National Research Council of Canada

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NRC logo

The National Research Council Canada (NRC) is Canada's leading organization for scientific research and development. NRC was established in 1916, mainly to advise the government. Then, in the early 1930s, laboratories were built in Ottawa. NRC grew rapidly during World War II, then played a major role during the explosion of basic and applied science and engineering research between 1945-65. NRC personnel invented the artificial pacemaker, developed canola (rapeseed) (1940s), the Crash Position Indicator (1950s) and the Cesium Beam atomic clock (1960s). 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, and their research has influenced speaker designs around the world.

NRC now focuses on developing partnerships with private and public-sector technology companies, both in Canada and elsewhere.

The TRIUMF laboratory at University of British Columbia was partly funded by the NRC.

Specialized agencies and services which have grown out of the National Research Council of Canada include:

1 Planning and reporting
2 Employment
3 Governance
4 Cold War
5 Institutes
6 See also
7 External links
- 7.1 NRC and Its Institutes
- 7.2 Other

[edit] Planning and reporting

The NRC reports yearly within the Treasury Board Secretariat's Results-Based Management Framework. The most recent Departmental Performance Report (DPR) is 2003-2004. The NRC is currently guided by a strategic plan for 2006-2011: Science at Work for Canada [1].

[edit] Employment

Plaque on the main NRC building in Ottawa.

The National Research Council employs close to 4,000 people across Canada. [2]

[edit] Governance

The NRC is governed by a governing council. Current members of the council are: Patricia Béretta, Louis Brunel, Pierre Coulombe (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, Katherine Schultz, Barbara Stanley, Howard Tennant, Jean-Claude Villiard, and Louis Visentin.

[edit] Cold War

According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service website, the NRC headquarters in Ottawa "was a prime espionage target" during the Cold War. [3]

[edit] Institutes

The NRC is composed of over 20 institutes, including

The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), Canada's National Science Library
The Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (HIA)
The Institute for Information Technology (IIT)
The National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT)
The Institute for Biological Sciences (IBS)