Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to speak with you today about the National Research Council of Canada. My name is Dr. Shannon Quinn, and I am the Secretary General for the NRC. I am joined by my colleague, Dr. Joel Martin, our Chief Science Officer, and Chief Digital Research Officer.
I would like to start by acknowledging that the research activities the National Research Council undertakes take place all across Canada on the unceded, shared, current and traditional territories of the first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. We acknowledge and respect the peoples who were on these lands before us and the privilege we have to do our work on them.
The NRC is Canada's federal research and development organization. We conduct our activities in 24 locations across 10 provinces. Our scientists, engineers and business people work with universities, colleges and Canadian industry to advance research and technology and to move technology from the lab to the marketplace. We serve a unique role in connecting the diverse parts of Canada's science ecosystem. We use our research assets to respond to public policy priorities and create opportunities for Canadian businesses, and for Canadians as a whole. In 2021-22, the NRC labs worked with over 1,000 R and D clients. Through NRC IRAP, we've worked with over 9,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.
Today, the NRC is in a period of very exciting change. As we speak, we're preparing to transition NRC IRAP over to the new Canada Innovation Corporation to create even more opportunities for business innovation in Canada. At the same time, the NRC labs are undertaking a significant capital modernization that will provide researchers across the entire Canadian research ecosystem with access to the kind of modern facilities they need to do their work. This includes providing access to graduate and post-doctoral students.
As a research institution, the NRC is a partner to industry and academia. As an important part of our role in this ecosystem, we seek to provide opportunities for students and early career researchers. That said, I would like to emphasize that we are not funders of external graduate opportunities in the same way our colleagues in the granting councils are. Rather, the NRC works to provide students and early career researchers with important employment opportunities and experience working in our labs and facilities alongside our expert researchers.
In 2017, the NRC created a post-doctoral fellowship program to complement our early career research opportunities. By 2021-22, this provided valuable hands-on research training to 31 post-doctoral fellows. More broadly, in 2021-22, the NRC hired more than 400 students, ranging from co-op to doctorate levels.
Our goal is not to keep all of these researchers in house, but rather to train them and send them out into the broader ecosystem so they may contribute to the research happening in our industries and in academia. To illustrate this point is one specific example: Canada's most recent Nobel laureate, Dr. Donna Strickland, was herself a student at the NRC in her early career. She was a summer student, then subsequently a post-doctoral fellow at the NRC. She then went on to an outstanding career in academia.
Also of note, NRC IRAP has participated in the youth employment and skills strategy since its inception in 1997. YESS has provided thousands of job opportunities throughout Canada, across a wide range of sectors. This is good for the small and medium-sized enterprises, for the students and for the Canadian innovation sector in general.
In conclusion, as the Government of Canada’s largest research organization, the NRC is aware of its responsibility to continue the ongoing work of knowledge transfer. In doing so, we are nurturing the development of the highly-qualified personnel needed for Canada’s future success.
Thank you for your time.
Dr. Martin and I would be pleased to answer any questions.