What's new at ICI Canada?
Some updates for this month:
This month we kicked off our two student projects in collaboration with Carleton University and Algonquin College. Between these projects, we are excited to engage 9 final-year bachelor's students from highly interdisciplinary and cutting edge programs in ICI's activities.
In other news, ICI Member and Digital Strategist, Max Peacock, re-located to Tallinn, Estonia to begin studying his master's in Technology Governance and Sustainability. You can read more about his adventures and insights learned over there in our new biweekly blog series: TalTech Thursdays.
We're advancing on several of our key initiatives:
We're making progress on a number of fronts: 1) We're beginning to engage the next generation through capstone academic work at both Carleton University and Algonquin College and should have this collaboration confirmed within a few weeks. 2) We're continuing our experiments with the application of generative AI for a number of pieces of analysis with great success. 3) We continue to advance our work on the CSPC presentation for Fall 2024. 4) We're also exploring how to visualize the findings of our AI-driven analysis to communicate these insights more effectively. Whew!
Internal discussions to date in June, have focused on the roles of key sectors within the STI ecosystem including the roles of governments, businesses, academics, households and global market sectors. This work continues, and will be shared with all members shortly.
We have been experimenting with a customized verion of GPT-4o for use by ICI Members to drive STI-related systems innovation. This model aims to enhance our member's analytical capabilities and provide deeper, holistic insights in the STI ecosystem.
Canada's Budget 2024 (April 16th) announced the intention to develop a new "National Science and Innovation Strategy," with further details to be provided in the Fall Update. ICI Canada will contribute to this federal initiative.
We introduced ICI Canada's mission and the Canada Innovates Project at several national conferences, includuing Research Money (April 23, 24), Social Innovation Canada (April 26), and CSPC: Decoding the Federal Budget (May 1).
A brainstorming session with 3 outside experts was held on April 29th and an initial schema conceptualizing the STI ecosystem in a productivity framework was produced called the Polycrisis, Productivity, and Innovation (PPI) Framework.
A pivotal roundtable with 25 STI experts was held to review the Canada Innovates Project synopsis on March 27th. The insights gathered culminated in the "Aspen Protocol," which provides strategic advice on advancing the CIP.
In February, we compiled a list of key STI terms, stakeholder roles, and key questions that will provide a common language to guide ICI's ongoing activities to examine Canada's STI performance, and measures to improve it.
We began the year by establishing the Institute for Collaborative Innovation (ICI Canada), creating a corresponding website for members, and then quickly developing a project rationale and synopsis for ICI's "keystone project", the Canada Innovates Project, led by Member, Robert Walker.
This project aims to chart a strategic future for Canada's STI ecosystem, positioning it as a national asset capable of adapting Canada to the evolving polycrisis. Robert and Dan Wayner developed a proposal for a national panel discussion on the issue, that has been accepted for presentation at CSPC's national conferences in the Fall. The panel is called "The global polycrisis: Is Canada ready?" Work on the panel themes and discussions is underway.
We're advancing on several of our key initiatives: