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Canada hosts the world for key research conference

The International Conference on Research Infrastructures will discuss how researchers can collaborate to build bridges to a sustainable world

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — If there is one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear, it is that when researchers around the world come together to share information and data on a common problem, they can quickly make strides in tackling global emergencies. What is also clear is how important it is for researchers to have access to the state-of-the-art labs and facilities they need to generate that knowledge.

To discuss the special role these types of research infrastructures play in strengthening our capacity to respond to infectious diseases, as well as to other global challenges such as climate change, food security, clean energy and poverty, Canada will host the International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI) from June 1-3.

Involving more than 500 international researchers, facility managers, policy experts, government officials and innovators, ICRI will look at how research infrastructures can build bridges across nations in order to create a sustainable world.

Conference delegates will:

  • hear from leaders of world-class, large-scale research infrastructures, such as Nigel Smith, Executive Director, SNOLAB, and Edith Heard, Director General, European Molecular
    Biological Laboratory;
  • listen in on how research infrastructures can help address environmental and social sustainability with panelists Ashok Khosla, Chairman, Center for Developing Alternatives, and Mona Nemer, Chief Science Advisor (Canada);
  • discover how we can use research infrastructures to address future emergencies with Werner Kutsch, Director general, Integrated Carbon Observation System, and Beryl Morris, Director, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network;
  • understand why countries must come together to design, finance and operate infrastructures to do research for the benefit of society, with Simon Kennedy, Deputy Minister, Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development of Canada, and Jean-Eric Paquet, Director General, Directorate for Research and Innovation, European Commission; and
  • discover how top research labs and facilities around the world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ICRI 2021 is supported with funding from the European Union and is hosted by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and with additional support from Laboratories Canada and the National Research Council of Canada.

For more information and to register as media please contact Malorie Bertrand, Media Relations and Social Media Specialist at media [at] innovation.ca (media[at]innovation[dot]ca) or call 613-227-0198.