National Research Council of Canada
from TCE StandardThe National Research Council of Canada, federal CROWN CORPORATION
responsible to Parliament through the minister of industry.The NRC was formed in 1916 as the Honorary Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. It immediately funded research committees for special needs, offered science fellowships at Canadian universities, and carried out a research inventory (the first statistical review of the Canadian scientific work force and budgets). Early plans to found an NRC national laboratory at Ottawa were not authorized until 1928. During the presidency of H.M. TORY (1923-35), laboratory staff reached 153, including 54 scientists and research engineers, all but one of whom were employed in industrial or applied research.
Tory's successor, General A.G.L. MCNAUGHTON, enlarged the staff to 300 and prepared the NRC laboratories for their central role in war research (from medicine and food packaging to weapons and synthetic fuels). Under C.J. MACKENZIE, president from 1939 to 1952, NRC staff reached 2000 and was reorganized to provide a stronger foundation in basic (pure) SCIENCE. President E.W.R. STEACIE (1952-62) established the principle that NRC extramural budgets for university grants and fellowships should rise to match the intramural budget ($21.5 million in 1962-63) and initiated the Industrial Research Assistance Program for extramural grants to private industry (see INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT).
Many of the NRC's functions have been spun off to separate bodies. For example, the council was the government's general adviser on SCIENCE POLICY from 1916 until the Science Secretariat was created in 1964. Activities initiated by the NRC and delegated to separate bodies include military research (to the DEFENCE RESEARCH Board, 1947), atomic research (to ATOMIC ENERGY OF CANADA LTD, 1952), medical research grants (to the MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, 1966), university grants and scholarships (to the NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH COUNCIL, 1978) and the astronaut program (Canadian Space Agency, 1989).