Over the past year, the ISSP has published multiple member blogs about how we need to transform decision-making to more effectively address grand challenges, such as transforming teaching, training and the science enterprise; fostering equity, diversity and inclusion in decision-making; putting into practice new decision-making models, and reframing how we think about science and technology in domestic and international policy. The compilation also includes a dedicated section on the grand challenges of COVID-19 and climate change.
Our U.S. neighbours have been lamenting the dissolution of their shared sense of reality for years. The trucker convoys that overtook Ottawa and several other Canadian cities this winter appear to have ushered in similar anxieties on this side of the border.
There is no doubt that, for future humans to have a habitable planet to call home, it is imperative that we decarbonize energy systems (including electrical, thermal, and transport energy) as quickly as possible. It’s also clear that, if we care about other people, we should do this in a way that does not disproportionally benefit or burden any particular group of people (like benefitting those who already have more than they need and disproportionately contribute to climatic change through their carbon intensive activities or burdening those who can hardly afford to pay their energy bills today).
A worldwide movement, citizen science is a phenomenon in which people without formal scientific credentials participate in scientific investigation. Citizen science is becoming important to environmental policy, because data collected by ordinary people can extend science’s field of vision to places and times that scientists would not be able to cover. It can increase the frequency of measurements and observations. It can speed up large-scale, labor-intensive tasks that computers don’t do a good job of, like identifying animals in images. These extensions of science can bolster the knowledge base of environmental science and make it possible for environmental agencies to make better decisions.
On Thursday, January 27, at 12:00 PM, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy will host Prof. Lundy Lewis, 2019 Fulbright Research Chair in Science and Society, ISSP uOttawa and Professor of Computer Information Systems at Southern New Hampshire University to discuss inclusive approaches to the participation in the digital economy.
On Thursday, November 25, at 12:30 PM, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy was pleased to support the University of Ottawa and the Office of the Vice-President, Research in organizing a Partner Panel at the 2021 Canadian Science Policy Conference: Mission-Driven Research and Innovation to Address Grand Challenges: Does Canada have what it takes?
On Thursday, October 28, at 12:00 PM, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy hosted Prof. Chibuike Udenigwe, Faculty Affiliate, ISSP and Full Professor, School of Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, uOttawa, to discuss the sustainability of global food systems.
On Wednesday, June 15th 2022, from 8:30AM to 5PM, the ISSP and Positive Energy will host a conference featuring a variety of speakers and industry representatives to discuss the findings of our latest research. This conference will be held in person at the University of Ottawa and offered virtually.
New survey results from Positive Energy and Nanos Research evaluate Canadians' appetite to meet established climate commitments, whether it is the right time for Canada to be ambitious in addressing climate change and drivers of views on timing to address climate change. It also evaluates Canada's international credibility on environmental policies.Canada's international credibility on environmental policies.
A new study from the University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy program examines the work of the Ecofiscal Commission of Canada, an organization that aimed to depoliticize the debate about carbon pricing in Canada by using one specific tool: infusing the debate with non-partisan, academically rigorous research and evidence.
This Positive Energy study explores limits to consensus-building on energy and climate—specifically limits that flow from partisan politics. It identifies key drivers and events that have contributed to the polarization of certain energy and climate issues along partisan lines, and offers advice for decision-makers looking to navigate polarized contexts on the way to net zero by 2050.
New survey results from Positive Energy and Nanos Research evaluate how Canadians perceive the level of public consensus on a number of climate and energy issues. The survey asks Canadians about the current level of agreement on these issues, as well as the level of agreement relative to five years ago.
The fruit of eighteen months of engagement with our members, it is grounded in the ambitious vision of helping Canada to transform decision-making to meet the grand challenges of our time. The plan lays out multiple research, teaching and outreach goals, activities and target outcomes to realize this vision.
