Alerting Canadians: The scope and use of policy research by the Science Council of Canada

Abstract

The Science Council of Canada functions on an independent, nonpartisan basis, and has a mandate to assess Canada's scientific and technological resources, requirements and potential, and to increase the public's awareness of scientific and technological issues. This paper differentiates the use of policy research by the Council, drawing upon examples based largely on anecdotal and unsolicited evidence. Examples reveal that uses extend well beyond simply the making and ultimate form of public policy. The process of policy research is often as important as the product. The report provides examples of the impact and use of the Council's policy research in many thematic areas, including science education, energy, and industrial policy, and emerging science and technology. Observers who focus primarily upon the substantive impact of policy research on legislation miss its much broader impact and uses elsewhere, particularly within the policy-making process, in discretionary decision-making by public servants, in helping to set the policy agenda, in influencing attitudes and behavior, and in sharpening debate on major science and technology issues.