National Research Council (Canada)

National Research Council
Conseil national de recherches Canada
Agency overview
Formed	1916
Jurisdiction	Government of Canada
Headquarters	Ottawa, Ontario
Employees	4,100
Minister responsible	Tony Clement, Minister of Industry
Agency executive	Mr. John McDougall, President
Website
www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

The National Research Council (NRC) is an agency of the Government of Canada which conducts scientific research and development.

History

The NRC was established in 1916 under the pressure of World War I to advise the government on matters of science and industrial research. In 1932, laboratories were built on Sussex Drive in Ottawa.

With the impetus of World War II, the NRC grew rapidly and for all practical purposes became a military science and weapons research organization. It undertook a number of important projects, which included participation with the United States and United Kingdom in the development of chemical and germ warfare agents, the explosive RDX, the proximity fuse, radar, and submarine detection techniques. A special branch known as the Examination Unit was involved with cryptology and the interception of enemy radio communications. The NRC was also engaged in atomic fission research at the Montreal Laboratory, then the Chalk River Laboratories Ontario.

Post-WWII, the NRC reverted to its pre-war civilian role and a number of wartime activities were spun off to newly formed organizations. Military research continued under a new organization, the Defence Research Board. Atomic research went to the newly created Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. Foreign signal intelligence gathering was passed on to the newly created Communications Research Establishment. During the 1950s, the medical research funding activities of the NRC were handed over to the newly formed Medical Research Council of Canada. Finally, on May 1, 1978, with the rapid post-war growth of Canadian universities the NRC's role in university research funding in the natural sciences was passed to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Under financial pressure in the 1980s, the federal government produced what popularly became known as the Neilson Report, which recommended across-the-board financial cuts to all federal government organizations, including the NRC. This led to staff and program cutbacks. Recovery was slow, but the NRC has managed to regain its status as Canada's single most important scientific and engineering research institution among many other Canadian government scientific research organizations.^{[citation needed]}

Today, much of the NRC's focus is on developing partnerships with private and public-sector technology companies, both nationally and internationally. The Council will be celebrating its centenary in 2016.

Product innovations

Some of the many innovations by NRC personnel included the artificial pacemaker, development of canola (rapeseed) in the 1940s, the Crash Position Indicator in the 1950s, and the Cesium Beam atomic clock in the 1960s.

The NRC played a key role in the birth of computer animation, working with the National Film Board of Canada and animator Peter Foldès on the 1971 experimental film Metadata and the 1974 short film Hunger.^[1][2]

More recently, the NRC has been highly influential in the field of audio. A great deal of research at the NRC has gone into the designs of many popular speakers from Canadian speaker manufacturers like Energy Loudspeakers and Paradigm Electronics. Some of their research has also influenced speaker designs around the world.

At National Research Council - Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) an ongoing research study on solid-state lighting is investigating this promising lighting technology and its effects on human beings ^[3]

Agencies with special relationships with the NRC

Specialized agencies and services which have branched out of the NRC include:

• Canadian Space Agency
• Defence Research Board
• Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Communications Security Establishment
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Planning and reporting

The NRC reports yearly within the Treasury Board Secretariat's Results-Based Management Framework. The NRC is currently guided by a strategic plan for 2006-2011: Science at Work for Canada.^[4]

Employment

Close to 4,000 people across Canada are employed by the NRC. In addition, the Council also employs guest workers from universities, companies, and public and private-sector organizations. [1]

Governance

An inscription at the front entrance of the NRC Sussex Drive Research Facility in Ottawa.

A radiant heat panel for precision testing of quantified energy exposures at the Institute for Research in Construction of the NRC, near Ottawa.

A fire house at the Institute for Research in Construction, used to provide information to aid building code and fire code development in Canada.

The NRC is managed by a governing council. Current members of the council are: Patricia Béretta, Louis Brunel, John McDougall (President and Chairman), Delwyn Fredlund, Wayne Gulliver, James Hatton, Joseph Hubert, Pascale Michaud, Gilles Patry, Alan Pelman, Louise Proulx, René Racine, Salma Rajwani, Inge Russell, Barbara Stanley, Howard Tennant, Jean-Claude Villiard, and Louis Visentin.

Cold War

According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service website, the NRC headquarters in Ottawa "was a prime espionage target" during the Cold War.^[5]

Institutes

Scientific Research

• Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (NRC-HIA) - Penticton and Victoria, BC
• Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences (NRC-SIMS) - Ottawa and Chalk River, ON
• Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (NRC-SIMS) - Chalk River, ON
• National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) - Edmonton, AB
• Institute for National Measurement Standards (NRC-INMS) - Ottawa, ON
• Institute for Biological Sciences (NRC-IBS) - Ottawa, ON
• Biotechnology Research Institute (NRC-BRI) - Montreal, QC
• Institute for Biodiagnostics (NRC-IBD) - Winnipeg, MB; Calgary, AB; Halifax, NS
• Plant Biotechnology Institute (NRC-PBI) - Saskatoon, SK
• Institute for Marine Biosciences (NRC-IMB) - Halifax, NS
• Institute for Nutrisciences and Health (NRC-INH) - Charlottetown, PEI

Engineering Research

• Institute for Aerospace Research (NRC-IAR) - Ottawa, ON; Montreal, QC
• Centre for Surface Transportation Technology (NRC-CSTT) - Ottawa, ON; Vancouver, BC
• Canadian Hydraulics Centre (NRC-CHC) - Ottawa, ON
• Institute for Ocean Technology (NRC-IOT) - St. John's, NL
• Institute for Microstructural Sciences (NRC-IMS) - Ottawa, ON
• Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI) - Boucherville, QC; London, ON; Saguenay (Chicoutimi), QC
• Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology (NRC-ICPET) - Ottawa, ON
• Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (NRC-IFCI) - Vancouver, BC
• Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT) - Ottawa, ON; Gatineau, QC; Fredericton and Moncton, NB
• Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) - Ottawa, ON; London, ON; Regina, SK (Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure Research)

Support Institutes

• Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI), Canada's National Science Library - Ottawa, ON
• Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) - Ottawa, ON; and across Canada

NRC Aerospace Fleet

The NRC has a fleet of aircraft for their research purposes:^[6]

• Bell 412 Advanced Systems Research Aircraft
• Bell 205 airborne simulator
• Convair 580 - for atmospheric testing
• Falcon 20 - aerospace and geoscience testing
• Twin Otter - atmospheric and biospheric studies, and for flight mechanics and flight systems development
• Harvard 4 - trainer and experimental platform for avionics research [2]
• Canadair T-33 - flight training
• Extra 300 - studying pilot perception in a dynamic environment

See also

• National Research Council Time Signal
• Canadian government scientific research organizations
• Canadian university scientific research organizations
• Canadian industrial research and development organizations
• List of presidents of the National Research Council of Canada
• Science and technology in Canada
• sanofi-aventis international BioGENEius Challenge
• Herbert Yardley - American cryptologist who help establish the Examination Unit in 1941

References

1. ^ "Metadata". Collection. National Film Board of Canada. http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=10954. Retrieved 12 January 2010. 
2. ^ "Retired NRC Scientists Burtnyk and Wein honoured as Fathers of Computer Animation Technology in Canada". Sphere (National Research Council of Canada) 4. 1996. http://www.ieee.ca/millennium/computer_animation/animation_honoured.html. 
3. ^ "Light Up Tomorrow's Office". http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/news/nrc/2009/12/07/led-technology.html. Retrieved 21 September 2011. 
4. ^ A Strategy for the National Research Council 2006 – 2011, Science at Work For Canada, National Research Council Canada
5. ^ "The National Research Council headquarters in Ottawa". Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20070609061150/http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/en/about_us/history_artifacts/artifacts/art_intro_004.asp. Retrieved 2009-06-18. 
6. ^ NRC Flight Research Centre

External links

NRC and Its Institutes

• National Research Council Canada Main Page
• Electronic magazine of the National Research Council - Dimensions
• NRC-Institute for Research in Construction
• NRC-Institute for National Measurement Standards
• NRC-Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT)
• The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) including NRC Research Press
• NRC-Institute for Biological Sciences (NRC-IBS)
• NRC-Institute for Biodiagnostics (NRC-IBD)
• NRC-Institute for Ocean Technology (NRC-IOT)
• NRC Careers - Employment Equity
• The NRC Aerodynamics Laboratory, which includes several wind tunnel testing facilities
• The NRC Centre for Surface Transportation Technology

Other

• DPR 2003-2004 - National Research Council Canada
• NRC Associate Committee on Scientific Criteria for Environmental Quality - Environmental Fluoride 1977
• TRIUMF - Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics
• Collaboration between NRC & Canada Council for the Arts
• National Ultrahigh Field NMR Facility for Solids

Coordinates: 45°26′46″N 75°37′01″W / 45.44623°N 75.61698°W / 45.44623; -75.61698