Supplementary Information Tables: 2023–24 Departmental Results Report

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

Variance is immaterial.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

The BMC is a new G&C program; amounts are aligned with the contribution agreement and cash flow provided by BMC Inc.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

Additional spending is from internal cash management of programs.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

Variance is immaterial.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

Variance is due to conversion of funds to operating dollars for the program for R&D contracts.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

Additional spending is due to Canada's full membership in Eureka.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

The significant variance is due to ongoing delays associated with Canada's participation in the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, which are outside of the NRC's control.

Financial information (dollars)

Explanation of variances

Variance is immaterial.

Program name: Advanced Electronics and Photonics

Program goals: The NRC's Advanced Electronics and Photonics (AEP) program aims to develop game-changing sensing and communications technologies that collect and move data, enabling Canada's infrastructure and services to become smarter and more accessible and creating sustainable prosperity.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: manufacturing, telecommunications photonics industry, artificial intelligence, automotive, quantum and aerospace, defense & security, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Through its High-throughput and Secure Networks (HTSN) Challenge program, AEP and other NRC programs are partnering with external collaborators to develop disruptive technologies and technologies that improve the cost and performance of delivering secure, affordable, and high-speed internet services in rural and remote communities across Canada. This would significantly benefit Indigenous communities in remote areas, providing increased access to economic development, employment, health care, education, and cultural exchanges, and would improve safety and security. New Canadians are being incentivized to settle in rural and remote areas, and connectivity will be a key driver in support of this goal. Affordable, high-speed internet can also lead to improved outcomes for vulnerable populations through better access to education, jobs and health services through distance education, virtual jobs and telehealth.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

As part of the strategic planning exercise, the program committed to implement the GBA Plus methodology into subprogram creation, project definition, advisory boards composition and other areas in order to identify and address systemic biases.

AEP continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The AEP program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability (LMA) was 0.9 for women, 3.8 for racialized persons and 1.8 for persons with disability in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Data for future years will be reported under the new program Quantum and Nanotechnologies.

Program name: Aerospace

Program goals: The NRC's Aerospace program focuses on aerospace research and technology development in the core areas of aerodynamics, flight research, gas turbines, structures and materials, and manufacturing.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: aviation, aerospace sector, manufacturing, transportation, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Innovation, sustainability and workforce development are essential to growing the Canadian aerospace industry. Even before COVID-19, the industry faced a looming shortage of skilled workers, but pandemic-related layoffs and a smaller number of aerospace graduates may further constrain the industry's future growth.

The Aerospace program undertakes research projects to address the needs of air travel passengers, including Canadians with special needs (for example, people living with obesity and people who use mobility aids). Using its Centre for Air Travel Research, the Aerospace program investigates opportunities to improve the safety, comfort and productivity of passengers and crew throughout the air travel experience, including Canadians with diverse physical attributes. NRC and collaborators (Carleton University, University of Ottawa) are identifying barriers that are limiting older adults' ability to travel and connect with their communities.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The Aerospace program continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The Aerospace program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 1.0 for women, 2.0 for racialized persons and 0.5 for persons with disability.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: Aquatic and Crop Resource Development

Program goals: The NRC's Aquatic and Crop Resource Development (ACRD) program aims to make Canada a world leader in sustainable biomass transformation. ACRD works with industry, academia and government partners to develop and transform agricultural and marine bioresources into food, feed and ingredients, and other high value bioproducts. The ACRD program has integrated GBA Plus into many aspects of its activities, including work to support food security and develop sustainable technologies and combat climate change, which can affect diverse groups disproportionally.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: agricultural, marine, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The ACRD program's activities contribute to improving the lives of all Canadians, regardless of gender, race, socio-economic status, Indigenous identity, geographic location, language, education level, socio-economic status, culture, or religion. However, the program activities naturally focus on specific diverse groups based on the priority sectors and technologies aligned with ACRD's spheres of influence. For example, efforts supporting Northern food production require meaningful engagement with Indigenous organizations, and projects carried out in collaboration with Indigenous communities allow for cross-fertilization of Indigenous and other agricultural knowledges. Similarly, food insecurity is disproportionately felt by equity-deserving groups and these sectors benefit from ACRD's activities.

Working with the Arctic Research Foundation, the Canadian Space Agency, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the community of Gjoa Haven (in Nunavut), the ACRD program is leading the Sustainable Food System (SFS) initiative, which aims to develop a local food production system in the Arctic that enables year-round production of fresh fruit and vegetables using renewable energy and controlled environment technologies. The program also helps increase employment of members of the Gjoa Haven community to help maintain the research pod.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

Priorities for ACRD in 2023-24 included developing a hiring strategy to enhance recruitment of Black Canadians, persons with disabilities, and individuals from Indigenous communities; designing a process to monitor hiring practices and processes to ensure EDI considerations are at the forefront of recruitment and hiring actions; developing an Indigenous engagement strategy for embedding Indigenous consultation and collaboration into research projects and initiatives; and enhancing understanding of GBA Plus in program design.

ACRD also continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The ACRD program's ratio of program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability (LMA) was 1.0 for women, 2.4 for racialized persons and 1.4 for persons with disability in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: Automotive and Surface Transportation

Program goals: The NRC's Automotive and Surface Transportation (AST) program provides technical knowledge and advances product and process technologies for producing more fuel-efficient, affordable, and environmentally-responsible ground vehicles and for delivering engineering solutions to complex technology challenges facing ground transportation industries.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: manufacturing, transportation, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The overall size of the Canadian automotive workforce is expected to fall through 2026, due to rising automation and higher labour costs relative to countries like Mexico. However, this may also represent an opportunity to upskill the workforce with increasingly valuable technology- and data-related skills, such as those related to artificial intelligence, sensors, geo-sensing and autonomous supply chains. The NRC's AST program is operating in this challenging environment and making efforts to address the specific needs of equity-deserving groups that belong to the group of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), including the elderly and users of mobility devices.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The AST program leads projects focused on benefits for equity-deserving groups, for example projects around VRUs are those who are most likely to be at risk of death or serious injury when involved in a motor-vehicle-related collision. VRUs include pedestrians (particularly children and the elderly), cyclists, motorcyclists, and mobility device users. In 2023-24, AST initiated a project to develop an active pedestrian protection system for high frequency pedestrian crossing suitable for a formalized at-grade crossing.

AST continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The AST program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 1.1 for women, 1.1 for racialized persons in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: Construction

Program goals: The NRC's Construction program aims to be the partner of choice for government and the construction industry in advancing innovation for a safe, prosperous, and sustainable Canada. Through a multi-disciplinary approach, the program works with the construction industry for better, safer, energy-efficient, climate-resilient and more affordable construction materials and technology.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: construction, infrastructure, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

While all Canadians ultimately benefit from this program, the Construction program's work benefits 3 primary target groups: its science and technology research workforce; the construction sector; and small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Both the construction sector and SMEs employ men at a higher rate than women, and also have representation gaps for other equity-deserving groups. The Construction program continues its efforts in reaching equity-deserving groups, especially Indigenous Peoples, and people with disabilities. Benefits of the program's work include an increase in research and innovation to bring more resilience and sustainability to communities experiencing disproportionate and differential impacts of climate change, including coastal areas prone to flooding and Northern communities experiencing warming at a greater rate than the rest of Canada. This resilience and sustainability may also benefit marginalized, low-income communities with more safe, secure housing, which would also address associated economic, social and health vulnerabilities.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

In May 2024 the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes (CBHCC), supported by the NRC, launched a call out for volunteers to serve on the National Model Code Committees, and for the first time, included voluntary EDI questions in the application form. The CBHCC intends to use this information to help establish more representative and inclusive committees. In addition, efforts are made to ensure that these equity-deserving groups are represented in the program's external Advisory Board, and the program's internal Research Excellence Advisory Committee.

The program has increased its GBA Plus considerations in its initiatives and projects (meaningful Indigenous relationships, gender balance, and workforce representation). For example, as part of the program contributions to the Arctic and Northern Challenge program, Indigenous consultations are an integral part of co-funded projects related to climate resilience and permafrost work in Tuktoyaktuk (Northwest Territories), and vulnerability of the water supply in Pangnirtung (Nunavut).

The Construction program continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The Construction program ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 1.2 for women, 1.6 for racialized persons and 0.4 for persons with disability in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: Digital Technologies

Program goals: The NRC's Digital Technologies (DT) program aims to foster a smarter, safer, healthier, and more prosperous society through ethical applications of digital technologies. It is at the forefront of digital technologies research, driving innovation with and for Canadian governments, businesses, researchers, and society.

Target population: All Canadians, academia, other government departments (OGDs), science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The NRC's DT program is operating in a rapidly evolving sector and making efforts to address the specific needs of equity-deserving groups it is working with, particularly Indigenous Peoples.

Through its Indigenous Languages Technology (ILT) project, DT works with Indigenous collaborators to monitor and ensure that benefits of the project are aligned with the goals of the communities. The revitalization of Indigenous languages has wide ranging impacts on Indigenous Peoples and supports broader community goals of self-determination. Since many of the technologies developed were in response to community needs, the project has resulted in a collection of diverse subprojects, including development of new speech- and text-based resources for Indigenous language students, educators, translators, transcribers and other language professionals, and work to increase the accessibility of audio and video recordings.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

DT's responsible AI initiative, which focuses on AI transparency, aspects of interpretability, fairness and non-discrimination, published research in 2023-24 that revealed biases in AI's evaluation of images and text related to race and gender. The project goal was to leverage insights from ethics and social sciences to develop responsible Natural Language Processing technology to benefit society. By creating a dataset of synthetic images to assess gender and race-based bias in language-vision models, the project demonstrated how AI models reflect societal biases. Even with a small dataset of parallel images, the results were significant in many cases and reflected stereotyping in large vision-language models and a need for broader representation of gender/race, as well as other axes of discrimination. Key impacts of this research include increased awareness of stereotypes in AI models and systems. Such awareness enables the identification and mitigation of inherent risks permitting generative AI developers to rethink their approach to creating and testing these models, and to consider possibilities for improving current and future models. DT is continuing this work and is also planning to establish a Digital Model Evaluation capability useful in detecting risks such as AI hallucinations, threats to sensitive information and biases.

DT continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The DT program is committed to increasing diversity in its workforce. In 2023-24, the DT program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving designated groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 2.2 for women and 1.4 for racialized persons.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: In future years, the Artificial Intelligence for Logistics (AI4L) Cluster Support program, also led by DT, is planning to measure the number of discrete novel capabilities and capacity improvements in the Canadian North to demonstrate that innovative AI tools are used to optimize and improve logistics operations in Canada, with data collection planned for 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Program name: Energy, Mining and Environment

Program goals: The NRC's Energy, Mining and Environment (EME) program aims to create green and sustainable technologies for clean energy, resource extraction and environmental protection. Through research and technology development, the program brings the latest innovations in clean energy, advanced mining technologies and environmental remediation solutions to Canadian industry.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: energy and utilities, mining, oil & gas exploration, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The NRC's EME program is operating in critical sector of the Canadian economy and making efforts to address the specific needs of equity-deserving groups it is working with. EME leads on the Materials for Clean Fuels (MCF) Challenge program, which has far-reaching impacts aimed at improving the lives of all Canadians, regardless of gender, race, socio-economic status, Indigenous identity, geographic location, language, education level, socio-economic or marital status, culture, or religion. First-hand impacts could potentially be experienced by those that currently work in the oil and gas industry and the groups that value environmental stewardship, however a GBA Plus lens was adopted during the program development process, which determined no major issues with respect to discrimination in the scientific directions.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

Through the MCF Challenge program and the Critical Battery Materials Initiative, EME is working to create a cleaner, more sustainable Canadian energy and chemical industry through materials and process innovation. EME is coordinating a national effort to collaborate with leaders in academia and industry from a diverse range of backgrounds to catalyze the discovery and development of materials for early-stage exploratory technologies to decarbonize Canada's industrial sector. The program adopted a GBA Plus lens to guide the identification of any adverse impacts resulting from the scientific direction.

To improve transparency and greater access to opportunities for all qualified candidates, EME implemented an expression of interest process for new leadership opportunities in acting or interim roles. EME also encouraged staff to participate in diversity and inclusion courses, and emphasized the importance of EDI in EME collaboration centre calls for proposals.

EME continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. In 2023-24, the EME program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability (LMA), was 1.0 for women, and 0.7 for persons with disabilities. The ratio of new hires who were racialized persons was higher than LMA at 1.5.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: Herzberg Astronomy & Astrophysics

Program goals: The Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics (HAA) program fulfills the mandate from the NRC Act to "operate and administer any astronomical observatories established or maintained by the Government of Canada", including Canada's participation in all current and future offshore facilities.

Target population: All Canadians, students, researchers, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The HAA program serves the Canadian astronomical community of university and government-lab based researchers, which remains male-dominated.^{Footnote 1} The under-representation of women and minorities in astronomy fields is a major concern which could be attributed to factors such as lack of equity in compensation, funding, hiring, access to telescope time, and sociological issues associated with dependent caregiving and linguistic identity (for example, English is the international language of astronomy which could be considered a barrier to access for Francophones) and those who do not have English as their first language.

Canada's participation in leading international observatories like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) provides employment opportunities for students and post-doctoral fellows and opportunities for the private sector to be involved in design and construction activities.

The NRC is committed to listening to and learning from local Indigenous communities, to understand how the organization can better support Indigeneity in both domestic and international observatories, and in the research conducted. As recommended in the Canadian Astronomy Long Range Plan 2020-2030, the NRC is working with the Canadian astronomical community and Indigenous partners through its HAA program to develop a set of guiding principles for the astronomy facilities and infrastructure in which Canada participates.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

HAA continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. In 2023-24, the HAA program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 2.1 for women, 1.0 for racialized persons and 0.9 for persons with a disability.

HAA's EDI committee developed hiring guidelines to increase the diversity of the workforce. In following these guidelines for every hiring action, HAA has increased the workforce diversity in 3 of 4 employment equity groups over the last year, with the biggest improvements among Indigenous Peoples (increase of 1.7%) and persons with disabilities (increase of 2.6%).

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: HAA will continue to use HR data to inform decision-making that promotes EDI within the program.

HAA supports the continued collection of demographic data of the Canadian astronomical community by CASCA. To mitigate implicit bias, anonymous processes for assessment of observing proposals have been adopted for all the international observatories supported by the NRC through its HAA program. As part of the specific actions taken for GBA Plus data collection, the HAA program will continue its annual tracking of the proportion of women-led proposals that are approved to better understand the gender bias in the process and adopt strategies to mitigate this situation.

Program name: Human Health Therapeutics

Program goals: Through research and development of biotherapeutics, vaccines and technology platforms, the NRC's Human Health Therapeutic (HHT) program serves the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Canadian biopharmaceutical industry and is also involved in federal government collaborative research aimed at creating solutions for public health issues affecting the lives of all Canadians.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: manufacturing, health care, social assistance, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The HHT program's work on biotherapeutics, vaccines and technology platforms aim to generate positive health outcomes for all Canadians. Gender and ethnicity play a role in HHT's specific work on cell therapy and characteristics, and therapies for broad use may have different impacts on diverse populations. A positive intended outcome of the program is an automated biodevice for the production and remote analysis of cell therapies for clinical use, which is deployable to remote locations. Such a device would be a tremendous benefit to deliver costly designer cell therapies to remote and Northern communities.

The HHT program is designing and developing disruptive technology solutions under the Disruptive Technology Solutions for Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Challenge program. The solutions are targeting precision-engineered cell and gene therapies for the treatment and potential cure of chronic diseases and rare genetic disorders affecting Canadians, including diverse Canadians who are disproportionately impacted by these diseases and disorders.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

HHT also continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. HHT's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 0.8 for women, 3.6 for racialized persons and 1.1 for persons with disability in 2023-24. HHT is focusing on improving the representation of underrepresented groups in leadership positions and targeting recruitment to increase representation of Indigenous Peoples and persons with disability.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: The CGT program will collect data on identity factors across internal research teams within the NRC, within collaborator teams applying for funding for contributions to the program and in the management framework providing governance and oversight of the Challenge program. The stakeholder community will be consulted to ensure that the program structure, governance model, and collaborative process are accessible and conducive to equal participation from diverse participants.

As part of the specific actions taken for GBA Plus data collection, HHT will continue to monitor the participation of equity-deserving groups over the life of the program, and on a regular frequency. These activities will be extended to include highly qualified personnel (students, postdoctoral fellows) working within the NRC and within collaborating centres, or individuals awarded funding through the program's grants and contributions mechanism. This would identify opportunities and strategies to enhance the participation of these groups more broadly.

Program name: Medical Devices

Program goals: The NRC's Medical Device (MD) program's strategic goal is to catalyze Canada's medical device industry, working with Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and international companies with significant investment in Canada by providing research and technology solutions, as well as working with partner Federal government departments and agencies to address Government priorities.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: manufacturing, health care, social assistance, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The MD program collaborates with industry, clinicians, academics and government to develop, translate and implement medical device innovations which can benefit a wide range of vulnerable populations. MD's work on latent tuberculosis has the potential to address an important need within the Indigenous community due to the disease's disproportionate burden in Indigenous communities, compared to the general population. Likewise, MD's work on Point of Care solutions and interactive remote care can provide benefits to Indigenous populations or vulnerable people living in remote areas.

The MD program is connecting culture and land-based healing using virtual reality to support Inuvialuit mental health and well-being. A project to develop and transfer a VR platform to the community for healing individuals who were forced to disconnect from their native communities will also benefit the community by providing training on the platform so that individuals can develop their own healing scene and scenarios.

MD's work on forefoot deformity orthopedics has implications for people with disabilities. Their collaborative agreement with UNLIMITED Therapeutics on the development and deployment of an immersive-interactive digital health delivery system allows physicians and other medical practitioners to remotely deliver virtual reality digital therapeutic experience in support of cognitive behavioral therapy for children living with disabilities.

Molecular diagnostics and point-of-care testing done by MD in the In Vitro Diagnostic thrust has implications for the effective and convenient diagnosis of old age diseases. Similarly, MD's work on cognitive care and remediation may have implications for the elderly (for example, managed care implications and triage).

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

MD continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. MD's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 1.3 for women and 2.6 for racialized persons in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: Metrology

Program goals: The NRC's Metrology program aims to create a better Canada and world by fostering innovation through high-precision measurement science and advancements in metrology. As Canada's National Measurement Institute (NMI), it collaborates across the global innovation ecosystem to provide metrology research and services that help transform ideas into market-ready technologies that benefit Canadian society, the economy and the environment.

Target population: All Canadians, SMEs, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes: Using Metrology's expanding footprint in quantum-related technologies as an example, a GBA Plus analysis revealed that the immediate and short-term benefits from the deployment of new quantum technologies are initially susceptible to have links between gender and socio-economic factors such as wealth, education, occupation and decision-making power.

In developing Metrology projects, it is recognized that various aspects of emerging quantum technologies such as areas of application, distribution channels, and the above-mentioned socio-economic factors will all have an impact on benefits realization. However, similar to the development of the transistor, medium- and longer-term benefits realization is expected to be improved through economies of scale as quantum technologies become more mainstream and more affordable. In response, projects are being designed with the understanding that as network quantum sensing becomes more pervasive (that is, from demonstration to a scalable quantum technology), similar to the transistor, this potentially revolutionary technology should contribute to the reduction of current major structural inequities in potential end-user communities and in society.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

Under the Arctic and Northern Challenge Program, the Biotoxin Metrology team is working with the Dehcho Aboriginal Aquatic Monitoring and Oceans Management Program to characterize cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in lakes in the Northwest Territories. The goal is to develop new monitoring approaches that can be implemented into existing local environmental monitoring programs, along with developing a long-term monitoring strategy for the region to support management of local resources by local populations. Other Northern communities will benefit from the dissemination of findings to Northern groups interested in establishing programs for monitoring these bacteria and toxins in Northern lakes.

The Metrology program also continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. In 2023-24, the Metrology program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 1.2 for women, 1.7 for racialized persons and 0.8 for persons with disability.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: As part of the specific actions taken for GBA Plus data collection, the Metrology program will build on GBA Plus of Metrology's work in quantum-related technologies to gather more data and draw conclusions about immediate and short-term benefits from its deployment. This information will enable the Metrology program to understand how certain equity-deserving groups based on gender, age and immigrant status may be disproportionately impacted, and to determine strategies to mitigate these impacts.

Program name: Nanotechnology

Program goals: The mission of the NRC's Nanotechnology (NANO) program is to transform nanoscience ideas into novel, sustainable nanotechnology solutions with socioeconomic benefits for Canada.

Target population: All Canadians and sectors: mining, oil & gas exploration, transportation, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes: Nanotechnology is an emerging technology with significant demand across healthcare, energy and pharmaceuticals. The NRC's Nanotechnology program is operating in a critical sector of the Canadian economy and making efforts to address the specific needs of equity-deserving groups it is working with.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

As part of the strategic planning exercise, the program committed to implement the GBA Plus methodology into subprogram creation, project definition, advisory boards composition and other areas in order to identify and address systemic biases.

In addition to its participation to the iSTEAM program in 2024-25, the program has engaged the University of Alberta and plans to participate in the ELITE program in 2025-26 to encourage the participation of black youth in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.

The Nanotechnology program continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. The Nanotechnology program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 0.7 for women and 1.2 for racialized persons in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Data for future years will be reported under the new program Quantum and Nanotechnologies.

Program name: Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering

Program goals: The NRC's Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering (OCRE) program aims to develop novel and adaptive engineering solutions that enable safe and resilient ocean and freshwater infrastructure in Canada. Operating world-class modelling and testing facilities, OCRE strives to be a leader in the Canadian ocean and freshwater sector and works with clients and collaborators in industry, academia, and government to help ensure that Canadian ocean and freshwater industries and communities are safe and thrive in a changing marine environment.

Target population: All Canadians, academia and sectors: marine transportation, marine & coastal infrastructure, manufacturing, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The OCRE program's work benefits 3 primary target client groups: the science and technology workforce within the research centre that has acknowledged gaps in the representation of women, racialized persons, Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities; the marine sector (marine transportation, oil and gas, renewable energy) and the resilient infrastructure development sector, which employ men at a higher rate than women and other equity-deserving groups; and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which also employ men at a higher rate than women and other equity-deserving groups.

The OCRE program's work is expected to benefit all Canadians by contributing to economic growth and prosperity in industry sectors implicated in lowering carbon emissions – that is, increased innovation and resilience in marine operations (including marine transport and renewable energy) and in resilient infrastructure development. There are benefits to overall population health by researching fate and transport of microplastics and other pollutants in the marine/aquatic environment. Other benefits to all Canadians include contributing to safe and efficient marine transport of people and goods, and Canadian sovereignty in the North.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

OCRE specifically benefits populations in coastal and inland flood-land areas, all across Canada. A particular focus of the program is the emphasis on harsh environments characterized by ice, waves and wind (that is, Canadian north) which will benefit Northern Canadian communities. For example, the OCRE program is involved with several projects with the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-United Kingdom Arctic Research Programme (CINUK) that directly benefit Inuit communities. The NRC is working with Inuit Nunangat communities and SmartIce to develop sea–ice roughness and slush maps, which integrate Indigenous knowledge, remote sensing, and data collected from sensors pulled by land vehicles (for example, snowmobiles) and unmanned airborne craft (drones). This initiative is building Northern and Inuit communities' capabilities to address sea-ice travel concerns under current and predicted Arctic warming.

OCRE is focusing on engagement with Indigenous Peoples and rights holders, which is formalized in the program's communications and engagement strategy. Gender parity, inclusion of racialized groups, and meaningful participation of Indigenous groups are priorities for the Ocean program (led by OCRE), and OCRE as a whole. Indigenous representation is particularly important for coastal communities, where fishing and aquaculture are important means of livelihood. GBA Plus has been integrated into the governance of the Ocean program through external committees (including the Advisory Board) involved in its design and implementation, and reflected within the OCRE program's strategic priorities formally launching in 2024-25.

Additionally, efforts are being made to link Indigenous traditional knowledge to the NRC's research capacity through several collaborative agreements. These agreements are at the project level within OCRE's Resilient Shores strategic research pillar, and at the program level as the Ocean program is working with the University of Toronto to understand how the NRC can be better allies to Indigenous groups. The program also examines how all collaborators will address GBA Plus considerations throughout the life of a collaborative project.

OCRE continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. In 2023-24, the ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 2.1 for women, 1.5 for racialized persons and 2.9 for persons with disability.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Over its 7-year timeframe, the Ocean program will compile available data on identity factors across internal research teams within the NRC, within collaborator teams applying for funding for contributions to the program, and in the management framework providing governance and oversight of the program. The stakeholder community will be consulted to ensure that the program structure, governance model, and collaborative process are accessible and conducive to equal participation from diverse participants.

Program name: Security and Disruptive Technologies

Program goals: The NRC's Security and Disruptive Technologies (SDT) program aims to play a global leadership role in developing and validating emerging technology platforms that can be applied in a range of industries to sustain Canada's industrial competitiveness by opening new markets and value networks for Canadian industries in tomorrow's economy. Applications can lead to improvements for environmental and health outcomes, but often focus on addressing national security challenges since security and defence innovation players are amongst the earliest adopters of such technologies from which broader commercial adaptations ultimately evolve, replacing existing technologies.

Target population: All Canadians, academia and sectors: manufacturing science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The SDT program's benefits can be examined based on the type of emerging technology platforms being developed. Based on GBA Plus conducted by the SDT program for the Quantum Sensors Challenge program (QSP), there are recognized representation gaps for black, Indigenous Peoples, and people of colour (BIPOC) and female researchers in the field of physics. As men have historically comprised the majority of physics researchers and academicians, physics departments and research labs may be implicitly designed with their interests in mind. Intersectional gender inequality in STEM fields is a persistent issue as women's rates of representation remain low. Within the physical sciences, computer science, engineering, and mathematics (PCEM) more broadly in Canada, women represent 15% of all faculty. At the high school level in Canada, young women represent 38% of those enrolled in advanced placement physics courses. These insights have helped the SDT program develop strategies to address these disproportionate impacts on equity-deserving groups.

The QSP, led by the SDT program, is implementing strategies to address systemic barriers and biases that disadvantage women, gender-diverse, black, Indigenous Peoples and people of colour in applying for and participating in research activities. Examples of these strategies include ensuring that advisory panels include academics and industry practitioners from diverse backgrounds, practicing inclusive meeting design and facilitation techniques for consultation events, and targeting grants and contribution funds to incentivize the hiring and professional development of diverse researchers.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

As part of the strategic planning exercise, the program committed to implement the GBA Plus methodology into subprogram creation, project definition, advisory boards composition and other areas in order to identify and address systemic biases.

SDT continued to set targets and collect data (where possible) on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity in its field and sector. SDT's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 2.0 for women and 1.9 for racialized persons in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Data for future years will be reported under the new program Quantum and Nanotechnologies.

Program name: Genomics Research & Development Initiative Shared Priority Projects

Program goals: Under the Genomics Research and Development Initiative (GRDI), Shared Priority Projects (SPPs) support interdepartmental genomics research at federal government laboratories so that collectively, in collaboration with industry and academia, they can better deliver high impact solutions relevant to issues of importance to Canadians. These include protecting and improving human health, protecting the environment, sustainably managing agricultural and natural resources, and promoting economic growth. GRDI SPP applies a GBA Plus lens in its program activities by analyzing the potential benefits of the GRDI on various stakeholders including equity-deserving groups. 

Target population: All Canadians and OGDs

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Given the global nature of issues related to antimicrobial resistance and climate change, the 2 current GRDI Shared Priority Projects are not expected to have a direct impact on any specific equity-deserving groups. Nevertheless, genomics-driven advancements could help address inequities including, for example, advancements that enable point of care and on-site testing benefitting individuals in remote geographical locations. The ability to predict wild and domestic animal populations' vulnerabilities to climate change will inform mitigation and adaptation policies that will benefit Canadians across the country.

End-users for GRDI-funded projects include both internal and external end-users. Internal end-users are most commonly benefiting from GRDI-funded projects and include people working inside the federal government, such as laboratory scientists, field inspectors, border agents, trade negotiators and resource managers. External end-users are outside the federal government, and may include industry using a patented technology or revising their processes due to a policy change, and international regulatory agencies using or adopting the technology.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The GRDI program collaborates with universities and the private sector, creating economic, environmental and social benefits for Canadians through vital genomics research. The NRC's role in the GRDI is to provide a coordination function, through program coordination, communication, networking and outreach support. In this role, the NRC aims to promote analysis of the potential benefits of the GRDI on various stakeholders including equity-deserving groups.

The 2 current GRDI Shared Priority Projects are interdepartmental in nature, and GRDI funds exclusively research activities within federal government laboratories at:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Environment and Climate Change Canada
• Health Canada, Natural Resources Canada
• Public Health Agency of Canada
• National Research Council Canada

Together, they engage around 150 employees composed of research scientists, professional and technicians primarily (about 70%), as well as post-doctoral fellows and students (about 30%). As such, the projects support indeterminate government HQP, but also a significant portion of younger populations that are hired temporarily to deliver GRDI-funded work.

Key program impact statistics: Not applicable

GBA Plus data collection plan: The NRC's role in the GRDI includes conducting studies and analyses to serve as inputs in the determination of GRDI-wide research priorities, providing management and administration support, and supporting performance management, reporting, evaluation, and communications. The NRC aims to integrate GBA Plus considerations in future evaluations and analysis of the program. The next evaluation of the GRDI program is tentatively scheduled to be initiated in 2024-25 and will provide insights and data on GBA Plus.

Program name: Biologics Manufacturing Centre (BMC)

Program goals: The BMC has a public-good mandate that includes support for:

• the public health of Canadians by securing domestic vaccine supply
• collaboration with industry and academia to advance their biological development
• the undertaking of public interest projects where needs are unmet (for example, orphan drugs for rare and infectious diseases).

The BMC was created to help address both the immediate COVID-19 pandemic response and the enduring need to bolster Canada's biomanufacturing capacity and to strengthen national public health, both in times of pandemic emergencies as well as during inter-pandemic periods.

Target population: Most vulnerable or highest at-risk Canadians including:

• frontline workers
• biopharmaceutical and manufacturing industries
• small and medium enterprises
• academia
• health care system
• science and technology industry.

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: Primarily benefits seniors or the baby boom generation

Specific demographic group outcomes: Protect the health of Canadians, particularly those at high-risk such as seniors, infants, immunocompromised individuals or individuals with rare diseases.

Key program impact statistics and other key program impacts: Not applicable since 2023-24 is the first year of reporting GBA Plus for the BMC as part of the NRC's program inventory.

GBA Plus data collection plan: Biologics Manufacturing Centre (BMC) Inc. is currently identifying the requirements for collecting and managing personal data in the province of Québec to develop a plan for monitoring the representation of its employees and Board of Directors who identify as members of underrepresented groups (that is, women, Indigenous Peoples, visible minorities and persons with disabilities).

Program name: Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program

Program goals: The goal of the NRC's Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program (CSTIP) is to encourage and catalyze collective research excellence, resulting in scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs. CSTIP achieves this goal through collaborative R&D initiatives, the NRC Ideation Fund, and outreach initiatives. These 3 mechanisms employ GBA Plus practices by ensuring that equity-deserving groups have equal opportunities to participate in program initiatives, and are positively impacted by the program's outcomes.

Target population: All Canadians, academia and SMEs, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The research community and targeted challenge program sectors in Canada benefit directly from CSTIP funding as well as HQP in specific fields and sectors. Secondary beneficiaries are academics and SMEs that benefit from the intellectual property created through funded projects. One of the main barriers to participation in the program's activities are associated with the need to be trained and employed in the STEM research and development ecosystem, which CSTIP leverages in order to foster scientific and technological advancements. Moreover, since a significant portion of program partnerships is academic, the impact on diverse groups often depends on the demographic make-up of post-secondary students and their chosen fields of study.

In Canada, some demographic groups show lower rates of participation in post-secondary education and representation in the STEM field. This includes Indigenous youth, youth from low-income backgrounds, and youth from rural areas. Additionally, due to the demographic composition of the talent pool in STEM fields, it is likely that there will be more male participants in the program. CSTIP aims to identify these barriers to participation faced by equity-deserving groups and find solutions to remove them.

In an effort to remove barriers to program participation from equity-deserving groups, the CSTIP's Outreach Initiative, which promotes the engagement of Canadians in STEM, provides funding to support conferences, workshops, symposia, and other outreach efforts that target under-represented groups in STEM. Similarly, the Challenge and Cluster Support programs and Ideation Fund projects have significant flexibility in their terms and conditions, which allows for targeting the participation of equity-deserving groups. Notable examples of this can be seen through the Artic and Northern Challenge program, which targets Northern Indigenous populations.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

Through 11 active Challenge programs and 5 active Cluster Support programs, CSTIP continues to integrate GBA Plus in its partnership activities with private, public, academic and other research organizations within and outside Canada. CSTIP provides grant and contribution funding for external collaborators with complementary capabilities (for example, SMEs, post-secondary institutions and non-profit research organizations).

All CSTIP challenge programs are co-developed through stakeholder engagement, with GBA Plus considerations factored into program design as well as the composition of external peer review and advisory committees. Furthermore, all CSTIP proposals require information on GBA Plus considerations and recipients are to report back on their GBA Plus strategies. Similarly, GBA Plus reviews are also included in Ideation Fund proposals.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: In 2024-25, the program will continue to collect data against GBA Plus indicators and information from project teams to be used for annual reporting.

Program name: Industrial Research Assistance Program

Program goals: NRC IRAP aims to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grow through innovation and stimulate wealth creation for Canada. NRC IRAP achieves this by providing advisory services and financial support to firms and further by contributing to partner organizations that offer support services to SMEs. NRC IRAP incorporates GBA Plus practices by fostering programs that provide funding and advisory services to SMEs owned or led by persons identifying as being from equity-deserving groups. Equally, NRC IRAP works with SMEs that are looking to develop or improve their firm's EDI strategies and clients that develop products and/or services for diverse markets.

Target population: All Canadians, SMEs, science & technology industry

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Second group: 60% to 79% men
• By income level: Third group: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes: SMEs are the primary beneficiaries of IRAP. According to voluntary and self-reported data from StatsCan, majority ownership (51% or more) rates of SMEs in Canada indicates over 60% owned by a man. NRC IRAP has a voluntary process for self-declaration and uses this information to inform efforts to provide support to firms owned or led by women, Indigenous Peoples, racialized persons and persons with disabilities.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

In 2023-24, to support the diversity of entrepreneurs, NRC IRAP established CTOs to address the needs and barriers for the following groups:

• Persons living with disabilities
• Indigenous Peoples
• Racialized peoples
• Gender diverse and women entrepreneurs.

These CTOs covered services in areas including investment readiness, inclusive hiring, business mentorship opportunities, newcomer accelerator integration, commercialization and go-to-market strategies. Working with Toronto Metropolitan University's Diversity Institute, 26 NRC IRAP clients received customized EDI assessment reports and advisory services to begin implementing plans for the adoption of EDI principles in their workplaces including increasing hiring, inclusive design and addressable market.

NRC IRAP's YEP focused efforts on strengthening EDI to ensure the Canadian job market has a highly qualified and skilled youth workforce from all backgrounds and abilities. In 2023-24, the program set targets for Indigenous Peoples, members of a racialized group, persons with disabilities, youth living in rural/remote communities, youth living in language minority communities and women. Results indicate that the program not only reached the targets for 5 of the 6 groups, but also surpassed targets by a wide margin. The result for Indigenous Peoples was 2% (target of 1%), member of a racialized group was 25% (target of 15%), youth with a disability was 6% (target of 1%), youth living in rural and remote communities was 5% (target of 2%), youth living in official language minority communities was 7% (target of 2%) and lastly, 47% of participants self-identified as women, which was very close to the target of 50%.

NRC IRAP analyzed the recommendations from 2 accessibility reviews contracted in 2021. Based on this analysis, implementation plans were developed with the objective of ensuring NRC IRAP client outreach products are accessible and inclusive.

NRC IRAP continued to use modern recruiting tools to attract, retain and develop a diverse workforce and continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian capacity. NRC IRAP's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability (LMA) was 0.97 for women, and 2.31 for racialized persons in 2023-24.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: International Affiliations

Program goals: International Affiliations (IA) maintains memberships in international science and technology organizations so that Canada can participate and contribute to international endeavours that promote the exchange and dissemination of knowledge in the most advanced areas of scientific and industrial research.

Target population: All Canadians, researchers, international organizations or alliances

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

The national and international scientific research community benefits directly from this program. The program itself is broadly gender-balanced and shows no significant distributional impacts, inter-generational impacts, or differences in impacts between youth and seniors. Since one of the program's main goals is to ensure that 100% of funded organizations have programs to support EDI, researchers from groups that have historically been underrepresented in the scientific research community, such as women, Indigenous Peoples, racialized person or persons with disabilities may benefit directly from this program.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The International Affiliations program aims for all funded organizations to have programs to support EDI. The program funds a wide variety of scientific discipline based international unions or committees, which helps them achieve their EDI goals. The actions taken by the supported organizations contribute to improving the impact of the programs on diverse groups and removing barriers to accessibility. For example, one of the supported unions joined the Standing Committee on Gender Equality in Science in 2023-24, and will provide grants to young women researchers in support of women and girls' equal access to science education, and equal opportunity and treatment. Another supported union created a code of conduct and hosted a virtual workshop to share experiences and best practices on Indigenous engagement. The program funds organizations (scientific discipline based international unions or committees) that are committed to transparency and equity.

The program engages with representatives of each Canadian National Committee (CNC) responsible for specific international affiliations to assess evolving priorities, most valued benefits of the program to participants and to understand the needs of each CNC. GBA Plus has been integrated into the annual performance review process to track the initiatives and projects of the CNCs that benefit equity-deserving groups.

In addition, the International Affiliations program has integrated GBA Plus into its governance structure. An advisory committee for the program has now met through 5 full fiscal years, drawing on cross government science departments and agencies and deploying diverse expertise to leverage Canadian international science objectives.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: Not applicable

Program name: TRIUMF

Program goals: TRIUMF is a national laboratory that seeks to transfer knowledge, train highly skilled personnel, and commercialize research for the economic, social, environmental, and health benefit of all Canadians. The NRC plays an important oversight and stewardship role for TRIUMF Inc. on behalf of the Government of Canada, but is not directly involved in designing and running the organization's operations.

Target population: All Canadians, academia, students, researchers

Distribution of benefits: Not applicable

Specific demographic group outcomes:

TRIUMF Inc. directly benefits the academic community, specifically students and researchers in the STEM field. Since the program directly benefits students and STEM researchers, the impact on diverse groups often depends on the demographic make-up of post-secondary students and their chosen fields of study.

In Canada, some demographic groups show lower rates of participation in post-secondary education and representation in the STEM field. This includes Indigenous youth, youth from low-income backgrounds, and youth from rural areas. Additionally, due to the demographic composition of the talent pool in STEM fields, it is likely that there will be more male participants. TRIUMF Inc. aims to identify the barriers to participation faced by equity-deserving groups and find solutions to remove them. In addition to campaigns to raise awareness about its activities among youth and equity-deserving groups, TRIUMF Inc. has put in place an undergraduate fellowship (Richard E. Azuma Summer Fellowships) that actively recruits members of equity-deserving groups, and has actively hired students from traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

In 2023-24, the organization's first EDI Action Plan was launched. The plan was developed to guide organizational actions and deliverables to the end of the current funding cycle in March 2025. Endorsed by the TRIUMF leadership team, the plan contains 21 objectives, 18 of which were completed or underway by March 31, 2024. Highlights from 2023-24:

• Reviewing and releasing key policies, including a new site-wide Code of Conduct.
• Initiating a multiphase EDI assessment led by an external contractor from the Laurier Centre for Women in Science. The first comprehensive assessment of its type, this research will include personnel interviews (approximately 10% of TRIUMF staff) and a site-wide survey to collect valuable qualitative and quantitative data from across the organization on a range of EDI topics.
• Piloting of 2 new mentorship programs for early career researchers, and women and gender-diverse individuals.
• Establishing a graduate-level scholarship for women and members of other underrepresented groups in STEM.
• Engaging with local Indigenous communities through participation in conferences and working with educators from local communities.
• Developing a framework for Truth and Reconciliation activities at TRIUMF to increase understanding and awareness.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: The NRC supports requirements related to monitoring the advancement of equity across gender and other dimensions through its oversight and stewardship role in TRIUMF's governance structure. However, TRIUMF's current process does not allow for data collection on an ongoing basis. An initial phase of the comprehensive survey and data collection exercise identified as a priority in the organization's EDI Action Plan was completed, and work is expected to continue throughout 2024-25.

Program name: National Science Library

Program goals: The goal of the National Science Library (NSL) is to support the advancement of knowledge through a range of information-related services to the public and other libraries. The NSL program incorporates GBA Plus in its activities byensuring that content is easily accessible to all Canadians, and that a NSL catalogues contain resources that support and represent EDI.

Target population: All Canadians and OGDs

Distribution of benefits:

• By gender: Broadly gender-balanced
• By income level: No significant distributional impacts
• By age group: No significant inter-generational impacts or impacts between youth and seniors

Specific demographic group outcomes:

All Canadians directly benefit from the NSL as a public platform that seeks to support and encourage the advancement of knowledge through a range of public information-related services. The program is working to actively digitalize content in order to improve accessibility for those that are unable to access physical repositories. However, it is important to note that individuals living in remote regions and rural areas with limited access to the internet or NSL resources may continue to face barriers to participating and accessing NSL services.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The NSL offered a range of information-related services to the public and other libraries to increase access to information to the wider public. Services included online access to digital content through the NRC's publicly available repositories (NRC Publications Archive and the Digital Repository), a searchable catalogue and information discovery platform, and reference/interlibrary loan services with other libraries. The public catalogue, the NRC Publications Archive, and the Digital Repository provided access to Government of Canada scientific information and research while adhering to all requirements under the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The NRC has made continued efforts to increase anti-racism resources for NRC employees and content specific to equity-deserving groups such as women in STEM and Indigenous Peoples. Through the NSL, the NRC purchased library resources related to anti-racism and Indigenous engagement practises, updated content in resource guides related to anti-racism and Indigenous engagement practises in research and the workplace, including books, reports, statistics and academic articles.

The NSL is committed to the principles of open science and open government ensuring its research outputs are freely accessible through its repositories. The program also established the Federal Open Science Repository of Canada, a portal offering public, web-based access to federally authored scientific articles and publications from other Government of Canada departments and agencies, which launched in early 2024.

Under the NSL program, the NRC led the Federal Science Libraries Network (FSLN), dedicated to supporting the Government of Canada's priorities in research, innovation, and open science. This mission involved collaborating in the development and delivery of innovative infrastructure, systems, tools, resources, and services for the NRC and its federal science-based departments and agency partners. To advance open science, the FSLN has negotiated several transformative or open access agreements that covered open access publishing fees for federally authored peer-reviewed articles. In 2023, these agreements facilitated the open access publishing of 133 articles that would have otherwise been published behind a paywall.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: NSL has implemented a GBA Plus data collection plan to assess the impacts of its efforts in enhancing access to scientific information for equity-deserving groups and to understand the benefits for diverse communities. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected on specific GBA Plus initiatives in the form of usage statistics and client feedback, serving as evidence of the NSL's accomplishments and impacts on diverse groups. This included initiatives to digitize and make NRC collections publicly available, reducing barriers to accessing information and increasing accessibility for all Canadians. To better assess the effectiveness of the initiatives, the program also gathered data on the quantity of items being transformed into a digital format, as well as the number of downloads and views received after being published online.

Program name: Business Management Support

Program goals: The goal of the Business Management Support program is to provide critical client engagement, technology transfer, and commercialization support to NRC research programs. The Business Management Support program applies GBA Plus to its activities by ensuring that its hiring practices reflect an EDI lens that facilitates candidates from diverse backgrounds who are applying to the program's job openings.

Target population: NRC employees (internal programs)

Distribution of benefits: Not applicable

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Since the primary beneficiaries of the program are internal NRC employees, this program supports government operations that benefit all Canadians. Some NRC employees who require special accessibility requirements may face barriers in accessing the program's services. Business Management Support is committed to identifying these barriers and adjusting the program to fit the accessibility needs of all employees.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity: Not applicable

Key program impact statistics: Not applicable

GBA Plus data collection plan: In addition to setting hiring targets and collecting data to build its diverse workforce, in 2024-25, BMS will review Business Development Community of Practice activities and Business Development on-boarding material through a GBA Plus lens to identify potential barriers to participation and to improve initiative and services provided to the NRC's Business Development employees.

Program name: Design and Fabrication Services

Program goals: Design and Fabrication Services (DFS) includes a comprehensive and national set of services to all NRC programs and Science and Technology (S&T) initiatives in custom and innovative computer-aided design, high-precision mechanical engineering, expert fabrication and advice on quality.

Target population: NRC employees (internal programs)

Distribution of benefits: Not applicable

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Since the primary beneficiaries of the program are internal NRC employees, DFS supports government operations for all Canadians. Some NRC employees who require special accessibility requirements may face barriers in accessing the program's services. DFS is committed to identifying these barriers and adjusting the program to fit the accessibility needs of all employees.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The outputs of DFS directly contribute to the success of research, technology development and the advancement of knowledge for the NRC. Furthermore, efficiencies are generated through a managed work environment across 13 DFS locations to maximize utilization of its people and resources. As a support group, the impact of DFS' work on GBA Plus can be seen in the results of the Research Centre projects to which the program has contributed.

Key program impact statistics: Not applicable

GBA Plus data collection plan: The enabling programs are internal programs providing client engagement, technology transfer and commercialization support to NRC employees, enabling the delivery of other NRC programs. The DFS program continued to set targets and collect data on its work to build and expand diverse Canadian STEM capacity. The program's ratio of new hires from equity-deserving groups relative to the Canadian average labour market availability was 2.16 for women, and 2.33 for racialized persons in 2023-24.

Program name: Research Information and Technology Platforms

Program goals: Research Information and Technology Platforms (RITP) ensures that researchers at the NRC have access to a multitude of IT tools and support services that are critical to delivering research outcomes. The program integrates GBA Plus in its activities by following the NRC's 2023-2025 Accessibility Plan to ensure that services are fully accessible to all end-users.

Target population: NRC employees (internal programs)

Distribution of benefits: Not applicable

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Since the primary beneficiaries of the program are internal NRC employees, RITP supports government operations that serve all Canadians. Some NRC employees who require special accessibility requirements may face barriers in accessing the program's services. RITP follows the NRC's 2023-2025 Accessibility Plan and is committed to identifying these barriers and adjusting the program to fit the accessibility needs of all employees.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

The NRC's Knowledge, Information and Technology Services (KITS) branch is responsible for the RITP program and introduced a range of software tools in 2023-24 to promote accessibility and GBA Plus considerations, including Dragon Professional v16 with speech recognition and control, as well as PDF Accessibility Checker to ensure PDF documents meet accessibility standards.

A comprehensive list of training materials has been published for IT professionals to improve their knowledge of accessibility and these materials were made available to developers. Developers were equipped with tools that enabled them to create custom IT solutions and forms in an accessible manner. This ensured that accessibility issues on websites and applications were identified and resolved, making products accessible to all users.

Key program impact statistics:

GBA Plus data collection plan: KITS is committed to provide easy access to GBA Plus resources and plans to enhance the Service Catalog by offering options specifically tailored for the GBA Plus client group. This will be tracked in the project's dashboard, allowing users to easily browse through available IT services, hardware, software, and support options.

Ongoing tasks initiated in 2023-24 will be further developed in the next fiscal year, including regular accessibility assessments of current websites and applications, creating an inventory of digital resources, and prioritizing and tracking improvement.

Program name: Special Purpose Real Property

Program goals: NRC's Special Purpose Real Property (SPRP) program engages in a wide range of activities in support of its real property portfolio. Those activities may be broadly grouped into 3 general classes:

• Routine maintenance of existing real property assets
• Capital improvements and major modifications to existing real property assets
• Changes to the NRC real property portfolio though purchase, sale, lease or license

SPRP incorporates GBA Plus in its activities by leading initiatives that improve the accessibility of NRC's real property (buildings, parking facilities and designated drop-off zones) as per the NRC's 2023-2025 Accessibility Plan.

Target population: NRC employees (internal programs)

Distribution of benefits: Not applicable

Specific demographic group outcomes:

Since the primary beneficiaries of the program are internal NRC employees, this program supports government operations that serve all Canadians. Some NRC employees who require special accessibility requirements may face barriers in accessing the program's services. SPRP is committed to identifying these barriers and adjusting the program to fit the accessibility needs of all employees.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity:

In 2023-24, the Real Property Planning and Management (RPPM) Branch, which is responsible for the SPRP program completed various action items from the NRC Accessibility Plan:

• completed accessibility audits for all buildings to ensure compliance with current accessibility standards such as accessible parking and main entrances, washrooms, and elevator/lifting devices.
• started developing a process to engage with persons with disabilities for the planning, implementation and post-implementation stages for new builds and retrofits to existing buildings to address accessibility and piloting with M-55 Office Consolidation Project.
• began developing a phased approach to add accessible walkways to navigate the Uplands Campus in Ottawa, with design completion anticipated for 2024-25.
• participated in the Interdepartmental Community of Practice on Accessibility in Federal Science Laboratories.
• included accessibility upgrades (where applicable) in all major renovation projects and began to incorporate accessible washroom facilities into all major washroom renovations.

For 2024, action items from the NRC Accessibility Plan include:

• completing development of the process to engage with persons with disabilities for the planning, implementation and post-implementation stages of new builds and retrofits to existing buildings
• utilizing tools to help identify deficiencies with respect to accessibility issues in the management of real property assets (buildings)
• completing the design of the Uplands Campus approach for accessible walkways
• engaging with building owners for all NRC-leased facilities to develop strategies to address accessibility deficiencies.

In 2023-24, the NRC's Office of Facilities Renewal Management (OFRM) developed GBA Plus project criteria to help ensure new and existing investment projects are equitable and inclusive.

OFRM worked with the NRC's GBA Plus Focal Point to create a GBA Plus questionnaire that assesses how well the project meets the NRC's GBA Plus and inclusive innovation goals by identifying potential impacts of the investment on various groups and measures to promote inclusivity and equitable access to benefits.

Key program impact statistics: Not applicable

GBA Plus data collection plan: The creation of GBA Plus criteria for new and existing investment projects, data for existing projects that were approved under the first wave is expected to be available in 2024-25 and data on all new proposals starting with the second wave in the fall of 2024 is expected to begin in 2025-26.