Marc Renaud is quite clear about it: It’s time for change at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
While Renaud is quick to point out that the council over which he has presided for six years is “probably one of the best funding councils in the world in the area of social sciences and humanities,” he adds that the 25-year-old organization must now review its mandate and take a hard look at the future direction of social sciences and humanities research in Canada.
To spark the debate, SSHRC has just published three papers under the heading: “From Granting Council to Knowledge Council.”
In addition, over a two-month period, Renaud will be visiting a large number of universities across Canada. It’s a debate he says he enters without pre-conceived notions as to the results. “What we’re doing is a real consultation,” he said in his characteristic direct style. “This is not an exercise in public relations.”
His visit to the University of Ottawa in early March was one of the first stops on his journey. “In the end, we want the debate to happen on campuses,” he said. One person has been designated at each institution to lead the consultation. At the University of Ottawa, it’s history professor Chad Gaffield.
Just how wide-ranging the consultation is can be assessed when you consider some of the following facts:
According to Renaud, the consultation must look at two issues. The first relates to the networking and connections between researchers in social sciences and humanities.
“When you think of the very nature of Canada, you see that people don’t know each other very well,” he said. “You also see that our best researchers are very disconnected at the international level.”
In addition, he said the council “has no tools to promote connections. And neither do we have the tools to internationalize Canada and research into social sciences and humanities.”
The second problem, said Renaud, has to do with the impact of research into social sciences and humanities. “We believe we have to ensure that researchers are concerned with the following question: ‘Of what use is my work?’
“It should be in the very nature of universities to assume a level of responsibility in their communities for their researchers go out and for ideas to flow beyond the institution,” Renaud said.
He feels the council should have as one of its functions the transfer, dissemination and use of human sciences knowledge, which could be done via new structures, such as confederations of learning or Web-facilitated communities of practice, which are some of the approaches suggested in the consultation documents.
Renaud says clearly that he does not want to engage in social engineering or in defending established interests. “Our function,” he says, “is science.”
How to participate in SSHRC’s consultation process
Download SSHRC’s consultation documents
