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Results: 1 - 15 of 15
Roger Scott-Douglas
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Roger Scott-Douglas
2020-06-04 15:54
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair, committee members and other witnesses. It's a pleasure indeed to be here.
I'm Roger Scott-Douglas, secretary general of the National Research Council. I'm very happy to be joined today by David Lisk, vice-president, industrial research assistance program; Jean-François Houle, the vice-president responsible for our COVID pandemic challenge response program; and Lakshmi Krishnan, director general, human health therapeutics branch.
Like others, I will begin by briefly explaining a little bit about the National Research Council.
We are the largest federal science organization, with close to $1.2 billion in expenditures. Over the course of the last 104 years that we've been existence, we've served as an instrument of the federal government in trying to find scientific and technological solutions to significant challenges, which is very much the call of the moment. We do that in two principal ways. We have a research and development side where over 2,000 scientists, engineers and technicians work in 14 research centres across 22 sites. On the IRAP side, the industrial research assistance program side, we also have about 400 people of whom 255 are industrial technology advisers working with close to 8,000 firms annually—high-potential, early-stage innovative firms that are so important to the innovation economy of the country.
In the context of COVID, the National Research Council, as part of the Prime Minister's announcement of the $1 billion that's been given over to COVID, received funding and support for, effectively, seven measures, which I would like to briefly outline. Then my colleagues and I would be most interested in answering any questions that members might have. I'll walk through each of them at a very high level, explaining a little bit of what lies behind them. I might, before getting into those details, talk about the important work the National Research Council, along with other science organizations across the country, has tried to provide to the community.
We've had over 350 requests for technical advice, for short-term support for companies, to provide such things as the quality assurance on N95 masks that the Public Health Agency has asked of us, and for other measures that support the community, individuals, the provision of personal protective equipment, and so on and so forth. This I say only to show how connected we are with both the larger federal group as well as communities across the country.
In terms of specific measures, I'll run through the seven key things.
The first—and this is Jean-François Houle's responsibility—is the pandemic response challenge program. We were fortunate enough to receive $15 million in the medical countermeasures announcement by the Prime Minister. There are essentially four themes or pillars to that work. All of these are collaborative programs where the National Research Council scientists pair up their expertise with individuals in academia and the private sector to come up with technological and scientific solutions to these challenges. These are short-term applied scientific efforts. The first theme is around rapid detection and diagnosis. The second theme is around therapeutics and vaccines. The third theme is monitoring and surveillance, data analysis, tracking for testing and that kind of thing. The fourth is around enabling adaptive responses, including innovative solutions for the delivery of health care. We have in the organization both the human health therapeutics branch, of which Lakshmi is the director general, and also the medical devices lab, which Jean-François will be able to speak about.
The second big thrust is the announcement of, in total, about $44 million that will be used by the National Research Council to upgrade and enhance the capacity of our Royalmount biomanufacturing facility.
It's currently a research lab. We're going to be upgrading it such that it obtains levels of good manufacturing practices and enables us to provide testing for promising vaccine candidates. Ultimately, once a candidate has been found, we hope it provides the successful industrial production for first responders and so forth.
We have three vaccine collaborations as well, with VBI Vaccines , an Ottawa-based company with an attachment to Massachusetts; VIDO-InterVac from the University of Saskatchewan; and CanSino Biologics in China, which is one of the leading international vaccine researchers.
In addition to that, on the IRAP side, which I mentioned Dave Lisk was responsible for, we're working with Innovation Canada under the innovation solutions Canada program. We have been given $15 million to set up challenges for which innovative SMEs and others will provide technological solutions. We've launched three challenges so far, surveying and assessing quite a few proposals for low-cost sensors, for diagnostic kits and for made-in-Canada filtration material. We'll be launching a couple more in the days ahead.
In addition to that, IRAP has kind of red-circled, if I can put it that way, and reallocated $12.5 million of its budget to help innovative SMEs develop proposals for the kinds of products necessary for the COVID response, such as PPE, testing diagnostics, and tracking and detection products, and that kind of work. We've also organized subject matter expert teams around those broad themes to provide expert analysis when we can.
The next area, the wage subsidy, is a very significant support. Several of the witnesses have spoken about it. Some groups fell between the gaps, particularly early-stage pre-revenue innovative firms, high-potential firms. The government has provided $250 million to IRAP for the innovation assistance program, which effectively provides highly qualified personnel with a wage subsidy—it's about $10,000 per employee, retroactive to April 1—with the idea of delivering the program as quickly as possible. Unlike others, it is not an entitlement program; it's a discretionary program. We're evaluating firms with the highest potential to go forward. We're happy to say that as of May 28, we have already established 1,939 contribution agreements for close to $200 million.
The final thrust of work, which is a critically important part of our future, is youth, particularly those highly qualified future STEM innovators. In that regard, we have a couple of very important programs under way. The government has a long-standing youth employment program. It was topped up to the extent of about $153 million—IRAP will have a portion of that—and will be targeting SMEs, meeting their needs to keep graduates. Within the National Research Council, we have a need to bring on STEM grad students and post-docs, and we've allocated $7.5 million to do that.
Thank you very much.
Jean-François Houle
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Jean-François Houle
2020-06-04 16:37
Sure. I will probably talk more about the technology and the solution development around diagnostic testing, and then my colleague David Lisk can talk about the work they're doing with companies that are closer to market and dealing with more mature technologies.
Within the pandemic response challenge program, we do have a “detect and diagnose” pillar of research. That one is aimed at identifying platforms that are maybe six to 12 months out in terms of development to maturity. Our role is really to act as an accelerator to help develop those technologies. In some cases, these technologies come from academic centres. Some have in fact been supported by Rob and his group, maybe at Genome Canada or the CIHR. We provide them with the expertise and knowledge to help them robustize the technology and eventually scale it, with the hope that this will be transferred over to a company. We also work with SMEs that have promising technologies and need to deal with some thorny research issues in order to get this technology to market as well.
That has been the approach within the pandemic response challenge program. We are also launching challenges for loftier goals—higher risk, higher reward. We actually launched recently a call for proposals for technologies from academic centres and small companies that could augment some internal technology at the NRC. That would allow for a chewable diagnostic or something that could be deployed somewhere else or closer to the patient, or maybe even at home.
With that, maybe I'll turn it over to Dr. David Lisk to talk about the work we're doing with companies.
David Lisk
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David Lisk
2020-06-04 16:39
Okay.
We work with 8,000 companies a year. Many of them are in the health space. We have invested currently in 12 COVID test companies that are going to test solutions to find the virus or the antibodies; plus, we have current clients who have technology and tracking space. One of them is Thrive Health, which currently has seven million users in Canada who are actively tracking.
I'll stop there in the interest of time.
View Glen Motz Profile
CPC (AB)
You commented that obviously intrusions into research have occurred. Do you recall back in 2014 the cyber-threat that occurred inside the systems of the National Research Council? It resulted in a complete shutdown of their entire network and, in fact, it had to be entirely replaced right down to the wiring. This intrusion is said to have cost in excess of $100 million to remedy. Do you think the motive behind that was fraud as well or some other purpose?
Scott Jones
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Scott Jones
2020-05-20 15:45
We assessed that the National Research Council breach was very much focused on intellectual property theft.
View Glen Motz Profile
CPC (AB)
You guys were involved in that investigation. Did you also help secure the new network?
View Glen Motz Profile
CPC (AB)
Okay, good.
The government of the day pointed the finger at Chinese-state-sponsored actors. Would that be correct in your assessment?
Scott Jones
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Scott Jones
2020-05-20 15:46
That was the statement given by the government at the time.
View Glen Motz Profile
CPC (AB)
Okay, so now, moving forward, was your organization, Mr. Jones, as an adviser on cybersecurity and computer security, consulted on the new partnership agreement between the National Research Council, the Chinese-owned CanSino Biologics and the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences for the development of the new COVID vaccine?
Scott Jones
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Scott Jones
2020-05-20 15:46
We are regularly working with the research partners across the government, including all of the health sector, to make sure that we're providing the most up-to-date cybersecurity advice so that defences continue to be right at the cutting edge.
Scott Jones
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Scott Jones
2020-05-20 15:46
We've been involved in working on all matters of cybersecurity with the research areas.
View Sherry Romanado Profile
Lib. (QC)
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, meeting number six.
Pursuant to Standing Order 81(5) we are studying the supplementary estimates (B) for 2019-20.
We have with us today from the Department of Industry Mr. Simon Kennedy, deputy minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, as well as Mr. Douglas McConnachie, our assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer, corporate management sector, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
Gentlemen, you will have 10 minutes to present, followed by a round of questions. The floor is yours.
View Sherry Romanado Profile
Lib. (QC)
We have some votes on the supplementary estimates (B), so I ask the members to stay for a moment.
Can I get unanimous consent to lump together the votes that we have to do today?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
ATLANTIC CANADA OPPORTUNITIES AGENCY
Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$3,932
Vote 5b—Grants and contributions...........$3,457,536
(Votes 1b and 5b agreed to on division)
CANADIAN NORTHERN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
Vote 5b—Grants and contributions..........$500,000
(Vote 5b agreed to on division)
CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY
Vote 5b—Capital expenditures..........$69,178,862
Vote 10b—Grants and contributions..........$930,000
(Votes 5b and 10b agreed to on division)
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY
Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$2,696,570
Vote 10b—Grants and contributions..........$67,926,793
(Votes 1b and 10b agreed to on division)
DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION
Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$49,043
Vote 5b—Grants and contributions..........$5,524,559
(Votes 1b and 5b agreed to on division)
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF CANADA FOR THE REGIONS OF QUEBEC
Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$34,622
Vote 5b—Grants and contributions..........$2,790,618
(Votes 1b and 5b agreed to on division)
FEDERAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOR SOUTHERN ONTARIO
Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$46,519
Vote 5b—Grants and contributions..........$4,434,631
(Votes 1b and 5b agreed to on division)
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA
Vote 5b—Capital expenditures..........$1,375,185
Vote 10b—Grants and contributions..........$5,560,708
(Votes 5b and 10b agreed to on division)
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
Vote 5b—Grants..........$1
(Vote 5b agreed to on division)
The Chair: Shall the chair report the votes on the supplementary estimates (B) to the House?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.
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