Science and Research committee  The NSERC alliance program is the main vehicle for partnerships between Canadian researchers and companies. There are other partners on those grants as well, but it's largely partnerships with companies. The funding goes to the researcher in each case, not to the company. It was the first program that enacted the current guidelines on research partnerships.

Science and Research committee  The way it works is if NSERC identifies a potential risk, that information is provided to the Department of Public Safety. The Department of Public Safety then either conducts its internal assessment or, if it feels it needs more specific security analysis and depending on the nature of the issue, it would go either to CSIS or to the Communications Security Establishment if it's sort of signals-related information.

Science and Research committee  There's a broader dialogue on security threats that goes through the security agencies themselves. In our case, we're involved in a number of dialogues with both the Five Eyes and the G7, for example, on research security specific issues. There is a Five Eyes table. There's a G7 table, which we co-chair with the U.K., on research integrity and research security, to make sure that there's a consistency of approaches to the extent it's possible, and a sharing of information and best practices.

Science and Research committee  We have a dialogue with the provinces at the officials level to talk about our policies and how they do or don't align currently with the provinces, with the intention of trying to make them align as much as possible. There is also the institutional layer. At the institutional level, we have a working group with universities.

Science and Research committee  I'd like to comment. When you talk about patents specifically, it's important to appreciate that the time between the research activity and the filing of the patent can be quite long. I don't know the specifics of these cases, but in some cases you could be talking about research that was done 10 years ago that's resulting in patents today.

Science and Research committee  Mr. Chair, could I just make a quick comment?

Science and Research committee  As far as the federal government is concerned, there is no mandatory training, but some universities use our tools and online courses to develop mandatory training for professors and researchers.

Science and Research committee  There has been communication with his counterparts about the policy. He has sent out communication to them. We've also had meetings at the officials level to discuss how we can ensure alignment of policies across the federal and provincial governments.

Science and Research committee  He's called upon them to respond in kind, yes.

Science and Research committee  He's pointed to the federal policy and said that provinces should move forward with similar actions.

Science and Research committee  It varies by jurisdiction.

Science and Research committee  We could give you a report on what they're doing.

Science and Research committee  To your more general point about the reach of our actions, I think it's true that there is a lot of research that goes on that isn't funded through federal grants. The prohibitions on federal grants do solve some of the problem. They also send a very clear signal to the research community on where the security concerns are, but we also have, as the minister mentioned, the research security centre, and the funding we've provided institutions has allowed a lot of institutions to actually hire a director of research security so that there's a natural point of contact between the security agencies that can help to identify risks and someone who is responsible for managing those risks at institutions.

Science and Research committee  It works both ways. I wouldn't call it oversight, because there's not a jurisdictional kind of accountability. If there's a security threat, the security agencies would act on that threat. If there is a concern about risks, there would be a discussion. There would be information shared with institutions where appropriate—where it doesn't compromise our security interests—but it is also about developing a relationship with institutions where, as they have questions or concerns, they have a place to go, a trusted source of expertise and advice they can use to better mitigate risks on their campuses.

Science and Research committee  You might have to ask them, but I'm not sure they'll be able to tell you.