IS THE CANADIAN EARTH SCIENCE COMMUNITY FAILING THE CRITICAL RELEVANCY TEST?

Our record over the last several years supports the title’s contention. If relevance is measured by our communities ability to secure new funding, whether direct from federal and provincial survey allocations, or from the granting agencies ( eg. NSERC etc.), then we are indeed failing. Examples abound--- “Earth Sciences Fail in NSERC Reallocation” ; CFI declines funding Canada’s contribution to the ODP. At the federal level, Earth Sciences Sector (ESS of Natural Resources Canada) funding has remained relatively stable. Overall, any increased federal S&T spending has been through external allocations to non-government labs. That we are failing is remarkable given that a large part of Canada’s social and economic fabric has been stitched together through access to cheap and abundant natural resources. We are all capable of a passionate defense of the relevancy of our profession and how natural resource usage impacts our daily lives in a myriad of ways. So why is there, and what is the problem? And what can be done to address it? What are other nations doing to address similar barriers? These issues provide the context for the strategic direction ESS has adopted that is fundamentally different to that taken in the previous century or more of its existence. This is not to say that the approaches taken in the past were not appropriate for their times and technologies. In essence, the organization is going from one that was largely driven by capacity (This is what and how we do things, take the product, it’s important for the nation) to one that asks first---what are the major issues facing Canadian society and what role, if any, can ESS play to significantly impact or influence solutions?; as the basis for S&T prioritization and decision making. In the past, we have passively pointed out the real and potential impact of our contributions, the new, results based approach will put in place strategies, often non-geoscientific, that will strive to make the impacts happen. As an example, a new initiative—Consolidating Canada’s Geoscience Knowledge will be outlined that is designed to address key Sustainable Development issues. Ultimately, we believe that the successful arguments for increased funding has to be founded upon strong socio-economic and environmental analyses that can link geoscience investments to Canada’s quality of life.