The Honourable James S. Edwards, Vice-President of NSERC and Chair of Council

The Honourable James S. Edwards served as Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Alberta from March 2002 until June 2006. During that time, he was a Trustee of the Alberta Ingenuity Fund for Science and Engineering. Earlier, he was President and CEO of Economic Development Edmonton (1998-2002) and a Member of Parliament (1984-1993). He was President of the Treasury Board in 1993. Prior to his political career, Mr. Edwards spent 29 years in Canadian broadcasting. He remains active in the Edmonton business community, with interests in the manufacturing sector.

He received his honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta in 2006.

Mr. Edwards chairs NSERC’s Executive Committee and is a member of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Selection Board and the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Selection Board.

Message from the Chair

The role of the NSERC Council is to ensure that the agency is faithful to its mandate; to support excellent research, training and innovation in a transparent, accountable and efficient manner. Council members, drawn from academia and the business world, happily serve without financial reward, and have done so for over thirty years.

I count it a privilege to chair this outstanding group of men and women. We are committed to ensuring that NSERC works to obtain the maximum impact for Canada from the investment of public funds and to advance Canada's research and development agenda in collaboration with other agencies.