Dear CAN members,
I am happy to share with you recent news from the Canadian Association for Neuroscience. As you will see, CAN is now more than ever dedicated to promoting the interests of Canadian neuroscientists and advocating for increased funding for basic research in Canada.
At the beginning of November, CAN held its first virtual week on Parliament Hill, aka “CAN Hill week”. I want to personally thank the over 50 neuroscientists who participated in this informative and mobilising event. Our main objective was to build relationships with Members of Parliament, Senators and Parliament Hill Staffers to advocate for increased funding for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC. We were impressed by our members’ engagement, and by their talents as neuroadvocates. In response to our meetings, we have many MPs who have expressed interest in visiting labs, we have been informed of opportunities to appear in front of parliamentary committees and have showcased great examples of neuroscience research to elected officials. We have at least reached one of our first objectives, which was to bring more attention to the issue of science funding in Canada and the importance of the tri-councils for basic research.
Hill week was also an opportunity to learn what type of information neuroadvocates need to share quickly, and we have developed new resources which we have posted on our advocacy page https://can-acn.org/advocacy/ and are also listed below. I invite you to take a look at these documents – they show data about the current status of science funding in Canada and CAN’s recommendations to the government of Canada.
Advocacy is a team sport, and I was happy to have been invited by Imogen Coe, President of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, to participate in a panel at the Canadian Science Policy Conference last week to discuss the role of academic societies in informing policy. This was a diverse and international panel, with Shohini Ghose Past President , Canadian Association of Physicists, Hilary Lappin-Scott President, Federation of European Microbiology Societies (FEMS), Susan Amara President, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Stephen B. Heard President, Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution and Imogen Coe as President of CSMB presiding. The panel demonstrated how science societies can play a significant role in filling the gap between scientists and policymakers, with examples from across disciplines and different countries. One take-home message for CAN was the importance of continuing to reach out to partners, who have similar objectives, and can help amplify our message.
In addition to reaching out to politicians, CAN is also making efforts to reach out to the general public through ads in major magazines. A few weeks ago, we published an article in an insert on Brain Health in MacLean’s magazine, and this month, you can see a similar article in Chatelaine.
Planning for the CAN2021 meeting in Vancouver is well underway: Save the dates for August 22-25, 2021, at the Westin Bayshore!
Finally, I want to invite neuroscience trainees to participate in our video series titled “CAN research spotlights”, which aims to promote research and feature emerging researchers who recently published papers. Please take a look at the Call for applications.
Please stay connected with CAN, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us with comments and suggestions, we love to get your input.
Charles Bourque
President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience.
CAN advocacy news
CAN Virtual Hill week
November 2-7 2020 was CAN’s first official CAN Hill week! Over 50 neuroscientists participated, from PEI to BC, and met with Members of Parliament, Senators and Parliament Hill key staff members in a series of engaging and instructive meetings. The objective of these meetings was to advocate for increased funding for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC, for open operating grants.
We invite you to view our Hill week one-pager to learn more about our “ask” and the message we conveyed during our meetings.
New advocacy resources
As a follow-up to our Hill Week meetings, we added some documents that we shared, in English and in French, with our thank you notes that were sent to the Members of Parliament, Senators and staff members we met. We invite you to take a look at them:
- CAN 2020 advocacy one-pager (EN)
- CAN-ACN points saillants (FR)
- CAN 2020 submission to pre-budget consultations (EN)
- Soumission aux consultations pré-budgétaires 2020 (FR)
- Science funding in Canada – Statistics (EN)
- Financement de la recherche au Canada – Statistiques (FR)
- COVID related costs and loss for scientific laboratories (EN)
- Pertes liées à la COVID-19 pour les laboratoires (FR)
CAN participation in the Canadian Science Policy Conference
CAN President Charles Bourque participated in the session: Roles & Responsibilities of Academic Science Societies in informing Policy: Lessons & Observations from Around the World – November 17th at 8:30 via zoom, as part of the Canadian Science Policy Conference which took place virtually this year.
This year’s CSPC conference, with a record number of over 1700+ delegates, an informative program of more than 90 plenary and concurrent conference sessions; open mic sessions; and an inspiring series of over 40 interviews, was a great success. This accomplishment was only possible through the participation of 450 panelists, panel organizers, partners, and CSPC committed volunteers.
Charles Bourque participated along with fellow panelists
- Imogen R. Coe President, Canadian Society of Molecular Biosciences
- Stephen B. Heard President, Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution
- Hilary Lappin-Scott President, Federation of European Microbiology Societies (FEMS)
- Shohini Ghose Past President , Canadian Association of Physicists
- Susan Amara President, American Association for the Advancement of Science
The panel discussed how increased engagement between non-government scientists, from across the country, with policy makers in Canada can be useful in connecting policy makers to evidence, data, science and the latest in research findings. An added benefit of bringing the solitudes together will be a richer understanding by scientists of the complex decision making that goes into policy that may, in turn, impact the research enterprise in Canada. The exchange of information and educational possibilities are thus truly bilateral.
The panel demonstrated how science societies can play a significant role in filling the gap between scientists and policymakers, with examples from the EU, the USA and also Canada.
CAN President Charles Bourque highlighted the efforts of the CAN advocacy committee to advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in science, and also for increased funding for basic research.
Read a full description of the panel and panelists here
Publication of an insert in Chatelaine and on the healthinsights.ca website
Check out CAN latest short insert, which was featured in Chatelaine this month and on the healthinsights.ca website.
Canadian Brain Research Strategy
CAN President Charles Bourque and CAN COO Julie Poupart met with the leaders of the Canadian Brain Research Strategy Judy Illes and Yves De Koninck via zoom to discuss how both organizations can work together to promote the interests of Canadian neuroscientists. CAN was invited to participate in the next CBRS stakeholder’s retreat.
CAN Meeting updates
Dates: August 22-25, 2021
Location: Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, BC
Meeting Chairs: Roger Thompson (Chair) and Alyson Fournier (Co-chair)
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
- Michael Hausser –University College London
- Gwyneth Card – HHMI-Janelia
- Magdalena Goetz -Munich Center for Neurosciences – Brain & Mind
- Frank Polleux, Columbia University
- Heidi McBride, McGill University
Plenary symposium chairs:
- Vince Tropepe, University of Toronto
- Frédéric Charron, IRCM
- Louis-Eric Trudeau, Université de Montréal
SAVE THE DATES!
Key Dates
| January 4, 2021 | Special Call for Parallel Symposia open |
| January 4, 2021 | Call for Satellite Workshops open |
| February 8, 2021 | Special Call for Symposium symposia deadline |
| February 8, 2021 | Call for Satellite workshops deadline |
| February 22, 2021 | Poster call open |
| February 22, 2021 | Open Call for Young Investigator Award |
| March 1, 2021 | Registration open |
| March 1, 2021 | Applications for travel awards open |
| April 1, 2021 | Poster deadline |
| April 1, 2021 | Awards nominations deadline (Young Investigator & Travel) |
| April 8, 2021 | Applications for travel awards close |
| June 30, 2021 | Early Bird rate ends |
| August 9, 2021 | Regular rate ends |
| August 21, 2021 | Public Lecture & Satellite meetings |
| August 22 – 25, 2021 | CAN 2021 Meeting |
Partner news
Canada – Japan joint symposium
CAN is happy to announce it has reached a bi-lateral agreement with the Japanese Neuroscience Society to host a JNS-CAN special symposium as part of the CAN parallel symposia. Details and submission information will be provided when the special call opens in January 2021.
IBRO
IBRO will hold its Governing Council Meeting virtually on 11 December 2020. More than 90 international, regional and national scientific organizations – including CAN/ACN – constitute IBRO’s highest governing body, which meets annually to address the needs and advance the work of individual scientists and research communities everywhere.
In addition, the IBRO-US-Canada Regional Committee IBRO_USCRC will cover 2/3 of the registration fee for those from non-U-15 Universities in Canada for the Virtual Cold Spring Harbor Conference: Neurodegenerative Diseases: Biology & Therapeutics (December 2-4, 2020) More details about the conference here: https://meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.aspx?meet=DEGEN&year=20
Please note that you will be automatically eligible when you indicate you are from a non-U15 Canadian University.
Opportunities
Research spotlights
Click here to view the full playlist.
View our latest featured videos here:
View the Call for applications here: https://can-acn.org/can-video-research-spotlights/
Recently posted positions
- BrainsCAN Graduate Studentship Program at Western University 2020/11/26
- Knowledge Translation Communications Specialist – Canadian Brain Research Strategy & Neuroethics Canada 2020/11/16
- Neurology Clinician Scientist Fellowships – Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute – University of Alberta 2020/11/10
- PhD scholarship in Biomedical Sciences – Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières 2020/11/10
- Three-years funded Postdoctoral Fellow in Multiscale Mechanisms in Alzheimer’s Disease – Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University 2020/11/10
- Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellowships – Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta 2020/11/10
- Brain and Cognitive Science, Assistant Professor – Dept. of Psychology – University of Manitoba 2020/11/10
- Two full-time tenure stream appointments in Neuroscience, University of Toronto Scarborough 2020/11/10
- Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Computational Approaches to Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour – McMaster University 2020/11/09
- Postdoctoral researcher to lead project on neural mechanisms underlying odor-guided behavior at McGill University 2020/11/09
- Executive Director – Canadian Brain Research Strategy 2020/10/29
- Post-doctoral Fellow in Neuropsychopharmacology – Khokhar lab – University of Guelph 2020/10/26
- Postdoctoral Fellowships in Cognitive Neuroscience – BrainsCAN at Western University 2020/10/08
- Dendritic Algorithms for Perceptual Learning – Muller lab at University of Montreal / CHU Ste-Justine Research Center / Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute 2020/10/06
- Academic Neuro-Oncologist – McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences 2020/10/06
- Graduate Study Opportunity in Insect Neuroethology – University of Manitoba 2020/10/05
- Academic Neurologist – McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton 2020/10/05
Employment and funding opportunities are posted on the CAN website on a regular basis. Visit the Neurojobs webpage to see the latest advertisements by category: https://can-acn.org/neuro-jobs/
Posting advertisements is free for our members – Submit an ad today
New webpage on Neuroscience awards
Take a look at our new webpage listing advertisement for awards available for Canadian and other neuroscientists.
2020/11/24
2020 Turnbull-Tator Award in Spinal Cord Injury and Concussion Research
Brain Canada Foundation and the Barbara Turnbull Foundation for Spinal Cord Research are pleased to announce the launch of the second annual Turnbull-Tator Award in Spinal Cord Injury and Concussion Research. This award aims to recognize an outstanding publication in the field of spinal cord and/or brain injury research (including concussion) in the last two […READ MORE…]
2020/11/18
Announcement of the call for the 2021 Joseph Altman Award in Developmental Neuroscience
The Japanese Neuroscience Society is now calling for nomination for the 2021 Joseph Altman Award in Developmental Neuroscience. Application submission site opens on November 1st, 2020. Application deadline is on January 31st, 2021 Scope of the Award: Research in developmental neuroscience at the tissue and cellular levels. The scope of the Award is not limited to […READ MORE…]
2020/10/29
Call for Submissions: 2021 Dr. Sam Lal Award
The Graham Boeckh Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2021 Dr. Samarthji Lal Award. Dr. Lal was a distinguished psychiatric researcher, and this award is given each year to honour his legacy. The award recognizes a researcher working in a Canadian institution in the field of mental health who is making an outstanding contribution to […READ MORE…]
CAN Membership
Your support is more important to us than ever. If you have not yet renewed your membership for the 2020-2021 Academic year, we invite you to do so today!
