I will call to order the 42nd meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.
We have a very short time here with a number of very distinguished guests. We have an hour for our first panel.
This is our national study on the state of science and technology across Canada, part of our western tour. We were in Winnipeg first, on Tuesday, and then in Saskatoon yesterday. Now we're in lovely Vancouver. We had excellent visits this morning to TRIUMF and the NRC's fuel cell institute.
We have two panels here this afternoon. For the first panel, we have representatives of four different organizations.
From the British Columbia Innovation Council, we have Mr. Soren Harbel, vice-president, innovation development. He's on his way, I understand.
Second, we have the British Columbia Institute of Technology, with Mr. James Watzke, dean, applied research, and director, technology centre.
The third organization is Simon Fraser University. The representatives are on their way as well.
Fourth, we have the University of British Columbia, where we were this morning. We have the associate vice-president for research, Mr. Donald Brooks. Welcome. And we have Mr. Angus Livingstone, managing director.
We are now being joined by the representative from Simon Fraser University, Mr. Michael Volker, who is director of the university-industry liaison office.
We have 60 minutes in total. I think you'll find that the discussion with members is a very productive part of the session. We'd like to have 40 minutes for discussion with members, with questions and answers, so we will allow up to five minutes for opening statements.
We will start with the British Columbia Institute of Technology.