Seeking independence from U.S., Canadian Space Agency renews ties with European counterpart
The European and Canadian Space Agencies renew a communal declaration of collaboration every 10 years, but this time the renewal is taking on special significance.
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CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
‘A very simple idea' might make a big difference for stroke patients
A research team at LHSC and Western University has found a new way to identify blood clots which cause strokes. Dr. Luciano Sposato admits that a simple change in procedure may have a significant impact on stroke patients. His research team at London Health Sciences Centre and Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry has found a new way to identify blood clots responsible for strokes. When a stroke patient arrives at the hospital, time is of the utmost critical. Sposato states a CT scan of the brain is often underway within 10 minutes to determine underlying causes. Frequently a cause is never found, making it difficult to predict future strokes. In 2023, researchers began to wonder if expanding scans further down the body might make a difference. 'We always suspected that clots came from the heart. So, we said, why don't we just go a little bit lower with the acquisition of the images and see if the clots were there?' said Sposato. It turned out they often were. An eight-month study found that clots were hiding in the hearts of a large number of patients. 'We know exactly like that we can increase the detection of parts of the heart by 500%, and we would only need to scan 14 patients to find one clot. So, it is a very high-yield type of detection study,' said Sposato. While the implantation phase of the study will soon begin, policies will take time to change. Sposato told CTV News the research has attracted interest from the US, Europe and Asia. He is hopeful that, in time, it will make a significant difference towards preventing future medical events. 'By preventing future strokes, people will not be as disabled as they might have been, and we can also prevent dementia by reducing brain damage, that 10 years later could cause dementia in these patients as well,' Sposato said.
Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada should invest in its research talent pipeline, says Canadian Institute For Advanced Research president
Stephen Toope, president of the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research, is a former vice-chancellor of Cambridge University and president of the University of British Columbia. He spoke to The Globe and Mail about the role of CIFAR, which brings people together from a range of disciplines to consider problems on the horizons of research, as a builder of scientific all-star teams. Dr. Toope also discussed the state of research in Canada and the U.S., as President Donald Trump has slashed billions in research funds and attacked several of the most prominent American universities, including Harvard. Q: What do you make of what has been happening between the U.S. government and Harvard? A: It's appalling. And it's not just about Harvard. Billions of dollars of research funding have been removed, arbitrarily, from a whole range of different universities, always for slightly different reasons that don't meet the desires of the U.S. administration. Q: You were invited to Ottawa for the Throne Speech. What are you hearing from the Government of Canada about its plans for research? A: There was a brief mention of research and innovation, rather high level, which was 'to build Canada into the world's leading hub for science and innovation.' That's great. We've also seen the decision to have a minister for artificial intelligence, which suggests a comfort level with trying to deploy new technologies. The proof will be in the pudding. Canada has some catch-up to play here. We have great strengths. We have a lot of solid and sometimes excellent universities. A lot of work needs to be done to make sure that our own ecosystem is strong and supporting research at an adequate level. Q: What does CIFAR do? We create networks of the very top people in the world who are interested in particular subjects. We bring them together across disciplines to try to unlock new approaches, new ideas, that are going to shape the future of research for decades to come. We're focused on some of the hardest questions facing science and humanity in the longer term. We draw the people who are in CIFAR networks from the university world – you might think of them as the all-star team – to work on these really tough questions. Q: How do you do manage an all-star team, and what are the challenges that come with it? The first thing is to conceptualize where we should be expending our resources and what kinds of networks should we bring together. Looking at the horizon and trying to figure out what are the really difficult questions that CIFAR should be looking at now, because they're going to play out importantly in the world over the next 20 to 50 years. That's job one. Job two is talent identification, making sure that we are well connected around the world, so that we know who's doing really exciting work and who has the impulse to work across disciplines collaboratively. Q: Can the world make up for the money being pulled out of U.S. research? No, that's a really important point to make. There's been some talk about how the universities will use some of their endowments, or the foundation world will step up. All of that money is a drop in the bucket, honestly, in relation to what has historically been the U.S. research endeavour. Q: What should Canada be doing in response? What do you think is a wise way to invest? I would start by analyzing where we are before we start inviting lots of new people into the system. Are we actually funding our research at the level that is necessary for a country with an advanced economy? I'm sad to say, I think the answer is no. There was a modest bump up in research funding in the last federal budget of the previous government, but we're still really not operating at the same level of support that many other countries are. We've got to analyze where we should be making core investments to ensure that our whole ecosystem is strong. If we do that, we could then think about some targeted investment to bring in new talent. If I were going to target the investment, I would say early- to mid-career researchers. I wouldn't be going after just two or three big names. Q: Why do you say early-career is better than an established star? Because you've got a longer runway if you can identify truly rising stars, and we've been good at that at CIFAR. If the government could think about a program designed to do that, then you've got people who are more likely to stay. If you invest in a person who's really very far advanced in their career, and then everything switches back with a new government in the U.S., it may be hard to hold on to those people. Q: Tell me about this year's Azrieli scholars, whose names were announced last month? This program is celebrating its 10th anniversary, and it's designed to identify really outstanding young researchers. What we're trying to do is wrap them around with support. So there's financial support to conduct their research, but more importantly there's skills support. How do you set up a lab effectively? How do you manage people? How do you establish priorities and stick with them? We encourage them to be bold, to work across disciplines and to be really ambitious. There are a number of published studies to indicate that despite all of the investment in science, we're actually getting results which are more and more incremental. We want to make sure that the next generation is encouraged to go for the breakthroughs. So we try to identify people from anywhere on the planet, and what they have in common is an aspiration to work across disciplines and a real, bold sensibility. Q: How do you know what a 'bold sensibility' looks like? It's usually around the ambition of the questions they're asking. One of the things CIFAR has been good at historically is pushing people to ask hard questions. Our very first program, 43 years ago, was artificial intelligence, robotics and society. That's pretty darn good in terms of foresight. We're trying to look for people who have that kind of questioning mind. They see an opportunity or challenge that other people haven't noticed yet. This interview has been edited and condensed.
CTV News
9 hours ago
- CTV News
University of Calgary celebrates 75 years of field research, history in Kananaskis Country
A sign marking the entrance to Kananaskis Country in Canmore, Alta., Monday, April 24, 2023. Covering an area of approximately 4,000 km Kananaskis Country was formed by the Alberta Government in 1978 to provide an assortment of land uses. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh KANANASKIS COUNTRY – Eighty kilometres west of Calgary, in the heart of eastern Kananaskis Country, is a remote field research station. What began in 1950 as a couple tents pitched near Sheep River, serving as a base for trout research, is now the Research Base (RB) Miller Station – an internationally known research base that marks the earliest beginnings of the University of Calgary. 'The historians of this university decided to trace back our roots to the creation of that field station. There is something kind of cool to me as a field station person, as an ecologist that [RB Miller] is viewed as the birth of what would then become the UofC,' said Dr. Steven Vamosi, director of the University of Calgary's Biogeoscience Institute. Fast forward 75 years, RB Miller and the Barrier Lake Field Station – built in 1967 – make up the only two field research stations in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Operated under the umbrella of the UofC's Biogeoscience Institute (BGI), the research institute is celebrating decades of scientific discovery, mountain research, learning and teaching in K-Country dating back to May 1950. As a research-only facility, the RB Miller station is known as a prime location for the study of large and small mammals, according to Vamosi. The most recent studies out of the station have looked at the behaviours of bighorn sheep and Columbian ground squirrels in the area. As long-term research projects become increasingly uncommon, according to Vamosi, the station's reach goes beyond the Kananaskis Valley, drawing researchers from across Canada and internationally to take part in both short- and long-term projects, some of which have spanned decades. 'We have a really broad reach,' said Vamosi. 'Most of our field courses are based out of Alberta and Saskatchewan, but we also bring in people from Germany, Ontario [and] groups from the States, so it really is an internationally used and recognized facility and program.' University of Calgary celebrates 75 years of field research, history in Kananaskis Country The hiking trail on Yamnuska in Alberta's Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park, part of Kananaskis Country, is shown in June 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colette Derworiz (Colette Derworiz/The Canadian Press) Bighorn sheep research out of RB Miller is one of these decade-long projects. With studies dating back to the 50s and continuing today, according to Dr. Kathreen Ruckstuhl, UofC professor and researcher. From humble beginnings in the '50s, BGI has increased focus on environmental science research over the years while also supporting scientific literacy in the broader community. Research still a primary focus, the Barrier Lake Station also functions as a base for education, giving school groups and undergraduate students what is often their first glimpse into mountain research. 'You can take an ecology degree at the UofC and the two weeks you spend at the field station might be one of the only times in those four years that you're really on the land interacting with organisms, plants, animals [and] ID-ing them, hearing their calls, figuring out how you might trap them … so that's really important,' said Vamosi. Along with post-secondary courses, field study programs for junior high and high school students have been offered at the Barrier Lake Station for close to 40 years, giving students access to hands-on experiences while teaching them about surrounding mountain ecosystems. 'The site is really inspiring to young students who maybe this is their first time out doing a little bit of field work or experiencing field work and just connecting them with the natural world. It doesn't have to be in science [but] whatever topic that they're exploring,' said Adrienne Cunnings, field research manager at BGI. The Barrier Lake station has also formed partnerships with several non-profits like The Howl Experience and The Resilience Institute over the years, facilitating programs for young people, climate research and integrating Indigenous ways of knowing in education. Eesha Haris Eesha Haris, left, uses her phone to photograph Upper Kananaskis Lake while attending the Rockies Journey camp run by Howl in Kananaskis, Monday, July 3, 2023. Howl is a nonprofit organization offering unique learning experiences across Canada for youth who don't know what comes next in life. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press) While normally closed to the public, the BGI is opening several walking paths to visitors at the Barrier Lake Station this summer with the introduction of two guided walking tours, according to Cunnings. The first, a scientific walking tour, takes visitors through ongoing research projects conducted out of the station. The second is a historical tour of the area, highlighting the Barrier Lake site's history as a prisoner of war camp during the second World War. The app-guided walking tours will be open to the public as of July 1. By: Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Rocky Mountain Outlook The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
