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           By Henry Stewart Mona Nemer. Photo c/o Gov't of Canada . On the one hand, very few government employees have ever written reports indicating that their tasks have been accomplished and its time to retire back to the private sector or academia. On the other hand, Federal government chief science adviser Dr. Mona Nemer has really only held her position for a little over a year and its certainly fair to give a bit more time before expecting to receive a full public accounting of her actions and usefulness. On Monday, the Federal government released its first " Annual Report of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada ," the science advisory's first attempt to to self-assess its successes and accomplishments. According to its summary, the report " outlines the major activities of the Office of the Chief Science Advisor for Canada over the course of its first full year ." These activities included, " developing the Model Policy on Scientific Integrit...

           By  Chuck Black The US is wrapping up one of the most consequential US midterm elections on record and the aftershocks are expected to reverberate even across the space industry, at least according to the November 2nd, 2018 issue of " POLITICO Space ," the weekly online " must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the second space age. " This blog will be covering the US elections on Tuesday November 6th, 2018 from the main barstool of the Toronto ON based Madison Avenue Pub , which will be hosting several hundred expatriate US citizens who will be watching the activities on the major networks from a dozen or so strategically placed televisions throughout the bar. As for POLITICO, they say that the new year is " shaping up to be a spaceflight turning point " and the politicians, democrats and republicans, are looking to leverage their positions to influence policy. Issues include: The eventual status of the proposed US " S...

           By  Chuck Black While many of the public and private movers and shakers of the Canadian space industry are spending the week at the 2018  International Astronautical Congress (IAC2018) which is being held from October 1st - 5th in Bremen Germany, other Canadian scientists are working to organize their first " Day on the Hill, " which will take place during the 2018 Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC2018) in Ottawa from November 7th - 9th. This is probably a good thing given that the Ottawa ON based  Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the Canadian union representing Federal and provincially funded scientists (including those working at the Canadian Space Agency), has just come out with a press release announcing that " overall funding for federal government science is in fact lower today than it was under the Harper government, in particular for research and development. " As outlined in the...

Although the private sector contributes the majority of domestic research and development funding for Canada's aerospace sector, government funding in this area is often tied to academia through research grants. From " The Relationship Diremption ," the twentieth episode of the seventh season of the American sitcom " The Big Bang Theory ," which often makes interesting observations on the motivations of scientists and academics. This episode originally aired on Thursday, April 10th, 2014. Graphic c/o Big Bang Theory Wiki . It's worth noting that, while overall academic R&D funding was boosted substancially in the 2018 Federal budget, funding for the hard sciences may be drying-up over the next few years, due to increased political concerns over its usefulness to the domestic economy.   After all, with up to half of all graduating space scientists and aerospace engineers needing to leave the country to find their first job after graduation,  there is some...

         By Henry Stewart The Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC), in an effort to build on its successful campaign to increase Federal government science funding and in partnership with the Office of the Chief Science Advisor of Canada , has rolled out a pilot program offering scientists and engineers from various disciplines a chance to  "develop an understanding of the parliamentary process. " CSPC is looking for sponsors for its " Science Meets Parliment " program, primarily from academic institutions. To learn more, please check out the  Partnership Prospectus . Graphic c/o CSPC . It's a useful activity which members of Canada's space community, stung by the recent failure of the Federally mandated Space Advisory Board (SAB) to increase Federal funding for private and public sector space activities, would do well to emulate. As outlined in the July 9th, 2018 CSPC press release, " CSPC in Partnership with Chief Science Advisor Present...