• What's New at BIRS?
• NSERC Funding for BIRS

What's New at BIRS?

February 20, 2006

Nassif Ghoussoub (BIRS Scientific Director)

1.  BIRS Upcoming Second Phase

A proposal for the renewal of the BIRS funding, was submitted to NSERC on January 21st, 2005. Representing 4 different governments, NSERC, ASRA, CONACYT and the NSF joined hands in an unprecedented collaborative effort to evaluate the scientific impact of the station and to decide in tandem about the renewal of their funding. This culminated in a site visit to BIRS on March 21, 2005 by a committee of experts representing the four foundations. The following academic and scientific leaders actively participated in making the case for BIRS during the site visit.

Nassif Ghoussoub (BIRS Scientific Director),
Ivar Ekeland (PIMS Director),
David Eisenbud (MSRI Director),
Arvind Gupta (MITACS Scientific Director),
Jose Antonio de La Pena (IM-UNAM),
Alejandro Adem (PIMS Deputy Director),
Shelley Alvarado (BIRS Managing Director),
Rene Drucker Colin (VP Research, UNAM, Mexico),
Martin Taylor (VP Research, U. Victoria),
Don Brooks (Associate VP Research, UBC),
Gary Kachanoski (VP Research, U. Alberta),
Dennis R. Salahub (VP Research, Calgary),
Michael Plischke (Dean of Science, SFU),
Mary Hofstetter (President and CEO of Banff Conference Centre),
Bob Church (Chair Emeritus of the Board of ASRA),
Hermann Brunner (AARMS Director, Memorial U.),
Francois Lalonde (Director, CRM, Montreal),
Barbara Keyfitz (Director, Fields Institute, Toronto),
Mark Green (Director, IPAM, Los Angeles),
James Carlson (President Clay Institute),
Maria Klawe (Dean of Engineering, Princeton),
Charles Neuman (Courant Institute,Director),
Selim Tuncell (Head of Math, U. Washington),
Eddy Campbell (Provost, Memorial U. and CMS President),
Ken Jackson (President of CAIMS),
Helmut Hofer (Courant Institute),
Mark Lewis (U. Alberta),
David Brydges (UBC),
Randy Goebel (ICORE Director),
Nancy Reid (President, SSC, U. Toronto),
Rachel Kuske (UBC),
Keith Promislow (Michigan State U.),
John McKenna (Ballard Corporation),
Robert Miura (NJIT).

The world scientific community also came out in strength to support the station as a unique international resource, as more than 600 letters of testimonials in support of BIRS were received from all over the world (We refer to the Book of testimonials).

2.  Decisions for Full Funding by ASRA, NSF and CONACYT

In July 2005, the Alberta minister of Innovation and Science Victor Doerksen -at the recommendation of the Alberta Science Research Authority (ASRA)- announced his decision to award $3,325,000 in support of the scientific activities of BIRS for a period of five years starting in 2006. In August, 2005, the National Science Foundation also announced its decision for the funding ($US 2,641,500) of BIRS for the next 5 years. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) followed suite in April 2006 and awarded BIRS $2,840,000 for the same period. These are the full amounts requested in the BIRS proposal from the three foundations. We also have a pledge of $300,000 from the Director General of Mexico's CONACYT for this groundbreaking North American collaboration. Moreover, the Board of Directors of PIMS and of the MITACS network have officially approved the full amounts that BIRS had requested in the proposal from the two organizations: $990,000 for MITACS and $1,160,000 for PIMS for the period 2006-2010. These amounts are in addition to the travel support that the various partnering institutions have pledged over the period 2006-10 (see below).

3.  Highlights of Changes in the Mission of the Station

The original proposal stated the following objectives to be implemented in the next phase. Many of these have already been implemented. Namely:

• The expansion of the North American partnership by involving the Mexican mathematical community in the scientific management of BIRS and in its operations. The director of IM-UNAM is already a full-fledged member of the BIRS executive committee which has already had several decisive meetings about panel memberships and a new modus operandi.
• The increase of BIRS opportunities: We have extended the 2006 program from 40 to 44 weeks in 2006. Plans are being made to increase the programme to 48 weeks per year beginning in 2007. This expansion has been well received by the community since we have received over 120 proposals for workshops and summer schools for 2007. The BIRS scientific panel met on November 19th, 2005 to make the selections for the 2007 programme.
• The coordination of a global effort to secure travel support to the Station for its invited participants. So far, MITACS has pledged $500,000 for travel to BIRS industrially oriented workshops and schools. PIMS has committed $500,000 for Canadian participants with no research grants. MSRI has pledged $250,000 for US participants, while CONACYT has provided $250,000 for the support of Mexican participants travel to BIRS. Moreover, $125,000 was provided by the Vice-Rector for research at UNAM to pay for the travel expenses to BIRS for that University's students and faculty members.
• The strengthening of BIRS commitment to Women in Mathematics and other underrepresented groups by providing continued support to their initiatives and their organizations. The BIRS scientific panel has already assigned -for the 2006 programme- a full workshop for Women in Mathematics, and a half-workshop on First Nations; Mathematics and Science Education. Moreover, a full week has been approved for a coordinated effort between the Women in Mathematics and Mentoring for Engineering Academia initiatives in 2007.
• Intensifying the involvement of BIRS in K-14 education, including teachers training. The 2006 and 2007 programmes already include workshops for high school teachers as well as for special training camps to prepare the Canadian team for the International Math Olympiad.
• Improvement of the dissemination of all research, and educational material developed at BIRS. Video streaming has been moved to the Vancouver office where more staffing is available, and is now more rapidly accessible on the web.
• Development of a more robust evaluation and assessment system for the impact of BIRS. The need for a series of well-defined benchmarks which will help establish the degree of success of the BIRS programmes has been recognized. The following steps are being implemented:
• The collection of relevant data on all BIRS participants which can be easily stored and processed. The database will be expanded to include information on gender, area of specialization, academic age, institutional affiliation, etc. Over time this will constitute a valuable tool for measuring the diversity of our programs as well as its impact across the global mathematical community. The data will be carefully analyzed to determine whether or not there is an adequate involvement by students, postdocs and young researchers, as well as to ensure the presence of traditionally underrepresented groups.
• Reports from organizers will continue to be solicited in a timely and efficient way. These reports describe the main accomplishments of their workshops, pointing to specific results and publications. The reports are made available to the public on the BIRS web page.
• BIRS is currently developing a suitable exit survey on the quality of the workshops, facilities and service at the Station.
• An external review of BIRS by an international panel of distinguished mathematical scientists will be commissioned during the third year of this grant. The panel will be asked to produce a comprehensive report, which will be shared with the funding agencies. Any corrective measure and adjustment prompted by this review will be implemented.
• A guideline for "best practices" based on experiences at BIRS as well as at similar institutions around the world (such as Oberwolfach) is being developed. By sharing information and past experiences, one can build on previous successes and avoid unnecessary problems and weaknesses. This is of course a challenge for every scientific institute, and BIRS will seek to work closely with others to further develop our expertise.

4.  Implementation of Changes in the Scientific Management

In terms of the scientific management of the station, the following changes have been implemented in conjunction with the recommendations of the joint site visit panel by the four funding agencies.

• All programs will be reviewed and adjudicated by the BIRS Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). This body is the only one given the authority to accept or reject proposals for scientific activities, be it workshops, summer schools or hot topics. No input or recommendation will be solicited from either the PIMS or the MSRI scientific panels, breaking away from the modus operandi of the first 3 years of the Station. The Program Committee -a subset of the SAB- will stress scientific excellence while seeking to ensure adequate representation of all areas of math sciences, as well as an appropriate geographic balance among organizers.
• The Executive Committee consisting of the directors of PIMS, MSRI, MITACS and UNAM now forms a separate body dealing solely with issues pertaining to management. The Scientific Director of BIRS is the liaison between this committee and the SAB. No institute director will be serving on the BIRS Scientific Advisory Board.
• BIRS is coordinating its activities with those of other mathematical institutes around the world. BIRS has made agreements with two sister research facilities, the MFO (in Oberwolfach) and the AIM (American Institute for Mathematics in Palo alto) to coordinate their programmes so as to avoid duplication and to maximize opportunities. The 2007 programme is currently being developed in total coordination with the MFO and the AIM.
• The requirement to have a Canadian and American organizer for each 5-day workshop has been removed. The competition will be open to all, excellence will be the primary criterion, seeking to have diversity among the organizers so that a broad spectrum of mathematical sciences will be represented at BIRS.

The main goal in implementing the changes above is to ensure the existence of a transparent and uniform governance structure, that will enable BIRS to attract the best proposals from all over the world.

5.  BIRS, the Other Institutes and NSERC

BIRS is unique and substantially different from any other Canadian scientific initiative, since it is a multi-national operation that is jointly managed, reviewed, evaluated and funded by several government agencies with similar stakes in the project. It is also groundbreaking and for that we have been advocating the implementation of a new NSERC programme (possibly an MFA sub-envelope for international projects) that deals with truly collaborative multi-national initiatives such as BIRS-one that is flexible enough to react to international partnerships and to adapt appropriately to other countries timetables, evaluation procedures and their willingness to invest in scientific research on Canadian soil. Here are other important facts about BIRS and its relationship with other organizations dedicated to the support of the world mathematical community.

BIRS is a resource for other institutes and organizations.

From the very beginning, BIRS has been conceived as a major infrastructural resource for the world mathematical science community and its institutions. Several institutes have already used the BIRS facility to develop workshops and summer schools that complement their thematic scientific programs.

BIRS, PIMS and MSRI.

In the first phase of BIRS, the PIMS (resp., MSRI) scientific panel had the option to recommend 12 (resp., 6) workshops per year to the BIRS scientific panel. As per the request of the site visit panel and the NSF, this procedure will cease to be applied beginning with the 2007 programme. As said before, all programs are solely reviewed and adjudicated by the BIRS Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) on which no institute director sits.

BIRS and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences

It is important that the scientific community understands the relationship between the two institutions. PIMS, with the assistance of MITACS, MSRI and IM-UNAM, remains in charge of all issues related to the administrative management of BIRS. The constitution of the BIRS Executive Committee, chaired by the PIMS director, reflects this arrangement. The PIMS Board of Directors continues to be the body that assumes the fiscal responsibility for BIRS.

On the other hand, it is important to emphasize that the new modus operandi for the scientific activities of BIRS is totally independent from the PIMS operation. The BIRS scientific board gives no priority nor any special consideration to the scientific mandate of PIMS. It treats proposals from scientists at PIMS-affiliated universities in the very same way as those coming from the scientific community at large. In other words, we view the supporting role of PIMS to BIRS as a great contribution to Canadian science: It prevents duplication of costly administrative structures, it avoids the mobilization of additional academic and non-academic human resources for accountable Boards of Directors, while optimizing the use of Canada's resources for scientific research. Besides investing its own resources in BIRS, the responsibility of managing the station on behalf of the world scientific community is no doubt a substantially demanding task for the PIMS organization. Nevertheless, the PIMS Board of Directors feels that its investments are being amply rewarded by the huge international prestige that PIMS gets, in lending its substantial and crucial support to the exceptional world scientific resource that BIRS represents.

NSERC Funding for BIRS

March 24, 2006

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded full funding for the Banff International Research Station (BIRS). This grant of $2,875,000 for the period 2006/2011 complements the $3.1 million (US$2,641,500) awarded to BIRS by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the largest NSF award ever received in Canada, and the $3.4 million from the Alberta government, based on a recommendation by the Alberta Science Research Authority.

The Station is administered by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) in collaboration with the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems Network (MITACS), the Berkeley-based Mathematical Science Research Institute (MSRI) and the Instituto de Matematicas at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM).

Nassif Ghoussoub, FRSC
Scientific Director, Banff International Research Station
Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Columbia
Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta