A Springboard for Nominating and Celebrating Our Best Researchers

Howard Alper
Chair, Canvassing Committee
Global Excellence Initiative and Distinguished University Professor
University of Ottawa

As we celebrate the Global Excellence Initiative’s tenth anniversary, Canada’s research community has much to be proud of. Canada is recognized for punching above its weight in international research circles, having consistently won prestigious international prizes and awards in the last decade. This was not always the case.

For many years, Canada was considered as an underperforming nation in competing for major international awards and prizes. Until 2013, only 19 Canadians were awarded benchmarked international prizes in research, compared with 1,403 Americans and 42 Australians. Yet Canada ranked highly (4th-5th) globally in the significance, impact and output of research emanating from industry, academia and government laboratories in the country.

To markedly enhance the international visibility and reputation of our research community, then Governor General David Johnston decided to launch a well-coordinated national effort to nominate meritorious researchers for major international awards and prizes. To do so, he formed a committee of relevant stakeholders who developed the “Strategy for the Promotion of Global Excellence/Recognition of Canadian Research Achievement.” The strategy recommended the following tactics to enhance global recognition for Canadian research excellence:

(a) Establishing a Canvassing Committee to identify and nominate outstanding candidates for international awards;
(b) Creating an up-to-date inventory of international (and national) research awards and prizes; and
(c) Forming a Champions Committee to evaluate ongoing progress and recommend new ways to
promote research excellence.

The Global Excellence Initiative, launched in 2012 and administered by Universities Canada since 2017, has since implemented each of these tactics and plays an important role in promoting Canadian research excellence. Members of its Canvassing Committee serve as talent scouts, identifying outstanding candidates for international awards and contacting their institution, firm or organization to recommend the individual be nominated for a particular award or prize. Should they choose to nominate the individual, Universities Canada provides key support to maximize the chances of success, including having the draft nomination reviewed and strengthened by experts and past award winners. Regardless of whether they were identified by the Committee, any Canadian researcher can use the nomination review service when applying for an eligible award or prize.
I believe there are several measures we can take to build on our success:

We must be relentless in pursuing strong nominations for awards and prizes, not giving up in the face of failure. Many nominations are unsuccessful in their first several years. In my experience, especially for the top 15% of international prizes, successful nominations of terrific researchers may take 3-6 attempts prior to success. I have personally been involved in Nobel Prize nominations which took 3-8 years of annual nominations to be successful, and have seen similar experiences for other prizes such as Wolf, Lasker, Kavli, Alpert, etc.
Mentors and others should act assertively to encourage nominations of splendid candidates for domestic and international awards and prizes.
Organizations would be wise to develop a three-year action plan for their top cohort of researchers. A logically organized list for each of years 1, 2 and 3 can be constructed in a “ladder” of domestic as well as international awards/prizes of increasingly higher reputation and visibility. The Canvassing Committee would be pleased to assist in this endeavour.
When a Canadian is successful in winning an international award or prize, we must celebrate our achievement in an expeditious manner. The researcher’s employer plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the award or prize is celebrated in an enthusiastic manner—both internally and externally. The awardee organization can work in partnership with Universities Canada to maximize the impact of this communication strategy.
The research community can take genuine pride on the extent to which Canada has significantly improved its ranking in winning major benchmarked international awards and prizes, advancing from an underperforming status to now being amongst the leading group of nations in the world. I am optimistic that we, the research community, can excel even further given the quality of our talent.

A Springboard for Nominating and Celebrating Our Best Researchers

Related News

National program expands to help Canadian researchers gain recognition

Talent, research excellence and strong communities key to Canada’s future

Canada’s universities call for investments in people and ideas for the benefit of all Canadians