Our Next MEETING

577th Meeting
April 8, 2025

Anne Barker

RESEARCH AND RECONCILIATION: THE ROLE FOR ARCTIC AND NORTHERN R&D

In 2022, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) launched its Arctic and Northern Challenge Program.  As part of a suite of Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Programs at NRC, this program took 4 years to develop after NRC was first mandated in 2018 by its Ministers to develop it.  Different from NRC’s other research programs, and unusual for an applied science and engineering-based Federal research organization, it does not focus upon a technological area; rather it focuses upon who is prioritizing and doing the research, and how. The program was extensively co-developed with northern representation, from ideation through dissemination.  The presentation will examine: strategic policy and guidance alignment that often inform why we do the research that we do; how to think about reconciliation in the context of applied science and engineering research, so that we can begin to think differently about research, its impact and benefits; and provide examples of what this looks like through the lens of NRC’s Arctic and Northern Challenge Program, and in particular its sub-program that is just wrapping up, the Canada – Inuit Nunangat – United Kingdom (CINUK) research programme.  The audience will be left with tangible examples of how one can bridge traditional applied science and engineering scientific approaches with enabling regional and local research, to bring mutual benefits and support a northern research and knowledge economy.

Born in Toronto, Anne Barker holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering from Queen's University. Anne has been with NRC of Canada for 27 years. Key research projects that she led included: a multi-year laboratory study of ice loading on offshore wind turbine towers for the Nysted/Rødsand offshore wind farm and the Kingdom of Denmark; the parameterization of iceberg draft, mass and cross-sectional area for use in the Canadian Ice Service’s iceberg drift forecasting model; an investigation of the damage potential for vessels or fuel barges overwintering in land-fast ice within the Beaufort Sea and Mackenzie Delta; and numerous field and laboratory studies of evacuation in ice-covered waters, primarily focused in the Beaufort Sea and the Grand Banks region offshore Newfoundland.  Now Director of NRC’s Arctic and Northern Challenge Program, she prioritizes northern-led projects that have a focus on applied research and technology development, working across NRC and with Arctic and northern governments, communities, industries and organizations. In her spare time Anne is completing a PhD at the Memorial University of Newfoundland on the effects of ice adhesion on the wear of concrete in a marine environment; she hopes to graduate before she retires.

This meeting is the last regular meeting of The Arctic Circle’s 2024-25 season. It will be followed by a tour of the Ingenium Centre on April 15 and the Annual Dinner on April 24, details to be announced shortly.

The meeting will be held in the Beaver Lounge on the ground floor of the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess, 4 Queen Elizabeth Driveway, Ottawa. The Mess sits alongside Lisgar Collegiate, facing the Rideau Canal, and is accessible from the Driveway just south of the Laurier Avenue Bridge. Parking is available in front of the Mess and in adjacent lots and is free. The meeting begins at 2000 hrs and the bar will be available from 1930 hrs. As always, guests are welcome.

The Annual Dinner will be held on April 24. Guest-of-honour is His Excellency Whit Fraser. Details and a booking form will follow shortly.

A happy. healthy and safe summer to all!

Thomas Frisch
Secretary
tfrisch@sympatico.ca; 613 725 2221

Next meetings:

April 15:  Tour of Arctic collections of Ingenium: Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

April 24:   Annual Dinner with His Excellency Whit Fraser

Members are reminded that membership dues for 2025 are due