Call for submissions to the Long Range Plan: December 22, 2010

The long-range plan steering committee is soliciting input from the mathematical and statistical research communities, to inform the development of our long range plan.  We invite you to contribute to this effort, by contributing a short discussion paper. 

Below we have outlined some of the points that we have identified as potentially important to our research communities; there are no doubt others that we have missed.  We are in an early stage in the planning process, and your input will be very helpful in providing us with views of the issues from your perspective.

While you may wish to write as a spokesperson to represent issues facing a particular area or set of areas of research, this is not necessary, and you should feel free to comment on any issues that you think are relevant.  It would be most effective if you identified two or three colleagues to work with you, and submitted the paper under all your names, but these decisions are up to you.

We will publish all submissions on the web site.  Confidential comments can be sent to the steering committee at any time; the members and their email addresses are available on the web site. As well, informal comments can be submitted to the blog at the web site.

NSERC has stated that the long range plan will be used to guide the evaluation group during grant competition.  We also view the plan as an opportunity to showcase Canadian research in statistical and mathematical science, and to create platforms for enhancing the quality of our research and training.  We very much hope you will be able to help us with this, by thinking creatively and expansively about the research endeavour.

The firm deadline for receipt is April 18, 2011. We recognize that this represents a substantial investment of time and energy, and we are very grateful for your participation.

 

On behalf of the steering committee,

Nancy Reid

[email protected]
Some guidelines for preparation:

 (a) Reports and discussion papers will be made available online.  To keep the style uniform, please use LaTeX with amsart or imsart style file; maximum length 4 pages of text, excluding references.

(b) We suggest that the primary author(s) involve others in their area in preparing the submission. 

(c)  It will be most helpful to the LRP steering committee if you can use the headings listed below, although not all of these will be relevant for your submission.  We have included some questions that may be useful for developing your ideas, but they are not intended to be prescriptive.

Science

-       What are some highlights of science in your research area and broad discipline?

-       What changes do you see occurring, and do you expect to occur in the scientific landscape, over the next five to ten years,?

-       What opportunities do you see for advancing your science, over the next five to ten years?

-       What is the importance to your area of cross-disciplinary work?  What is the scope of collaboration: within the area, within related areas of mathematical sciences, within science, ‚Ķ ?

-       Are there barriers at granting agencies that limit your ability to engage in interdisciplinary research?

Research funding

-       How does existing research infrastructure help your research and training?

-       What additional types of infrastructure are needed, and to what extent are these available in Canada?

-       What activities do you foresee over the next five to ten years having most impact on research in your area?

-       What types of research opportunites for your field would enhance the research potential?

-       Are there research areas that are ‚Äòfalling between the cracks‚Äô in terms of funding opportunities?

Institutes

-       One element of the plan is to examine the role of the mathematics institutes, including BIRS, as community resources

-       What current institute activities are most relevant for your area, and more broadly?

-       Are there new activities that would best fit at an institute, that you feel would be beneficial for research and training?

-       What role do institutes currently play in training HQP in your area?

-       What is your assessment of the long-term impact of the institutes on research areas with which you are familiar?

Training

-       What structures are needed to support training in your area and more broadly?

-       Are structures needed to expand the pipeline of advanced trainees?

-       If so, what types of resources would be the most effective for this?

International

-       What types of research support is available to your international colleagues, that could benefit research in Canada? 

-       Would it be advisable to fund these types of programs in preference to currently available programs? 

-       What types of structures would support international collaboration

-       Is international funding available in your area?; are there structures that could enhance your ability to obtain international funding

 (d) There is more background information on the web site that may be helpful

-       the terms of reference, with expanded text on the plan elements

-       an ongoing collection of questions and ideas that have come up in community consultations

-       slides from the CMS winter meeting

 (e) Please feel free to consult with steering committee members for clarification and/or comments on the process.