing on evidence-based best practices. She was an integral part of the bid for the new $365 million Ryerson-led Future Skills Centre, funded by the Government of Canada and is spearheading several research projects on behalf of FSC including the recent SkillsNext series with the Public Policy Forum. Wendy has written more than 200 papers on technology, innovation and management and has received many awards for her work advancing diversity and inclusion, including the Meritorious Service Cross, one of Canada’s highest civilian honours. She has been recognized with the Harry Jerome Diversity Award, the Bob Marley Award, the Canada-Pakistan Business Council’s Female Professional of the Year, the 2019 Metropolis Research Award, and most recently the 2019 CATA Alliance Sara Kirke Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She has been named a YWCA Woman of Distinction, a Woman of Influence and one of the "100 Alumni who shaped the Century" by the University of Toronto. Wendy holds a PhD, an MBA, an MA, and honorary doctorates from Laval and Concordia.
Rick is Professor of Organizational Analysis at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. For seven years he was the University’s Dean of Research, Innovation and Enterprise where he led the development of SPARK, the world’s first social science park (www.cardiff.ac.uk/social-science-research-park). He also led the formation of Y Lab: the public services innovation lab for Wales at Cardiff University in partnership with Nesta (https://ylab.wales). His main areas of research expertise are innovation, organization, employment relations, and Japanese management and he has published widely on these. Rick is a Board member of the Campaign for Social Science and of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the British Academy of Management and the Learned Society of Wales.
Aïsha is the Social impact lead at Universities Canada, she develops strategies to maximize and increase the social impact of Canadian universities, including leading the association’s work on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. She began her career working in health research in Eeyou Istchee (James Bay) Cree communities, gaining critical experience in conducting research on and in cooperation with Indigenous people, while simultaneously completing her Master’s degree in political science at Université Laval (Québec city). Prior to leading the social impact file, she worked as a Senior government relations officer for Universities Canada, advocating on behalf of Canadian universities with the Federal Government on various issues.
Dr. Gabel is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society and the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Well-Being, Community-Engagement, and Innovation. As an Indigenous scholar (Métis from Rivers, Manitoba), Dr. Gabel's research focuses on building partnerships with Indigenous communities across Canada and internationally to design and implement health and well-being promoting interventions as a way to address inequities. Dr. Gabel is currently leading multiple Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grants as Principal Investigator and is involved in a number of research collaborations across Canada that integrate her expertise in community-based participatory research, Indigenous women, arts-based research methods, digital technology, intervention research and Indigenous health and well-being. Dr. Gabel is the former Director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute, an Institute dedicated to Indigenous ways of knowing and research and the former academic director of the Indigenous Studies Program. She is a member of the CIHR Standing Committee on Ethics that provides high-level strategic advice on the ethical, legal and socio-cultural dimensions of CIHR's mandate. Her work has led to important changes in Indigenous programming and policy, including new programs for Indigenous elders and youth.
Mike DeGagne is the incoming President of Indspire, an Indigenous charity working in the education sector. Immediately prior to his appointment, DeGagné led Nipissing University as its sixth President and Vice-Chancellorsince 2013. His career includes work with the federal government in management of Aboriginal programs, and as a negotiator of comprehensive claims. Most recently, he has served as the founding Executive Director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, a national organization which addressed the legacy of Indian Residential Schools. He has served on numerous Boards of Directors in the health and university sectors including as Chairman of Ottawa's Queensway Carleton Hospital, and Chairman of the Child Welfare League of Canada. He has a PhD in Education focusing on Aboriginal post-secondary success from Michigan State University, and Masters degrees in Administration and Law. He lectures nationally and internationally in the areas of Indigenous governance and reconciliation. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario as well as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2018, he received an Honorary Doctor of Law from the Schulich Schoolof Law at Dalhousie University and an Indspire Award for Public Service.
Wim van den Doel is the current Dean of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities Alliance which focusses on inter- and transdisciplinary research and education for a healthy, inclusive, sustainable and digital society. He is professor of History at Leiden University and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is also professor of Humanities and Technology at the Technical University Delft. In 2020 his biography of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje will be published. From 2017 to 2020 he served as member of the board of the Dutch Research Council and chair of the division of Social Sciences and Humanities. In this role he was responsible for the development of the National Research Agenda. Between 2007 and 2017 he was dean of the Leiden University faculty of Humanities.
Pearl Dykstra was appointed chair of Empirical Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2009. Previously, she had a chair in Kinship Demography at Utrecht University and was a senior scientist at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) in The Hague. Between 2015 and 2019 she served as Director of Research of the Department of Public Administration and Sociology. Her publications focus on intergenerational solidarity, aging societies, family change, aging and the life course, and late-life well-being. She received an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant in 2012 for the research project “Families in context”, which focuses on the ways in which policy, economic, and cultural contexts structure interdependence in families. She is the Scientific Director of ODISSEI, Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations. In 2016 she joined the board of the Social Sciences and Humanities division of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). She is an elected member and previous Vice-President of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, elected member of Academia Europaea, and elected member of the Governing Board of the International Science Council. In 2015 she was appointed as member of the group of European Commission Chief Scientific Advisors, and currently serves as its Deputy Chair.
The picture of Dr. Dykstra is taken by Willem Sluyterman van Loo.
Johannes Dyring is a seasoned and diversely experienced business executive, entrepreneur and nurturer of startups, with a career defined by recognizing untapped markets and responding with innovative products and technology.
At Ryerson University, he is the inaugural Assistant Vice-President Business Development & Strategic Initiatives with a focus on scaling industry partnerships, innovation and impact. Johannes is a board member of Emissions Reduction Alberta, a non-dilutive funding organization with the purpose to mitigate technology risk in GHG reducing ventures, and a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. He has also held board positions at the Swedish Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Engineering as well as in growth companies in Sweden and the US.
Before joining Ryerson University, he was Managing Director of Innovation Enterprise at the University of Saskatchewan, where he was applying an entrepreneurial approach to developing and strengthening the University’s innovation, intellectual property and commercialization capacity, resulting in spinning out new growth companies and building innovative industry R&D partnerships across many sectors.
Professor Rutger Engels (1968) studied Psychology at the University of Groningen and obtained his doctorate at the University of Maastricht in 1998. After having worked in Utrecht for three years, Engels was appointed professor at Radboud University Nijmegen in 2001 where, for some time, he was also Vice Dean for research and Director of the Behavioural Science Institute. In 2014 he became Chairperson of the Executive Board of the Trimbos Institute, where he was responsible for over 200 employees. He became faculty Professor of Development Psychopathology of Prevention and Intervention at the faculty of Social Sciences at Utrecht University in 2016.
Professor Engels became rector magnificus of Erasmus University Rotterdam on 15 June 2018. He is responsible for education, research and impact, policies for academic employees, science communication and information for students. He is also Professor of Development Psychopathology at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB).
Engels aims to make a real difference with his research; to have impact on international policy and daily practice. Engels’ research focuses on anxiety and depression among young people and the prevention of suicide in this group. His research has contributed to a decision by the Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Sport to no longer only focus campaigns toward adolescents but also toward their parents. In his research into the harmful effects of early alcohol consumption among adolescents, Engels helped in formulating and implementing a new Dutch law. This resulted in a ban on the sale of alcohol to people under 18 years.
Engels also recently contributed to research by the Health CouncilOpens external into the influence of alcohol consumption among young people on brain development. The research committee recognised his indications that brain structure develops differently in young people who drink. It also appears that there is a connection between drinking at a young age and the development of alcohol problems at a later age.
Chris joined Oxford University Innovations in 2018 as a Licensing and Ventures Manager in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
Chris graduated from the University of Oxford after having read Modern History, he then went onto study Politics and Government at the London School of Economics. After graduation, Chris worked at Accenture, covering projects across; Public Sector, Energy, Digital and Communications as well as their Clean Tech growth area (in partnership with the World Economic Forum) and Institute for High Performance. Chris left Accenture to work for FutureLearn, an Edtech start-up (or MOOC platform) founded by the Open University. At FutureLearn, Chris led the market research and helped develop FutureLearn’s strategy, partnerships and business models across B2C/B2B and public education initiatives.
Professor Bronwyn Fredericks (PhD) is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) at The University of Queensland (UQ). In 2017 Professor Fredericks was appointed as one of two Commissioners with the Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC) and was the presiding commissioner leading the Inquiry into Service Provision in Discrete and Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. In 2019, she was a Commissioner with the Inquiry into Imprisonment and Recidivism, and in 2018, a Commissioner with the Inquiry into Manufacturing in Queensland. Professor Fredericks has over 30 years of experience working in and with the tertiary sector, State and Federal Governments, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-based organisations. In recognition of this, she received the inaugural 2019 Public Health Award in Indigenous Health.
Earlier in 2020, she visited India as a guest of the Australian High Commission to address a number of universities, including at the national launch of the Australian Studies Centre in Chennai. Bronwyn is a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Research Advisory Committee, the Beyond Blue National Research Advisory Committee, a NATSIHEC representative for Universities Australia, a judge for Queensland’s Australian of the Year Award, and on numerous other Queensland and national annual awards committees, as well as being a member of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) College of Experts.
Kate Geddie is Senior Director of Research at CIFAR where she supports the development and evolution of CIFAR's research portfolio and works directly with many of the research programs. She is also responsible for CIFAR’s performance monitoring and evaluation activities, and has a particular interest in assessing the long-term collaborations and interdisciplinary nature of CIFAR’s work.
Kate holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Toronto, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Prior to joining CIFAR, she directed public policy research and analysis on wide range of issues related to higher education, research and innovation in Canada and Europe. She has worked for the European University Association in Brussels, Universities Canada (AUCC) in Ottawa, and her research has been funded by SSHRC, the European Commission, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Ursula Gobel was appointed vice-president, Stakeholder Engagement and Advancement of Society, at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in November 2019. In her role, Ursula provides strategic leadership to advance and mobilize social sciences and humanities research. Ursula guides the work of a dynamic team that is responsible for communications, strategic foresight, partnership development and engagement with stakeholders.
Ursula joined SSHRC in 2007 as director of communications. She led the development and implementation of strategic communications for SSHRC, as well as for several international programs, including the Canada Research Chairs and Canada Excellence Research Chairs programs, on behalf of Canada’s three federal research granting agencies. In 2014, Ursula was appointed associate vice-president, future challenges, where she led strategic initiatives to advance the social sciences and humanities contributions toward meeting future, long-term societal challenges.
Ursula brings extensive experience in leadership and management across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has held Board positions at the Institute for Public Administration of Canada, the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance, and the Canadian Tourism Commission, and has been an active volunteer for the United Way. Ursula holds executive leadership training from Queen’s University, as well as business and economics diplomas from Algonquin College and John Abbott College.
Dr. Nicole Goodman holds the Chancellor's Chair for Research Excellence and is an associate professor of Political Science at Brock University. Her research examines the impact of technology on civic participation and democracy. Her work has appeared in top journals and is frequently consulted by local, Indigenous and national governments, not-for-profit organizations, and parliamentary committees. Through this work, she has become an internationally recognized authority on voting technologies. Nicole currently represents Canada on the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) Board of Advisers.
Kathryn is the Executive Director of Performance Management and Evaluation at Alberta Innovates, a Canadian‐based publicly funded provincial research and innovation organization. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS). A co‐founder of the International School on Research Impact Assessment and was Director of the School when it was hosted in Banff in 2014. She is the Co-Director of the AESIS International course on “Integrating Societal Impact in a Research Strategy”.
She has over 25 years of strategic evaluation experience in health care, research and innovation. Her expertise is in developing performance management and impact strategies and implementing assessment frameworks for complex systems across a diversity of organizations. She and her team successfully implemented the CAHS (2009) health research impact framework and was instrumental in its application nationally and internationally. Kathryn is a social scientist, bridge builder and advisor on numerous boards and expert committees that focus on research and innovation. She is invited to present both nationally and internationally.
James Grossman is Executive Director of the American Historical Association. Formerly Vice-President for Research and Education at the Newberry Library, he has taught at University of Chicago and University of California, San Diego. The author of Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration and A Chance to Make Good: African-Americans, 1900-1929, Grossman was project director/coeditor of the print and digital Encyclopedia of Chicago and coeditor of the series "Historical Studies of Urban America." Articles and short essays have focused on urban history, African American history, ethnicity, higher education, and the place of history in public culture. Short pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time, Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere.
Grossman’s consulting experience includes history-related projects generated by BBC, Smithsonian, and various theater companies, films, museums, and libraries. Currently President of the National Humanities Alliance, he has served on governing boards of the American Council of Learned Societies, Association of American Colleges and Universities, and Center for Research Libraries.
Mehrdad Hariri is the founder and CEO of the Canadian Science Policy Centre, the leading not-profit HUB for science, technology and innovation policy in Canada.
As a visionary in Canadian Science Policy, Mehrdad has was acknowledged by the Globe and Mail for his decade of contribution to science policy. In 2020 he was selected as a member of the Governor-General Leadership Conference.
Mehrdad has numerous publications and opinion pieces in various media outlets and regularly appears in the media as a commentator on science policy issues.
He is a member of the Innovation Leadership Council (ILC) of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA), a board member of the Journal of Science Policy and Governance, and a member of the first advisory committee to MITACS Science Policy Fellowship program. He studied in the fields of Veterinary Medicine, Cell Biology and Functional Genomes, in Tehran, Montréal, and Toronto universities,
Vera works closely with organisations to enable strategic decision-making driven by data gathered using the Researchfish Impact & Evaluation Hub. With a background in mathematical modelling and data analysis, Vera joined the Research Fish team from a leading mathematical consultancy company, where she led business development in a strategic area of research management and directed research networks on the interface of funders, academia and industry.
Ted Hewitt was appointed president of SSHRC in March 2015. He served as the inaugural chair of the Canada Research Coordinating Committee from 2017 to 2019. Ted was vice-president, research and international relations, at Western University in London, Ontario, from 2004 to 2011, where he had been a professor of sociology since 1989. He was also a public policy scholar at the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. A leading authority on Brazil, Ted has published in monographs, edited works and a range of academic journals. In 2018, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations named him Grand Officer of the Order of Rio Branco—one of the highest levels of merit—for the many years he has fostered bilateral business and research partnerships between Brazil and Canada.
Ted’s current research focuses on national and international innovation systems, with emphasis on the roles of universities, industry and government in promoting economic prosperity in Latin America and beyond. He is co-chair of the Canada-Brazil Joint Committee for Cooperation on Science, Technology and Innovation, and a member of the board of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce.
Ted holds a PhD in sociology from McMaster University.
Kamilla has built her career on creating opportunities for individuals and teams to connect and build-on on shared knowledge to impact change. With a belief that it is our collective challenge to gain the skills and knowledge required to better work together to mobilize deep knowledge into practice, Kamilla brings a dynamic and extensive background in program design, development and evaluation.
As Director, Education & Development with the Work Wellness Institute, Kamilla is responsible for leading the development, implementation and evaluation of organizational education strategies and tactics - turning quality research into practice while increasing public awareness and membership to the organization.
Jeff has over 30 years of experience in government science, technology and innovation policy in the US and Canada. His US experience includes the National Science Foundation, the National Academies and the Naval Research Laboratory.
In Canada, Jeff has worked at Industry Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA). In 2014, he supported the Knox Panel on Government Science and Technology. Most recently, he led the Federal S&T Secretariat supporting the Minister of Science, the Deputy Minister Champion for Federal Science and related initiatives, including the Federal S&T Infrastructure Initiative (now Laboratories Canada). Jeff is currently on interchange with the Institute on Governance.
At the University of Ottawa, Jeff is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) and Adjunct at the Telfer School of Management. Jeff is a board member of the Canadian Science Policy Centre and a member of the Advisory Council of the Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellows program.
He is co-editor with Paul Dufour of A Lantern on the Bow: A History of the Science Council of Canada and its Contributions to the Science and Innovation Policy Debate (Invenire, 2018). He holds a PhD in public policy, a Master’s in science, technology and public policy, and a BS in physics.
Christian Kobsda works as a political consultant in the president’s office of the Leibniz Association in Germany. Besides he is Executive Manager of the Global Learning Council, Associate Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and Editor Elephantinthelab.org – a blog-journal on science policy. Before joining Leibniz, he helped to build up the concept of Industry 4.0 at acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering and was scientific advisor to the Innovation Dialog of the German Federal Chancellor.
Thomas Koenig is Head of Strategy and Scientific Services at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), where he is responsible for supporting the scientific director in all matters concerning strategy and scientific services. He has been involved with the strategy-finding process in 2015, and implementing the new IHS mission has been his main responsibility since then. Among other things, this concerns negotiating target agreements with the research groups, drafting the annual work program, establishing and monitoring internal scientific service units, supporting the IHS Scientific Advisory Board, and preparing the external evaluation in 2019. He is also introducing the new IHS fellowship program and coordinating IHS’s growing group of PhD candidates.
Academically, Dr. Koenig works on questions related to the governance of science and, more broadly, the sociology of science and innovation. Ongoing projects relate to the history and sociology of social sciences, research funding and research policy in the EU, and touch on issues such as academic autonomy, decision-making, bibliometrics, impact analysis. His most recent publications include a monograph on the European Research Council, the first comprehensive analysis of its history, organisational setup, and impact, which has been published with Polity Press in January 2017; he also writes a blog on the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, "Politik Macht Wissenschaft"
In recent years, he has been a Governing Board member of the grassroots organisation EuroScience (2012-2018), and has been the Managing Editor of the Austrian Journal of Political Science (OZP) (2012-2015). Since 2018, he has been a member of the editorial team of the Journal Serendipities (also Open Access).
Sandra Lapointe is Professor of Philosophy at McMaster University and Research Affiliate at the Bertrand Russell Research Centre. She obtained her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Leeds (UK) in 2000. A Commonwealth alumna, Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation, her scholarly work focuses on the history of the philosophical study of logic, mind and language in the 19th and 20th centuries. She is the author and editor of 12 books and several dozens of articles and book chapters. She is a Founding Associate Editor and current Editor for Special Issues for the Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy. She is a past President of the Canadian Philosophical Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and a Research Affiliate of the Future Skills Centre. She is Project Director for The/La Collaborative (www.yourcollaborative.org), a partnered initiative with the mission to foster better collaborative culture around social science and humanities education, talent and impact.
Vincent Larivière holds the Canada Research Chair on the Transformations of Scholarly Communication at the Université de Montréal, where he is professor of information science and is associate vice-president (planning and communications). He is also scientific director of the Érudit journal platform, associate scientific director of the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST) and regular member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST).
Robert Luke, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer of eCampusOntario, which provides leadership to Ontario’s universities and colleges promoting innovation and adoption of digital learning. eCampusOntario’s mission is to inform and shape Ontario’s online learning system redesign in consultation with sector stakeholders by funding and conducting research and pilot projects that promote and support digital fluency and educational system evolution for all.
Prior to his role as CEO, Dr Luke spent 10 years in executive management as Vice-President, Research & Innovation at George Brown College and at OCAD University. His expertise is in human-centered knowledge media design, working at the intersections of education and information science to produce useful and useable technology to support education, health and innovation systems. His experience includes the development of academic business, innovation and incubation initiatives.
His current research focus is on public+private partnerships for research and development, using mechanisms such as Technology or Solutions Readiness Levels and change management practices to support product, process and organizational innovation. This work prioritizes the role of innovation intermediaries, the ability to form and foster partnerships within an organization, region or cluster, and the teaching of the skills and competencies required to support and sustain innovation-related activities.
Dr Luke has extensive experience in the evaluation of national research and innovation systems. He served on the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel Review of The State of Science and Technology and the State of Industrial Research & Development in Canada, 2016-18, and as Expert Panelist, Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel Review of Science and Technology in Canada, 2011-2012. In 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canadian education and innovation.
Dr. Arthur Lupia is Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation and the Hal R. Varian Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. In his role st NSF, he heads the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate and participates in development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies that advance the agency’s mission and serve the nation. Prior to his arrival at NSF, he served as chairman of the board for the Center for Open Science and the chair of the National Academies Roundtable on the Communication and Use of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Dr. Lupia’s research examines processes, principles, and factors that guide decision-making and learning across various audiences and populations. His work clarifies how people make decisions when they lack information or face adverse circumstances. Lupia draws from mathematics, statistics, neuroscience, and other scientific and philosophical disciplines to explore civic competence, information processing, and strategic communication. His work on science communication has influenced scholarly practice, public policy, and classroom teaching around the world.
Lupia has been a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, an inaugural Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and received the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Rochester and a PhD at the California Institute of Technology.
Patrick MacGuire is a Senior Evaluation Analyst who joined the CFI in December 2014 and provides research and analysis related to CFI funding mechanisms, policies, and funded infrastructure. With 12 years’ experience working in performance measurement and evaluation in a research funding environment, Patrick is well versed in providing information that is accurate, timely and consistent and that demonstrates the results of investments in research. Patrick holds an MA in criminology from the University of Ottawa.
Stefanie Molthagen-Schnöring studied German language and literature, Communication Science and Applied Cultural Studies at the University of Münster. In her doctoral thesis she examined the relationship between corporate communication and corporate culture. After several years of working in communications consulting, she took up a professorship for business communications at Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin - University of Applied Sciences in 2011. There she has been Vice President for Research and Transfer since April 2019. Her research interests extend to communication at the interface of business, politics and science.
Dr. Julia E. Moore is the Senior Director for the Center for Implementation and an internationally-recognized expert on applied implementation science training. She has delivered dozens of workshops and keynotes to over 2000 professionals. Dr. Moore has supported over 100 knowledge translation/implementation projects locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally with organizations such as Health Canada, World Health Organization, Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Canadian Task Force on Preventive Healthcare, and the Evidence-based Prevention and Intervention Support Center (EPISCenter) at Pennsylvania State University. Through the Center for Implementation she trains and supports organizations and professionals to use evidence-based implementation to improve the adoption, implementation, sustainability, spread, and scale up of interventions to improve outcomes and create impact. Dr. Moore has a PhD from Penn State, where she was trained as an implementation scientist, researching the best ways to implement evidence-based programs. She is most widely known for her online courses, including the free mini-course, Inspiring Change: Creating impact with evidence-based implementation (https://thecenterforimplementation.com/courses).
Susan Morris is the Director, Evaluation at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). NSERC and SSHRC are federal research funding agencies that promote and support post-secondary research and research training. Susan is responsible for the overall direction of evaluation services and the provision of advice to senior management on program evaluation and performance related issues. She leads a team of functional specialists responsible for measuring and evaluating the impact and performance of NSERC and SSHRC programs as well as related tri-agency initiatives. Prior to joining the research councils in 1998, Susan spent almost a decade as a consultant for an Ottawa-based firm specializing in applied social and economic research. She has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection methods.
Wendy Naus became the fourth Executive Director of COSSA in 2014 following a decade of lobbying for the federal research and policy interests of scientific societies and U.S. universities. Over her career, she has worked to shape legislation, programs, and regulations important to the research community and has advocated for increased research funding across federal agencies. In her role at COSSA, Wendy serves as the lead advocate for federal funding and policy that positively impact social and behavioral science research across the federal government, representing the breadth of the social science research enterprise. She is also responsible for the day to day operations of COSSA and member engagement. A native of Buffalo, New York, Wendy holds a B.A. in political science and urban studies from Canisius College, graduating magna cum laude from the All-College Honors Program.
Jeffrey is a human resources and campus recruitment professional with RBC as the Senior Manager of Early Talent Acquisition. Joining RBC in June 2016, Jeff leads a national team of Campus Recruiters recruiting “the face of the bank” into retail branch, commercial banking, and National Office roles. Previously, Jeff was at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON where he first held the position of Manager, Corporate Development for the DeGroote School of Business in support of commerce and MBA students. In 2013, Jeff moved to the position of Manager, Engineering Co-op and Career Services for the Faculty of Engineering where he managed two co-op programs and supported over 4000 students in engineering and technology. During his time at McMaster University Jeff was an active CACEE member attending regional and national conferences. Prior to joining McMaster University, Jeff held several positions at Enterprise Holdings, most recently as Area Manager for the Niagara Region where he recruited dozens of new graduates into Trainee programs. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and was a 4-Year Letterman on the Varsity Golf Team.
Kim Patten is Assistant Vice President, Research Development at the University of Arizona. She leads a team of research development professionals that excel in supporting faculty in their pursuit of extramural funding from federal, corporate, and foundation sponsors resulting in more than $300 million in awards to campus since 2014. Part of this success is based on a holistic view of research development and the research lifecycle with an emphasis on the societal impacts. Research Development at UArizona encompasses a variety of aspects from strategic development, federal research relationships, corporate research partnerships, and global projects in addition to intramural funding, funding opportunity communications, and limited submissions. Prior to joining UA, Patten managed projects and programs in conservation, renewable energy, and distributed data systems both nationally and internationally. As Associate Director at the Arizona Geological Survey she managed a $30m portfolio, including Co-PI on a $3.6m National Science Foundation project and project manager of a $22m U.S. Department of Energy project. Prior to her work at AZGS, she was Programs Director at a science-based non-profit organization where she helped expand the organization’s research portfolio and federal advocacy through the organizations first briefings for the House and Senate.
Dr. Phipps is the administrative lead for all research programs and their impacts on local and global communities at York University (Toronto, Canada). He has received honours and awards from the Canadian Association of Research Administrators, Institute for Knowledge Mobilization, International Network of Research Management Societies and the EU based Knowledge Economy Network. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in knowledge mobilization and was named the most influential knowledge mobilizer in Canada. He sits on knowledge mobilization committees around the world and is Network Director for Research Impact Canada.
Mikkel has worked with innovation since before it became a word and has helped drive successful strategy shifts at some of the world’s biggest brands. He is particularly energized by insights gained from a synthesis of human science, computer science, and engineering and his work often explores how businesses can build solutions directly from these insights and quickly test their performance among customers and users.
Mikkel is a well-known keynote speaker and provocateur reflecting on innovation, business creativity, and the practical application of the human sciences. He has written numerous articles and has been featured in Businessweek, The Economist, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and in BBC radio and TV. His book, The Moment of Clarity, co-written with Christian Madsbjerg and published by Harvard Business Press in the fall of 2014, has been translated into 15+ languages. He has graduate degrees in Public Economics from Roskilde University as well as in Innovation Management from Limburg University in The Netherlands.
Tony leads Emerald’s commissioning teams, working with the research community to publish impactful research from over 180 countries around the world. His strategic partnership brief entails co-creating services with the research community, in areas such as impact literacy, open research and open innovation. Tony also represents Emerald in the public affairs sphere, serving on the principal pan-industry public affairs committee.
Claire Samson is a professional engineer with an undergraduate degree in engineering physics from Laval University, a M.Sc. in geological sciences from McGill University and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Toronto.
From 1991 to 1992, Claire was a Research Associate at Cambridge University, and from 1993 to 1999, she worked for the Shell Oil group in the Netherlands. Upon relocating to Canada in 2000, she joined Neptec Design Group, a company specializing in vision systems for space applications. In 2003, she was appointed as Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University, where she served as departmental Chair and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs. From 2018 to 2019, Claire was Dean of Research at École de technologie supérieure in Montréal. In addition to her academic leadership activities, Claire continued to be active in research in the fields of laser imaging of earth materials, unmanned aircraft systems, and planetary geology.
In 2020, Claire was appointed Vice-President, Programs and Planning, of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). In this role, Claire oversees the planning and general management of all the CFI’s program areas, including program development, delivery, budget setting, and knowledge management.
Kara has worked in research, monitoring, and evaluation for over 15 years. She has worked with a range of organisations, both government and not-for-profits, across a range of sectors including health, education, sport and recreation, innovation, regulatory systems, the environmental sector, and international development.
Although Kara thought she was destined for a career in applied science, she accidently fell into the evaluation profession shortly after completing her PhD. The practical and applied nature of evaluation was a great fit for Kara’s pragmatic approach to research. On discovering this new toolkit and seeing how much value it can bring to any endeavour, she has become particularly passionate about building non-evaluators skills to better understand and use evaluative thinking and practice maximise the impact of their work. This has included an exciting project working to build the evaluation capability of researchers across New Zealand’s seven Crown Research Institutes. This collaborative effort is being spearheaded by their joint ‘Impact Planning Evaluation Network – iPEN’.
Mihiri is an economist at the Department for Education (UK), where she leads research and policy analysis on disadvantage in schools. Mihiri is passionate about using research to make public services more impactful and inclusive. She has worked towards this in various roles across central government, from advising on Early Years spending at HM Treasury to promoting the use of robust evidence in policy as part of the Cabinet Office’s What Works Team.
Mihiri holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MA Hons Economics from the University of Edinburgh. In her free time, she volunteers as a school governor at a two primary academies in South London.
Peter Severinson is the policy team manager at Mitacs, a national non-profit organization that delivers a broad range of innovation-focused internships across Canada and internationally. Peter’s work focuses on innovation and skill-development policy, with a focus on how work-integrated learning opportunities can build connections between the higher-education and private sectors. Previously, Peter served as the policy analyst for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, where he led the Federation’s work on impact assessment. He was the lead author the 2017 report Approaches to Assessing Impacts in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Dr. Malinda S. Smith is a political science professor and the inaugural Vice Provost (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) and at the University of Calgary. She is a former Vice President Equity Issues for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and currently serves as Chair of its Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization. She serves on the Statistics Canada Working Group on Black communities in Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy, and the Inter-Institutional Advisory Committee for National Dialogues and Action for Inclusive Higher Education and Communities.
Dr. Smith has published widely in areas of international and comparative politics, and equity, diversity, and human rights. She is a coauthor of The Equity Myth: Racialization and Indigenity at Canadian Universities (2017), and a coeditor of the forthcoming book, Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy (UofT Press, 2021). She is also editor of Securing Africa: Post-9/11 Discourses on Terrorism (2010), Beyond the African Tragedy: Discourses on Development and the Global Economy (2006), and Globalizing Africa (2003); and coeditor of Critical Concepts: An Introduction to Politics, 6/E under revision with OUP; and States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century (2010).
Dr. Smith is a 2018 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow. She’s won numerous awards, including the 2020 Susan S. Northcutt Award from the International Studies Association, and the 2020 Rosalind Smith Professional Award from the National Black Coalition of Canada-Edmonton.
Toby Smith has served at the Association of American Universities since January 2003. As Vice President for Policy, he oversees AAU’s policy projects, initiatives and activities including the AAU Undergraduate STEM education and PhD education initiatives. He is responsible for matters relating to science and innovation policy and broader impacts of science.
He shares responsibility for matters concerning research costs and compliance issues including facilities and administrative costs, export controls, scientific openness and security, technology transfer and regulatory reform. He also staffs the Senior Research Officers constituent group.
Prior to joining AAU in January 2003, Toby worked as a federal relations representative in the Washington D.C. Offices of the University of Michigan (1999-2002) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1992-1999). He began his Washington career on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to Congressman Bob Traxler (D-Michigan).
Toby has written and spoken widely on science policy and funding issues. He is the co-author a book on national science policy published in 2008 by the University of Michigan Press titled, Beyond Sputnik – U.S. Science Policy in the 21stCentury. He is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on the Communication and Use of Social and Behavioral Sciences and serves on the Advisory Board to the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI). He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Toby holds a master’s degree in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University, and a Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree from the University of Michigan.
Professor Crain Soudien is the Chief Executive Officer of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). He holds a PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo and is a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, where he remains an emeritus professor in Education and African Studies. His publications in the areas of social difference, culture, education policy, comparative education, educational change, public history and popular culture include four books, four edited collections and over 200 articles, reviews, reports, and book chapters, including a 2017 publication entitled Nelson Mandela: Comparative Perspectives of his Significance for Education.
He is involved in a number of local, national and international social and cultural organisations and is chairperson of the Independent Examinations Board, former chairperson of the District Six Museum Foundation, a former president of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, and has served as the chair of three Ministerial Committees of Enquiry, including the Ministerial Committee on Transformation in Higher Education and the Ministerial Committee to Evaluate Textbooks for Discrimination.
He is a fellow of a number of local and international academies and serves on the boards of a number of cultural, heritage, education and civil society structures.
Dr. Trevor Stuthridge joined AgResearch as Research Director in May 2019. He has extensive NZ and international experience in R&D and technology commercialisation in the primary industries, bioeconomy and clean technologies sectors, including as Executive Vice President for FPInnovations (Canada) and as General Manager of Sustainable Design at New Zealand forestry-focussed Crown Research Institute, Scion. He has served as Chair/Director for 10 Boards and as strategic advisor for 12 industry/academic research consortia since 2010. He is an Adjunct Professor at University of British Columbia and University of Toronto.
At AgResearch – a New Zealand crown research institute – Trevor oversees the overall science & technology programmes, including those related to AgResearch’s Te Ao Māori strategy. This is currently being developed to bring together indigenous peoples’ leaders to help us increase connections with Māori agribusiness and communities, and to embed foundational Māori principles such as kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the land) into everything we do. At a national level, AgResearch is contributing to the Te Taiao Framework to bring together traditional knowledge (Mātauranga Māori) and conventional science to provide a new, holistic, evidenced-based platform to support the wellbeing and resilience of the land, water, climate and communities.
After gaining First Class Honors in Statistics at the University of Aberdeen, David worked at two BBSRC research institutes, as a statistician consultant before developing mathematical models or plant growth. His work on the computer aspects of this led into broader applications of IT in education and research, and was Director of Information Services at Royal Holloway, University of London, before moving into university leadership as Vice-Principal (Communications, Enterprise and Research) in 2004. In this role he was responsible for research strategy and for developing Royal Holloway's research-led commercial and consultancy activities.
He joined HEFCE in 2008 as Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) and led the development and implementation of the first Research Excellence Framework including the new impact agenda element. He was responsible for research policy and funding, knowledge exchange and university/business relations.
In May 2017 he was appointed the first Executive Chair of Research England, a new council established as part of UK Research and Innovation, alongside the seven disciplinary Research Councils and the UK Innovation Agency. Research England is biggest research funder in the UK with responsibility for university block-grant funding for research and knowledge exchange. In UKRI he has particular responsibilities for Place (Regional Funding), Commercialisation and Open Science
David has been invited to visit many countries to advise on research assessment and funding, particularly with respect to research impact. He is also co-chair of the Implementation Task Force for Plan S, the international initiative on full and immediate open access to research publications.
David was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in 2012, was Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Newcastle, NSW in 2015 and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.
Vivian leads the William T. Grant Foundation’s grantmaking programs and its initiatives to connect research, policy, and practice to improve child and youth outcomes. In 2009, she launched the Foundation’s initiative on the use of research evidence in policy and practice. That program has generated over 50 funded studies and informed the grantmaking programs of private and public funders across the country. She has been instrumental in the growing field of research-practice partnerships, including supporting the creation of field-defining resources and the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships.
Vivian has longstanding interests in racial equity in higher education and philanthropy. Under her leadership, the Foundation has strengthened its internal diversity, equity, and inclusion work, increased its grantmaking and capacity support to underrepresented researchers, and developed a program to support stronger mentoring relationships for graduate students of color.
Vivian regularly writes and speaks to international and domestic audiences on evidence-informed policy and practice. Her studies of racial, cultural, and immigration influences on child development have been published in Child Development and her research on improving social settings and promoting social change have appeared in the American Journal of Community Psychology. She received her Ph.D. from NYU and her B.A. from UCLA. She serves on the Boards of the Forum for Youth Investment, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees. She was previously on the faculty in Psychology and Asian American studies at CSUN.
Dr. Carolyn Watters joined the NRC in February 2019 as the organization’s inaugural Chief Digital Research Officer, including oversight of the Digital Technologies Research Centre. Dr. Watters joined the NRC through the Interchange program, on secondment from Dalhousie University.
Dr. Watters, who has a PhD in Computer Science, served as the Provost and Vice President Academic for Dalhousie University, one of Canada’s oldest research universities, from 2010 to 2018. While Provost she served for a term as the Chair of the U15 Provost’s Academic Committee. Dr. Watters was one of the founding members of CALDO, a consortium of four and later nine Canadian research universities to build partnerships with universities in Latin America. She has engaged widely in quality assurance including a term as Chair of the Maritimes Higher Education Commission. Previously she was the Dean of Graduate studies including a term as the president of the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies. During that time she led international initiatives in partnership with the US Council of Graduate Schools.
She remains a Full Professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University, specializing in human computer engagement in information spaces from documents to social media. Her interdisciplinary and collaborative work has spanned all three National research funding councils: the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Dr. Watters has been a member of a NSERC Discovery Grant committee, the NSERC Discovery Grant Process Review Panel, the initial Chair of the NSERC Create Competition Committee, a member of the SSHRC Governing Council, and the Research Council for Mitacs.
Christine Weidenslaufer is a Chilean lawyer, with 13 years of experience as an analyst and researcher, specialized in Common law, at the Library of National Congress (BCN) in Santiago, Chile. As legal advisor to senators, deputies and congressional committees, she has actively participated in the legislative discussion of bills on a wide array of issues.
In the last few years, Christine has developed an interest and oriented her work on understanding how S&T knowledge can improve the legislative process, integrating evidence-based information. With her colleague scientific journalist Raimundo Roberts, they have promoted the participation of BCN as an associate member of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network (EPTA) and other organizations, such as the International Science Advice to Government (INGSA) and global Technology Assessment (globalTA).
Christine obtained her law degree at Universidad de Valparaiso (Chile), holds an LL.M. in Comparative and International Law from at Mary's University, in San Antonio, Texas (USA) and an LL.M. in Advanced Legislative Studies from the University of London (UK). For more information, her email is cweidenslaufer@bcn.cl or visit www.bcn.cl .
Ann Weston is a Program Leader, at Canada’s International Development Research Centre, of the Foundations for Innovations (FI) team. Through its work FI aims to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills and institutions – with a focus on women scientists and Science Granting Councils -- in low and middle-income countries, in order to support innovation and development. Before joining IDRC in 2010 she was Vice-President at the North-South Institute, in Ottawa, and previously worked at the Overseas Development Institute and the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK.
Dr. Tim Wilson is the Associate Vice-President of Research Programs at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), where he is responsible for overseeing the Agency’s grants and scholarships programs.
Prior to coming to SSHRC, Tim held a number of executive positions at the Government of Canada’s Treasury Board Secretariat and the Public Service Commission. In addition to his career in the Public Service, Tim also teaches English Literature part-time at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Renaissance Literature and Literary Theory.
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