Making Waves Archive
View archived Making Waves blog posts.
Higher Education Research and Development: The Complex Understanding of Human Capital
By: Canute Rosaasen, MPP student, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
Countries invest in research and development. They invest in innovation. They create graduate schools dedicated to studying the innovation process and the policy surrounding it. In...
Authoritarian Innovation: The Intrusive Potential of Emerging Technologies
By: Ken Coates, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy; Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute
In 2020, to be known forever as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is used to talking about the need for urgency, creative public policy, coordinated solutions, and major...
Radon: A risk ignored
By: Michaela Neetz, MPP student, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
November marks the beginning of cold weather when most of us cozy up inside and close our windows to the fresh air. This is the perfect time to begin a long-term, 90-day radon dete...
The SDGs and "Our Common Future"
By: Glenna Dureau-Sargsyan, PhD student, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
Under the helm of the United Nations (UN), the 17 SDGs cover the years from 2015 to 2030, and the 2019 report informs that while some goals are on track, others are lagging behind.
Would you know sound policy if you saw it?
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, JSGS Distinguished Professor and CSIP Researcher
As policy ‘wonks’, we exuded confidence and conviction. That got me thinking—would our group (or any group) really be able to converge on a set of policies exhibiting those factors...
COVID-19 and Climate Change: Turning apathy, anxiety, and anger into action
By: Larissa Shasko, JSGS PhD student and former Leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan
We are living through uncertain times. COVID-19 and climate change both represent collective problems where individual action must occur universally for the threat to disappear.
Digital Technologies and the Transformation of the Global Agricultural System
By: PETER W.B. PHILLIPS, CSIP RESEARCHER AND JSGS DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
The plant breeding system, the agri-food supply chain, including on-farm production, and retail marketing are all being transformed by digital technologies and big data analysis.
The Cardigan Factor: why more evidence has made COVID-19 policy harder and what to do about it.
By: Jeremy Rayner, CSIP Director and JSGS Professor
In recent posts, I have argued that, if we want to improve the prospects for evidence-based policy making, we should pay more attention to the institutions of scientific advice tha...
Understanding Plant Digital Sequence Information and its Implications
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, CSIP Researcher and JSGS Distinguished Professor
The plant system is in an interesting state of flux. There are more than seven million accessions of genetic materials drawn from both the natural environment and commercial breedi...
The Legality of Paying for Plasma (and the Limits of the Law)
By: Alana Cattapan, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo; Adjunct Faculty Member, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
In the last few years, attempts to establish pay-for-plasma clinics in Canada have brought urgency to debates about the commercialization of the Canadian blood supply.
Re-discover the Value of "Basic" Life Skills
By: Crystal Chan, Master of Public Policy student, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
It appears that the coronavirus pandemic has triggered several unusual trends in the household. The first one that makes me scratch my head is “baking bread with sourdough”.
Clusters as Drivers of Innovative Activity and Economic Growth
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, JSGS Distinguished Professor and CSIP Researcher
The area of innovation is both over theorized and under examined, with dueling theories everywhere about how we get something new into the market.
We know we have a problem, but what exactly is it? A call for data collection on the Canadian food system in response to COVID-19
By: Peter Phillips, JSGS Distinguished Professor and CSIP Researcher; and Crystal Chan, JSGS MPP student
The following blog post was originally published by the Canadian Science Policy Centre. https://sciencepolicy.ca/news/weknow-we-have-problem-what-exactly-itcall-data-collection-can...
Knowledge in a blender: Why we're so mixed up about evidence in public policy
By: Peggy Schmeiser, CSIP Associate Director and JSGS Assistant Professor
There is a lot of concern about recent trends that appear to be undermining the perceived role and credibility of science and evidence in policy making processes. Many factors cont...
Accelerating the pace of local energy innovation in Saskatchewan
By: Martin Boucher, JSGS Faculty Lecturer and CSIP Energy Policy Researcher
Municipalities across Saskatchewan will soon have a decision to make as to whether they support a policy known as Property Assessment Clean Energy (or PACE).
Are we really at war with COVID-19?
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, JSGS Distinguished Professor and CSIP Researcher
The following blog post was originally published as part of the Canadian Science Policy Centre Editorial Series: Response to COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impacts. https://sciencepolic...
Big enough questions
By: Peggy Schmeiser, Jennifer Poudrier, Dean Chapman, Anne Ballantyne, Karen Wood, Joelena Leader, University of Saskatchewan
The following blog post was originally published as part of the Canadian Science Policy Centre Editorial Series: Response to COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impacts. https://sciencepolic...
Sitting on our hands with big data in our pockets
By: Tarun Katapally, Associate Professor, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy; and Patient- Oriented Research Leader
The following blog post was originally published as part of the Canadian Science Policy Centre Editorial Series: Response to COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impacts. https://sciencepolic...
The Elephant in the SMR
By: Jeremy Rayner, Director, Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy; Professor, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
In a previous blog post on small modular reactors (SMRs) in Saskatchewan, I noted the evidence that SMRs have enormous potential to provide clean energy across a range of applicati...
Artificial Intelligence and Decision-Making
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, JSGS Distinguished Professor and CSIP Researcher
Artificial intelligence (AI) presents an interesting set of opportunities and challenges for regulatory systems writ large. AI has a spectrum of possible outcomes. Some people thin...
Multidisciplinary Collaboration and Evidence in Decision-Making
By: Peggy Schmeiser, CSIP Associate Director and JSGS Assistant Professor
The fundamental question in collaborative research is how to construct more inclusive, multidisciplinary teams of individuals who are willing to move beyond their own understanding...
The Sobering Reality of COVID-19
By: Dan Florizone, Executive-in-Residence, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy
Canada has entered a sobering COVID-19 reality. Though we had weeks to prepare based on what we were seeing in China, Italy, Iran and other areas, Canada has only begun to put in p...
Want to #scicomm? First let's show the world what scientists really look like
By: Crystal Chan, Master of Public Policy student, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
So, what do scientists do and what do they look like? Well, it is hard to say, but it is definitely not what the internet is telling you.
From Queen City to Clown City
By: Jeremy Rayner, CSIP Director and JSGS Professor
It’s unclear whether anyone ever said that all publicity is good publicity, but city councilors in Regina have had reason to doubt that maxim after the furour that erupted around t...
The Nuclear Debate: Can we move from polarization to cooperation?
By: Mariia Iakovleva, Larissa Shasko, Michaela Neetz, JSGS graduate students
Three students from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and the Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy (CSIP) presented at the Nuclear Energy Agency...
Pharmacare in Canada: How developing person-centred pathways can promote policy adoption
By: Cheryl Camillo, MHA Director and Associate Professor, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy; CSIP Researcher
Government could further the adoption and implementation of proposed or enacted policies that impact citizens by promoting public acceptance through the communication of person-cen...
It's Time to Change the Climate Debate
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, Distinguished Professor and Researcher, Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
Climate policy in Canada, and in most other countries, has become trapped in an unproductive and distracting rhetorical debate. For some unfathomable reason, scientific and policy ...
"Listen to the science" What Greta Overlooks
By: Jeremy Rayner, Director, Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
Greta Thunberg is one of the best things to happen to climate politics. It’s probably too much to expect that her sharp exchange with US Congressman Garret Graves on the relative c...
Small Modular Reactors in Saskatchewan
By: Jeremy Rayner, Director, Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
In this new edition to Making Waves, Dr. Jeremy Rayner weighs in on Premier Moe's announcement on SMRs in Saskatchewan. Politicking or promising?
The Science - Public Policy Dilemma
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, CSIP Research Lead and JSGS Distinguished Professor; Yvonne Ndelle, PhD Candidate
A discussion with Dr. Mona Nemer, Chief Science Advisor to Canada’s Prime Minister, Minister of Science and Cabinet
World Pulse Day and its Significance
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, CSIP Director and JSGS Distinguished Professor
Every food has some potential but some foods are better than others. The interesting thing is that, when one looks at an individual’s diet, you definitely need protein, some fiber,...
Food Security
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, CSIP Director and JSGS Distinguished Professor
Food security is a fascinating problem space. Most of us think of food insecurity as people who are starving because of crop failures, or a complete absence of food. Undoubtedly, w...
Big Data and Risk Assessment
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, CSIP Director and JSGS Distinguished Professor
Risk assessment is a system we constructed over the last generation of government and industry working together, to standardize and drive out risks from various activities we do. I...
Governing in the Digital Age
By: Peter W.B. Phillips, CSIP Director and JSGS Distinguished Professor
The digitizing of the world is creating some interesting challenges. In the first instance, it is changing what we can do and how we can do things. There are some things that we we...