As we launch our 2020 CIC membership campaign, we are creating a conversation around what membership means and how being a CIC member can help you grow, learn, connect, and recognize in your development as a chemical sciences professional. To give you a sense of what we do at the CIC, here is an update on the exciting initiatives and dialogues we have had over the last year.
2019 has passed quickly and it has been a year of productive collaborations and partnerships. The learning and discussions among staff, board members, board executives, and folks external to the CIC have been invigorating and valuable. Together, we persevere and are progressing on all fronts to meet our collective organizational and societal goals and strategic objectives:
1. Membership: our members are the foundation of the CIC and all of our initiatives are designed to serve this community by providing opportunities for growth, learning, connection, and recognition.
2. Financial Sustainability: in order to provide stellar opportunities for our members, we need this core stability.
3. Capacity Building: we need to ensure that the CIC is well-positioned to keep supporting the Canadian chemical sciences community in the future.
Membership
Our tri-society committee worked hard in 2019 to streamline our membership categories and to ensure that joining the CIC is accessible to chemical science professionals at all stages of their careers.
- All memberships for students (undergraduates and graduates) at Canadian institutions across all of our societies are now complimentary as of 2020.
- Complimentary parental leave memberships.
- Affiliate with multiple societies under the CIC umbrella to encourage collaboration across the chemical sciences.
Industry and Government Relationships and Partnerships
The CIC recognizes the valuable roles that Industry and Government play in the chemical sciences community and we worked to strengthen our partnerships with these sectors in 2019.
- CIC joined CRIN (Clean Resource Innovation Network).
- CIC embarked on a collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada for STEM+ workshop.
- CIC/CSChE is actively engaged with the CIAC (Chemistry Industry Association of Canada) in the area of chemical process safety.
- Increased industry support to and engagement in conferences in 2019.
Member Communication
- New CIC website was launched in April 2019
- Our bi-weekly email newsletter CIC News and the News section of the website featured over 100 stories in 2019. We love highlighting our members and the work that you are doing in these venues, so please get in touch with us to pitch a story.
- New events calendar on the CIC website allows members to find relevant events and submit their own events to include.
- We continue to build and improve the CIC App for our conferences. Let us know what you think and how to make it great. We are very excited about the possibilities as to where this App can take us in the future beyond the conferences.
National and Worldwide Community Engagement
- UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals were introduced into conference programming in 2019 and will continue to be crucial to our 2020 plans.
- CIC continues to be an active member in two advocacy groups providing a face and voice to the Government of Canada: PAGSE (Partnership Group for Science and Engineering) and the CCR (Canadian Consortium for Research).
- CSC is actively engaged with the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and American Chemical Society to advance together the chemistry and chemical sciences professions globally.
- CSChE is an active member of the World Chemical Engineering Council and Engineering Institute of Canada.
- CSCT is connected to Technology Accreditation Canada and other relevant organizations.
- CSC actively supports and engages in the Canadian National Committee for IUPAC (CNC-IUPAC).
- CSC partnered with IUPAC to announce four elements for the “Periodic Table for Younger Chemists” from CCCE 2019 Quebec City. These were the last four elements before the final reveal in Paris in July.
The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering (Can. J. Chem. Eng.)
- Impact factor increased to its highest ever at 1.610.
- Published 3184 pages in 2019, our most ever.
- In partnership with Wiley, CIC members can now receive a 25% discount on open access publishing.
Conferences
Our conferences continued to be crucial components of our programming. The 2019 CCCE and CCEC organizing committees took the opportunity to design events to reflect the increasingly changing face of the chemical sciences:
- 102nd Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CCCE 2019) – June 2019 in Quebec City.
- Over 2400 registrants.
- New programming to reflect important areas for the chemical sciences and society, such as Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Science Advocacy, and the future of chemistry in Canada (Canada2067 program for UG research).
- ChemiSTEAM art exhibit.
- Career development program.
- Revitalized industry program on topics like sustainability, the changing world of Canadian pharma, cannabis and research to start-ups.
- 69th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CCEC 2019) – October 2019 in Halifax.
- Around 650 attendees.
- Plenary sessions featuring industry and government leaders on the challenges and opportunities for chemical engineering in Canada.
- Emerging leaders in chemical engineering session.
- Student program with career development opportunities.
- Industry program, including talks on how to scale-up research for commercialization and the future of work.
2019 was a busy and exciting year at the CIC and we are looking forward to 2020! Join us to grow your career, learn even more about the chemical sciences, connect with other members, and recognize the talented chemical sciences community in Canada.