CAIMS*SCMAI E-News Volume 07 Number 3 April 12, 2007 Editor: Rod Edwards (edwards@math.uvic.ca) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS Special Issue: 1. NSERC increases mathematics institutes funding 2. CAIMS*SCMAI membership renewal reminder 3. CAIMS*SCMAI E-News Information -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 1 ====== From: Bill Langford Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2007 09:39:22 -0400 NSERC INCREASES MATHEMATICS INSTITUTES FUNDING The three Canadian mathematics institutes, le Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM), the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) all have received significant increases in their level of funding from NSERC. The increases are close to 25% and the grants are for a five year duration. This provides a stable base for growth of the institutes' programs and is very good news for Canadian mathematics. This success comes in the first competition under NSERC's new Major Resources Support (MRS) program. The mathematics institutes were reviewed in competition with other major national scientific resources. The large increase allocated to the mathematics institutes (more than half of the new funding available in the competition) is proof of the outstanding quality and growing international stature of these Canadian mathematics institutes. CAIMS members are strong supporters of the mathematics institutes and of their broad mandate in the mathematical sciences, which spans traditional pure and applied mathematics research as well as multidisciplinary research, industrial applications and mathematics education. They have become an essential resource, not only for Canadian mathematics but for Canadian science. CAIMS strongly supported the institutes in this funding competition by sending letters to NSERC and representatives to all three of the institute site visits. On this happy occasion, we have invited each of the three institute directors to present a statement to the CAIMS membership, describing their institute's activities and future plans. These statements follow below, arbitrarily ordered from West to East. =================================== PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES IVAR EKELAND, DIRECTOR The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) is pleased to announce that its grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has been renewed for a further five-year period, and increased to $5.5-million for the period 2008-2013. Ivar Ekeland, Director of PIMS, said, "This has been a great year for PIMS. Alberta doubled the size of our grant, the French CNRS is entering into a permanent agreement, the only one of its kind in North America, British Columbia is interested in our First Nations Education program, and now we have this great news from NSERC. This shows the extent of support for PIMS, both inside and outside our borders. We are all tremendously encouraged, and are committed to live up to these expectations." With continued funding secured from a variety of sources, PIMS will continue to address its core mission, as outlined in its statutes: to promote research in the mathematical sciences; to strengthen ties and collaboration between the mathematical scientists in the academic community, in the industrial and business sector, and in government; to enhance education and training in mathematical sciences, and broadening communication of mathematical ideas; and to create strong mathematical partnerships and links within Canada and with organizations in other countries. PIMS will immediately implement the new ideas contained in our successful proposal: in September, 2007, we will inaugurate the first of its International Graduate Training Centres (IGTC), in Mathematical Biology, bringing together disciplines and colleagues from PIMS member universities in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. Further details about this exciting new program are forthcoming. We will also continue our very successful post-doctoral fellowships program and we will launch new collaborative research groups (CRGs) and industrial initiatives in strategic areas, such as the mathematics of the environment, in close cooperation with our international partners in Latin American and around the Pacific Rim. PIMS is grateful to NSERC for the increase in support for the mathematical institutes in Canada, and congratulates Fields and CRM on the success of their applications. We thank all members of the PIMS community for their support during the renewal process and the site visit, and their outstanding contributions to science during the past granting period, which has made our continued success possible. =================================== FIELDS INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES BARBARA KEYFITZ, DIRECTOR You offered us a chance to say something. Here are my thoughts on the subject (this will appear in more detail in the next Fields Notes). First, I'd like to recognize the excellent results of the competition. Though one never gets all one asks for, or wants, the three institutes collectively garnered 60% of the million-dollar increase that NSERC had put into the competition. We were also very impressed with the quality of the site visit team: the fact that such distinguished people agreed to serve says great things about our reputations, and the fact that such an excellent team was put together speaks very favourably of NSERC's commitment to giving the institutes a fair hearing. Finally, it's clear that we were able to make our case to a committee consisting mainly of people outside of mathematical sciences. The congratulations go, of course, to the whole community: each institute had enormous help from many people in putting together the proposals and the site visits. The second thing is that after a period of nine months in which the three mathematical sciences institutes were placed in direct competition with each other, it is a tremendous relief to be able to return to the normal state of cooperation with each other. We all, in our proposals, made a commitment to work together to achieve common objectives that will benefit the Canadian community: providing support jointly for important events like the 2008 Canada-France meeting and ICIAM 2011, working with AARMS and NPCDS to help them obtain stable funding, and helping to plan a national network. I'd like to thank you especially for reminding us of the opportunity to send messages about our events to CAIMS members, through your newsletter. Fields tries to do so. Of course, we select what we think will be of interest, and we aren't always correct. Our message though is that the events we run reflect the interests and energy of the community, so by all means encourage CAIMS members to propose activities. ================================= CENTRE DE RECHERCHES MATHEMATIQUES FRANCOIS LALONDE, DIRECTEUR For the first time, the three mathematical institutes were competing within a new programme open to all disciplines represented at NSERC. Given the severe budgets constraints of that programme, and the low success rate, they did very well. More than half of the new funds available in that competition were awarded to increase the overall budget of the three institutes. NSERC's funding to the CRM increased by 25 percent to 6 M$ over the five-year period 2008-2013. This is the result of many factors: the exceptional quality of the achievements of the institutes over the last five years, the new era of collaboration between the three directors, Barbara Keyfitz, Ivar Ekeland and myself when we began our mandate simultaneously, and the commitment of so many groups of scientists in Canada and abroad who helped us reach the highest standards that should characterize an institute. At the CRM, 40 percent of our activities are carried out with researchers who are not funded by the 336-337 committees. This means that the CRM is a focal point for researchers from a large array of disciplines. It is obvious that the success in this competition is the result of a collective effort over five years that started under Jacques Hurtubise's direction and involves some of the best researchers in the world. Over the last four years, the CRM has increased its foreign funding by 400 %: from 100K per year four years ago, it is now 500 K (NSF, Clay, NATO's civil division at Brussels, INSERM, INRIA, CNRS,...). Without this international support, the CRM would not have performed at such a level. As nice as the results of the competition could appear, it will be a challenge to reach the end of the next funding period (2013) without increasing in a drastic way other international sources of funds. The CRM's direction would like to acknowledge the exceptional quality of NSERC's staff: they set up a top-level site visit committee and helped each of the institutes at every stage in the most dedicated way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 2 ====== From: Leah Keshet Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:25:50 -0700 (PDT) Dear CAIMS friends and members Most of you receiving this email have already renewed your membership in CAIMS for 2007. If so, the Society thanks you for your continued support. If not, it is not too late to renew your membership, or to sign up your student(s), post-doctoral fellow(s) or young colleagues. Remember that you can now charge CAIMS membership dues to your NSERC grant. We count on you to help maintain the strength of CAIMS with your continued membership and support. Thanks again, Leah Edelstein-Keshet, Membership committee -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 3 ====== CAIMS*SCMAI E-News Information CAIMS*SCMAI E-News is distributed electronically several times a year by the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society/Societe Canadienne de Mathematiques Appliquees et Industrielles (http://www.caims.ca). Past issues are available on the web at http://www.caims.ca/Society/pub.html Submissions are welcome and should be sent in plain text format to: caims@caims.ca. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Board or Membership of CAIMS*SCMAI. The editorial policy of this publication is to encourage the discussion of issues and facilitate the dissemination of information relevant to Canadian applied and industrial mathematics. If you wish to have your name removed from the e-mailing list for the CAIMS*SCMAI E-News, please send an email message to caims@caims.ca.