Complete Report, FINAL

The founding members of the Council of Canadian Academies are: RSC: The Academy of the Arts, Sciences and Humanities of Canada, is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists, scholars and artists. [...] The concept is inherently multidimensional and encompasses (a) the quality of science and technology in Canada; (b) the magnitude or intensity of the Canadian effort in various domains of S&T; (c) the trend of the foregoing factors (are we gaining or losing ground?); and (d) the extent to which our S&T capabilities can be applied effectively to achieve social and economic objectives. [...] It encompasses the traditional disciplines in the natural sciences — the study of nature; the social sciences, humanities and health sciences — the study of human beings; and engineering — the creation and study of artifacts and systems. [...] It is helpful to think of S&T capacity in three parts: (i) competence in the foundation disciplines of science and the core technologies; (ii) the ability to develop and participate in new combinations of disciplines and to create related new technologies; and (iii) the ability to reach beyond the horizon and conduct research in potentially important fields where the disciplines are yet undefined. [...] The concept is inherently multidimensional and encompasses (a) the quality of science and technology in Canada; (b) the magnitude or intensity of the Canadian effort in various domains of S&T; (c) the trend of the foregoing factors (are we gaining or losing ground?); and (d) the extent to which our S&T capabilities can be applied effectively to achieve social and economic objectives.