New president given till mid-2017 to advise gov't on NRC's future direction

Staff rejuvenation a priority

Recently installed National Research Council president Iain Stewart has hit the ground running, working to complete an initial stocktaking of the century-old organization by mid-November and deliver a full assessment by mid-2017. Since arriving at the NRC in August for a two-year term (R$, August 18/16), Stewart has been developing a plan to fulfill a detailed mandate letter that calls for him to renew and unleash "the full potential of the NRC workforce to become a global leader in science and innovation" (see chart).

Stewart's marching orders follow a long period of sustained transformation at the NRC led by former president John McDougall. While many within the NRC support the intent to transform the agency into a research and technology organization (RTO), the nature and impact of the changes have been polarizing and the federal government is seeking to better understand where this new direction is taking the NRC. Ottawa also wants advice on whether changes are required to enhance its impact on industrial R&D and how it can contribute to the key objectives of the forthcoming Innovation Agenda.

Over the coming months, Stewart will meet regularly with Navdeep Bains, minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Kirsty Duncan, minister of science, and their DMs, as well as participate as an "active member" of the DM Committee on Science.

"I think there are a lot of ways the NRC can join up with this agenda," Stewart told RE$EARCH MONEY in his first media interview since assuming the presidency. "I see myself as a mobilizer. In this case, I've been brought in to do this assessment, this dialogue with the NRC, in order to come back to ministers … It's enough time in my mandate to respond to the assessment mandate, to bring forward advice, give ministers time to think about the advice in the spring and summer period and then put in place the broad strokes of any initiatives that respond or follow from that."

Engage internally

Stewart views the assessment as an internal exercise and intends to fully engage NRC researchers and research managers in the process. During the McDougall era, decision making became increasingly top-down with a small group of executives calling the shots. Dissatisfaction with the way in which change was engineered reached a climax last December when NRC researchers and research officers issued "A Call to Action" that included a national strategy and a return to decentralized decision-making.

The group has also raised the alarm on the disproportionate impact of the changes to NRC regional clusters, resulting in "ghost" buildings with no personnel.

"Where do ideas come from? Who's originating the question that we're organizing ourselves to answer? ... When we say we work on business innovation, which businesses are we responding to? The same is true for advancement of knowledge-style projects. If we are going to work on a program of research that's just to advance knowledge, how are we going to decide what is worthy of the dedication of public sector resources in that regard. What is the system around that?" — NRC president Iain Stewart

Another collection of NRC staff members also filed a submission to the Innovation Agenda review, calling for greater input into identifying "areas of potential research excellence leading to innovation" and "shifting the emphasis at NRC away from its insistence on purely applied endeavours and towards the higher-risk, longer-term research questions".

"A lot of researchers communicated to me concerns of this nature. This is part of the wellhead beneath why ministers wanted an assessment and a stocktaking done," says Stewart. "When I talk about organizing a discussion, it's to give people the opportunity to say these things to each other in a structured way so that we can gather them up and respond with how we'd like to go forward ... How are we allowing people time to be creative, to blue sky, as we, on the one hand, manage ourselves so that we're a coherent group of people trying to achieve objectives?"

Stewart has appointed a VP of policy to lead the assessment exercise—Roger Scott-Douglas, a veteran senior civil servant and colleague from his recent stint at Treasury Board Secretariat. Having a seasoned policy expert will be critical for completing the assessment, freeing up Stewart's time to lead and manage a billion-dollar, multifaceted agency dedicated to assisting industry, advancing knowledge and fulfilling key policy mandates.

"(Scott-Douglas) is very well known for his collegial approach … I am the president of everything that comes with it and all the accountabilities therein and that's why I thought it was important to bring in a policy person from downtown," says Stewart. "I actually have a day job to do … We have a lot of obligations to our clients, to our own research initiatives, for revenue targets, service delivery ... The policy dialogue has to be an important thing we're doing but it's towards the side of our desk, not on the front of our desk."

Among the issues the assessment will address is the move to expand the NRC's suit of VPs of R&D from three to five — an initiative put on indefinite hold when McDougall left the organization last March (R$, March 21/16). Stewart says that while it's too early to determine whether the expansion and reorganization of R&D management will go ahead, "it's in my job jar that I have to try to move that forward".

"It's kind of tempting to let this assessment discussion inform that as well, to the extent that you end up with some kind of strategic theming about how we're seeing our work in support of business innovation, advancement of knowledge and public policy mandates," he says. "There could be some organizational reflection of that or we could stay within the structure we have. I'm very conscious of it but I'm not rushing to change how we're organized until we understand what we're doing better."

As part of its assessment, the NRC is assembling teams to address the four themes outlined in the mandate letter. Stewart says there are subthemes, such as ensuring science excellence in NRC research work and business innovation, that require separate teams.

"It's probably going to break out into more pieces. I'm thinking six or seven themes than just the four," says Stewart.

Talent renewal a priority

Increasing the number of students and post docs placed within the NRC is another measure Stewart will explore, both for its potential for recruiting new talent to replenish a declining workforce and supporting broader objectives of the innovation agenda.

"Think about an entrepreneurial and creative society. You can take a very linear approach to that. Well, you know, IRAP (NRC's Industrial Research Assistance Program) provides financial support for companies to hire students. So that's encouraging a creative and entrepreneurial society. But also think about the NRC as a collection of researchers and facilities and large-scale projects with industrial clients, with ITAs (industrial technology advisors), and ask yourself, how could we use the NRC as a system to do ... a rotational program with students who are post-docs, where they come in and they work in their disciplinary area, but they also work on a large project, and they learn how (to) manage a large-scale, long-term project like we do, and maybe they spend time with an ITA going and visiting that ITA's SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise) clients," says Stewart.

"If we set up a rotational program like that ... it's creating an entrepreneurial society. That post-grad, that student, will come out of this experience and have a bit of a sense of how we do a business plan if we're an SME because they were involved with an ITA in going through that. How do we do a technology plan? How do we scale something? How do we move it up the technology readiness level?"

If a systematic program for engaging students and post docs becomes a reality, Stewart sees more time, effort and money devoted to students and post docs in the spirit of la relève, the federal government's strategy for civil service renewal. The program is intended to build capacity and address issues of diminished morale, job satisfaction and motivation.

The NRC has been traditionally a location of choice for students, post docs, research fellows and interchanges but placements have declined in recent years. Stewart sees a renewal effort as good for its research community.

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