uOttawa was home to the G20+ Ingenuity Network very first event,which brought together students and experts from 14 countries to the campus for 3 days.
Innovation is recognized as a global theme by many countries when it comes to building strong, dynamic economies. Academic institutions need to play a pivotal role by sharing ideas, training experts and practitioners, and providing governments with sound policy advice.
The University of Ottawa is right on board with this approach through the creation of the G20+ Ingenuity Network.
The G20+ Ingenuity Network is an international science, technology, and innovation policy community that promotes international collaboration and forges relationships between initiatives and national government policy-makers. The G20+ Network has remarkable leadership at the University of Ottawa (Jonathan Linton, Marc Saner) and the George Washington University (Nicholas Vonortas) with its secretariat at uOttawa’sInstitute for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP).
In addition to Canada and the United States, other founding members originate from China, Germany, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The Network will grow to include universities in all G20 capital cities and other science-intensive places.
The University of Ottawa was home to the Network’s very first event, bringing together students and experts from 14 countries for three days in order to exchange ideas, give presentations on the innovation systems of each country and hold meetings with senior members of the Canadian innovation policy community. Meetings included experts such as Gary Goodyear, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, and Howard Alper, the University of Ottawa Chairman of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council.
Participants also attended this year’s Bromley lecture, delivered by William Bonvillian (Director of MIT’s Washington, D.C. Office), and visited Parliament, where they met with MPs Marc Garneau and Hélène Leblanc to discuss innovation policy.
Plans for the Ingenuity Network’s 2013 annual gathering are well underway, with the intent of rotating the event out of North America to other continents for the next two years.
For more information on the G20+ Ingenuity Network and its activities, visit the Network and Bromley pages on the ISSP website.
