National Research Council of Canada.

National Research Council of Canada. National Research Council of Canada (NRC), government agency that is the principal science and technology research organization in Canada. It also promotes industrial and economic development in Canada. The NRC works in partnership with industry, universities, and research agencies to develop innovative scientific and engineering technologies. These innovations have benefited a number of sectors, including aerospace, telecommunications, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and construction. The NRC maintains numerous research institutes, technology centers, and programs across Canada, and it employs about 3,000 people, including highly skilled engineers, scientists, and researchers. In addition to performing and supporting research, the NRC is vital to the dissemination of scientific and technological information in Canada and throughout the world. It helps Canadian companies compete in the world marketplace by offering them technological solutions through the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and the Canadian Technology Network (CTN). The NRC Research Press is a leading publisher of scientific journals, which are distributed worldwide. The NRC's Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) is one of the world's largest repositories for scientific, technical, and medical information. The NRC is a crown corporation--owned by the federal government but independently managed. It is directly responsible to the minister of industry but is ultimately accountable to Parliament, for which it produces an annual report. The organization is governed by a council of appointees chosen from its client community. The NRC is also a member of the Industry Portfolio, a partnership of government departments and agencies that was founded to enhance Canada's technological and industrial preparedness for the 21st century. The NRC was established in 1916 to coordinate Canadian research during World War I (1914-1918). Originally called the Honorary Advisory Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, it was initially an advisory body to the federal government. The NRC began to play a direct role in research in the early 1930s, when it established several laboratories in Ottawa, Ontario. This role grew significantly during World War II (1939-1945) to aid the Allied war effort. Among the prominent Canadian scientists that have been supported by the NRC are Sir Frederick Banting, the codiscoverer of insulin, and several Nobel Prize winners, including John Charles Polanyi (Chemistry, 1986) and Bertram N. Brockhouse (Physics, 1994). Research supported by the NRC has led to the development of canola (a type of rapeseed plant that yields oil with high nutritional value), new strains of diseaseresistant wheat, the electrocardiograph, a new fingerprint detection method, and a series of vaccines to fight infant meningitis. Over the years, many specialized government agencies and services have grown out of the NRC, including the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the National Science Library, Atomic Energy of Canada, and the Medical Research Council. Contributed By: Jim Fergusson Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.