Thank you, Madam Chair, for an intriguing question.
You're asking what I would advise the science adviser of the day. As I look back, what I see is that when I was a young researcher, science and technology moved much more slowly than they do today. They are accelerating at a pace that means we must continue to build this bridge between understanding what is happening at the frontiers of science, which is carried out mostly in an academic environment, and the current and emerging needs of Canadian industry. We can and should continue to play that bridge.
If Canada is going to have, for example, a quantum industry, and if the NRC is going to play that role, we must be involved in the science and quantum science at one side, and we must also be able to work collectively and directly with companies that have the potential to adopt and commercialize those products. We do that, not just through our own R and D, but also with the help of our IRAP group, which provides both support for innovation and business advice to Canada's SME communities.