Richard Adamson, Managing Director
As many of you know CMC management, the Research Management Executive, and the Board have been working hard since last June to develop a new high-impact, sustainable business model. The objective is to put together a structure that:
- Increases impact on real carbon emissions from large stationary sources;
- Enables a balance between funding grant-based research programs and supporting strategic and contract research;
- Expands the collaborative research network within and beyond the academic community, within Canada and internationally;
- Increases access to resources (facilities and skills) to accelerate the maturation of promising academic research results; and
- Enables long-term facilities and programs development.
In late March, CMC had an off-site Board retreat to walk through a straw-man proposal for ‘CMC2.0’ and received tremendous feedback and strong directional support. Now begins the hard work of putting together a much more detailed business plan in time for the June 2013 Annual Conference in Calgary.
We have already had informal discussions with many from industry, government and the research network as we develop these concepts and we will continue to reach out as this plan is developed. Thanks to all who have contributed their thoughts, concerns, insights and opinions and thanks in advance to those who will do so over the next few months.
Prior to the Board retreat the question came up – What role does and should CCS play in our thinking going forward?
While we have not definitively answered this question, it seems clear that CCS is still likely to be part of the long-term transition to a low-carbon future. Given the strong influence of decisions in the U.S. on domestic policy and funding priorities, we thought the following article from GCCSI on the prospective new Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz was useful.
Another thought provoking report came in last week from the desk of Ralph Torrie, Managing Director of the Trottier Energy Futures Network. They have just released An Inventory of Low-Carbon Energy for Canada , looking at the potential availability of carbon-free energy sources that might be harvested domestically by 2050.
Let us know what your thinking is on these important topics (and others) as we continue to develop our plan for CMC2.0.