Archived - This content has been developed for the transition binder for the NRC President, December 2020
Media coverage
In October 2020, 251 news items directly mentioned the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), our programs, or our researchers.
Source of coverage and topics discussed
The NRC and NRC‑related topics were covered by traditional (television, radio, print), and online media. Coverage was generated by international, national, regional, and local media.
Topics of interest for traditional and online media included:
- In early October, CTV, Canadian Manufacturing, Le Soleil, and La Tribune reported that Health Canada had issued a Medical Device Establishment License to Dorma Filtration for its N99 mask, which is completely designed and manufactured in Canada. The invention is the result of a project undertaken by Dorma Filtration in collaboration with the NRC.
- On October 23rd, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a "made‑in‑Canada" vaccine plan. Articles by Re$earch Money, Republic World and Global News reported that NRC IRAP is providing up to $23.2 million in funding to advance six COVID‑19 vaccine candidates in various stages of clinical trials. CBC, The National Post, Precision Vaccinations, La Presse, Toronto Star, reported the federal government had signed a $173 million contract with Quebec's Medicago to buy 76 million doses of its plant‑based COVID‑19 vaccine candidate while British Columbia's Precision NanoSystems will be receiving $18.2 million for its potential vaccine. The Daily Hive, BioWorld and Canadian Manufacturing reported Entos Pharmaceuticals has been awarded $5 million by NRC IRAP to advance its COVID‑19 vaccine candidate named Covigenix.
- The launch of the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium (CAAM) on October 28th by the Canadian Air Mobility Consortium and the NRC was reported in the Victoria Times Colonist, Helicopters Magazine, Aerospace Technology, Unmanned Airspace and Aviation Pros.
- On October 30th, Minister Bains' issued a news release announcing $796,000 in funding for projects related to Pandemic Response Challenge program. The program is providing funding to six collaborative research and development projects aimed at COVID‑19 related gaps and challenges. This announcement was reported by BetaKit.
Most of the media coverage in October was neutral and informative in tone, apart from 31 articles that were positive, and 11 articles that were negative.
- Aerospace Technology, Academia Group and Mirage News wrote positive articles on the NRC and Manitoba's Red River College who've joined forces to establish a training centre for advanced composite materials in aerospace applications.
- Recycling Product News shared Minister Baines' October 16th announcement of two initiatives through the NRC IRAP ‑ Innovative Solutions Canada collaboration to develop more compostable and recyclable PPE. NRC IRAP is collaborating with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada on the initiatives.
- The National Post, National Observer, Charlottetown Guardian, Global News, Kingston Whig Standard and CBC News published positive articles following the Prime Minister's October 23rd announcement of federal funding to Québec's Medicago and B.C.'s Precision NanoSystems. Additional funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) for six vaccine initiatives were also featured in the announcement.
- The Toronto Sun, Pharmaceutical Technology and Drug Genius published positive articles about the BC‑based Symvivo Corporation, which will be receiving advisory services and up to $2.8 million in funding from the NRC IRAP for its COVID‑19 vaccine candidate.
- The National Post, The Kingston Whig Standard, Journal Pioneer, Charlottetown Guardian, Cape Breton Post and St. John's Telegram published an article about the discovery of an Avro Arrow at the bottom of Lake Ontario, after several unsuccessful searches since the 90s. When trying to locate the models, sources used reports found in the NRC archives.
- University of California, Davis, Science Mag and EurekAlert! shared a press release about the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope that enabled astronomers to study a significant number of galaxies in the early universe, and it shows that they might evolve faster than expected. The NRC is a partner in the ALMA.
- The Halifax Chronicle Herald, Charlottetown Guardian, Cape Breton Post and St. John's Telegram reported in a neutral tone that Kraken Robotics of St. John's raised another $10 million to expand its robotics as a service business, on leasehold improvements, equipment, parts and inventory and possible future acquisitions. This is in addition to $2.9 million in funding from NRC IRAP.
- The Canadian Press, Le Nouvellist, Le Soleil, Le Droit, La Voix de l'Est, La Tribune and Le Quotidien reported in a neutral tone that Canadian companies involved with the VTF are ''very concerned'' that proprietary, sensitive or confidential business information will be released as the result of the Opposition motion to have the government provide documentation of its response to the COVID‑19 pandemic.
- The National Observer, Toronto Star, Remi Network, Yorkton This Week and The Battlefords News-Optimist published a negative article stating Canada's building code development system is under scrutiny, with some analysts skeptical that it can produce construction standards necessary for the climate crisis. The NRC is quoted saying that the system operates in an impartial, consensus, and evidence‑based manner and considers broad stakeholder input.
Media coverage from interviews and enquiries
The following news items resulted from media enquiries to the NRC:
- Informe Affaires published an article by Maxime Hébert‑Lévesque on AST's Aluminum Technology Centre. The article discusses the facility's research activities with aluminum.
- The National Observer's Carl Meyer discussed Canada's 2020 National Building code and a report published by Carleton University stating that the requirements for design and construction are not as energy efficient focused as they could be.
- CBC News: The World at Six with Susan Bonner interviewed NRC Vice‑President Lakshmi Krishnan about the race to find a vaccine against COVID‑19. *Link no longer available
- Nikkei Aisia's CK Tan published an article on the current state of the COVID‑19 pandemic in China. The NRC‑CanSino collaboration is discussed. **Article published November 4th
Announcements
- The NRC issued one news release in October 2020.
News releases
Media relations
The NRC received 15 media enquiries in October from international, national, regional, and local outlets. Four requests were for television, three requests came from radio, and eight came from print and online media.
Figure 1 - Text version
The image is of a table, with data about media requests by topic on a scale from 0 to 6. The data points are as follows: Human Health Therapeutics – 6; Aerospace – 2; Construction – 2; Health, Safety and Environment – 1; Automotive and Surface Transportation – 1; Industrial Research Assistance Program – 1; Metrology – 1; Other (Referred Calls) – 1
Topics of interest of media included:
- Best practices to avoid or minimize radon levels in homes (Canadian Contractor Magazine)
- Research activities at AST's Aluminum Technology Centre (Informe Affaires)
- The science of vaccines and vaccine approval protocol (Radio‑Canada, CBC Radio‑One)
- Aeronautic biofuels and contrail testing (Arctic Bear Productions)
- The reasons behind the end of the NRC‑CanSino Biologics collaboration (Nikkei Asia)
- The 2020 National Building Code's approach to energy‑efficiency (National Observer)
- The Strategic Innovation Fund's allocation to COVID‑19 related projects (Freelance)
Social media
The NRC published 222 tweets, 80 LinkedIn posts and 23 Instagram posts in October 2020. The NRC Twitter account earned 215.5K impressions for the month of October, up from up from 83.8K impressions in September. [REDACTED]
Figure 2 - Text version
The image is a map of standard winter time zones in Canada
On October 15th, the NRC LinkedIn account posted an employment opportunity to join NRC IRAP as an Industrial Technology Advisor (ITAs) across Canada. [REDACTED]
The NRC LinkedIn account generated 221.7K post impressions during the month of October. These posts covered:
- Spooky red oil spill containment from the Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering (OCRE) research centre for the NRC's Halloween campaign.
- Daylight saving time reminder with the NRC time zone map.
- Disability Employment Awareness Month post highlighting NRC efforts and employee profiles.
- The NRC's Centre for Air Travel Research (CATR) and Industrial Research Assistance Program's support of SMEs during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
- The Aerospace Research Centre announcement of the newly launched Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM) consortium.
- The PM announcement of up to $23.2M through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to advance six COVID‑19 vaccine candidates in various stages of clinical trials.
- The NRC's Dr. Genevieve Tanguay, VP of Emerging Technologies and Dr. Michel Dumoulin, VP of Engineering, as keynote speakers at the annual conference of The Chemical Institute of Canada.
- OCRE teaming up with Pisces Research Project Management Inc. for a new virtual workshop series that looks at the future of Marine Energy.
- The Aerospace research centre and Red River College launching a new training hub for forming advanced composite materials in aerospace applications.
- The release of the NRC's 2019‑20 annual report.
- Promotion of the Falling Walls World Science Summit where NRC researchers will be recognized.
- Call for proposal submissions for drone project ideas.
- Promotion of the Aging in Place Challenge program.
- The 10th anniversary of the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Agreement between Canada and Brazil.
- Call for Industrial Technology Advisors (ITAs) across Canada to join NRC IRAP.
- An invitation to Canadian SMEs to register for a webinar on October 20, 2020 in support of the upcoming EURIPIDES² and PENTA 2021 synchronized call for proposals, which will officially launch on November 25, 2020.
- Profiles of NRC researchers working on initiatives to fight COVID‑19.
- An announcement that Dr. Carolyn Watters, VP of Digital Technologies Research Centre and Chief Digital Research Officer, will be representing the NRC at two highly reputed virtual conferences this fall.
- The NRC Medical Devices Simulation and Digital Health group teamed up with the Douglas Mental Health Institute, McGill University and l'Université du Québec in Outaouais to develop a remote virtual reality and personalized psychotherapy treatment for the Inuit and First Nation populations in Quebec.
- An announcement of the collaboration with Dorma Filtration to develop made‑in‑Canada N99 masks that will be manufactured using injection moulding, 3D printing and digital technology.
- An announcement of the NRC collaboration with the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, Germany, and Natural Resources Canada to host a virtual event as part of Berlin Science Week on November 6th.
- Promotion of the Nanotechnology research centre's research on allergies.
By the end of October, the NRC Instagram account had followers 2,964, up from 2,850. The most popular post on Instagram was a post on October 16th about 3D printed silver‑coated lattice structures.
The following table shows the top‑five NRC social media posts according to engagement rate:
| Platform | Post | Date Posted |
|---|---|---|
| This weekend we roll back the clocks to end #daylightsaving time. Like our map? You can get your own map of Canada's time zones here: ow.ly/KxgS50C7z4U pic.twitter.com/4DeEsjNSCg | Oct 31 | |
| #NRCAero is proud to be a founding member of the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility consortium, #CAAM! It'll focus on the next evolution of #NetZero aviation to move people, goods & supplies to remote communities. ow.ly/XW3u50C4ZIl @canadianaam photo: @Helijet pic.twitter.com/2nLurEr3Bs | Oct 28 | |
| #DYK? By 2050, older adults will make up 25% of the Canadian population. Our #AgingInPlace Challenge program will prepare for this shift in demographics. Find out how you can get involved: ow.ly/Mo1250BGEjk #NationalSeniorsDay #NRCChallengeAgingInPlace pic.twitter.com/lHooR6kwCi | Oct 1 | |
| How it started vs how it's going #HowItStartedvsHowItsGoing pic.twitter.com/b42CnEeWDu | Oct 14 | |
|
Our Aerospace Research Centre is excited to be a founding member of the newly launched Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM) consortium. It will focus on the next evolution of aviation in transporting people, goods, medical supplies, and offering an array of key services such as wildfire fighting capabilities. The eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft will offer zero emission capability, low noise footprint, greater accessibility to the population and allow connectivity to remote northern communities. Read more about this exciting new venture here: http://ow.ly/SVBV50C5237 #NRCAero #DiscoverTheNRC photo: Helijet International Inc. |
Oct 28 |
The following table shows the highest performing social media post according to impressions:
| Platform | Post | Date Posted |
|---|---|---|
|
Are you passionate about Canadian companies? Do you love helping small and medium‑sized businesses solve challenging and complex business and technology problems? Do you have a gift for sharing your wisdom and finding ways to help others succeed? If so, we may have the perfect opportunity for you! Our Industrial Research Assistance Program is looking to expand their team of Industrial Technology Advisors (ITAs) across Canada. ITAs are seasoned industry professionals who leverage their experience to help Canadian small and medium‑sized businesses by providing advice, referrals or NRC IRAP funding to help them innovate, grow, and thrive. For more information, check out our current available positions: http://ow.ly/g5V550BSJcG #DiscoverTheNRC #IRAP #Hiring #SME #Canada #Innovation #Technology |
Oct 15 |
Interpreting social media metrics
Overall, social media engagement is measured through:
- Impressions (how many users saw a message)
- Photo/video views (how many users interacted with media attached to a post— for example, how many users watched a video or expanded a photo to view it fully)
- Total engagements (how many times a user interacted with a message, including re‑tweets, replies, follows, and likes)
- Engagement rate (which posts resonate the most— number of engagements divided by impressions. In other words, out of everyone who saw the tweet, the percentage of people did something with it)
- Link clicks (number of users who clicked on a link included in a tweet); and
- Link click‑through rate (ratio of users who click a link to the number of total users who saw the tweet).
The average engagement rate for an English NRC Twitter campaign is 1.1%, and 0.5% for a French NRC Twitter campaign. It is important to note that as the number of impressions on a post go up, the engagement rate will naturally go down.
NRC website
The following web statistics for the month of October 2020 were collected using Google Analytics:
- Unique page views: represents the number of browser sessions during which a page was viewed one or more times.
- Page views: is defined as the total number of times the piece of content was viewed during a given period of time.
News releases on Canada.ca
- Oct. 22: "The National Research Council of Canada and Red River College join forces to establish a training centre for forming advanced composite materials for aerospace applications" (169 page views).
Note: More than 75% of its page views were generated in the first 2 days of posting.
Overall data (% change from previous month in parentheses)
| Total | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NRC website (all pages) | Unique page views: | 274484 (↑1%) | Page views: | 388139 (↑0.4%) |
| Research centres | Unique page views: | 4164 (↑19.1%) | Page views: | 5758 (↑21%) |
| NRC IRAP | Unique page views: | 15745 (↑23.5%) | Page views: | 18203 (↑23.3%) |
| Research facilities | Unique page views: | 3584 (↓4.4%) | Page views: | 4206 (↓6.9%) |
Top 10 web pages visited
| Page title | Unique page views | Page views |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Home ‑ National Research Council Canada | 39115 (14.25%) | 47088 (12.13%) |
| 2. Drone site selection tool | 7901 (2.88%) | 17763 (4.58%) |
| 3. National Building Code of Canada 2015 | 8946 (3.26%) | 13098 (3.37%) |
| 4. Web clock (Official times across Canada) | 5280 (1.92%) | 12756 (3.29%) |
| 5. Sunrise/sunset calculator | 4154 (1.51%) | 9547 (2.46%) |
| 6. Support for technology innovation | 5546 (2.02%) | 7702 (1.98%) |
| 7. Features | 4763 (1.74%) | 6923 (1.78%) |
| 8. Calculatrice des levers et des couchers du Soleil | 2398 (0.87%) | 6808 (1.75%) |
| 9. CODES‑GUIDES online library | 4411 (1.61%) | 6521 (1.68%) |
| 10. Virtual store | 5286 (1.93%) | 6368 (1.64%) |
Research centre web pages visited (English only)
| Page title | Unique page views | Page views |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Nanotechnology Research Centre | 532 (0.19%) | 753 (0.19%) |
| 2. Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre | 384 (0.14%) | 501 (0.13%) |
| 3. Aerospace Research Centre | 364 (0.13%) | 500 (0.13%) |
| 4. Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre | 303 (0.11%) | 480 (0.12%) |
| 5. Construction Research Centre | 295 (0.11%) | 450 (0.12%) |
| 6. Energy, Mining and Environment Research Centre | 277 (0.1%) | 352 (0.09%) |
| 7. Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering Research Centre | 231 (0.08%) | 314 (0.08%) |
| 8. Aquatic and Crop Resource Development Research Centre | 182 (0.07%) | 290 (0.07%) |
| 9. Advanced Electronics and Photonics Research Centre | 178 (0.06%) | 253 (0.07%) |
| 10. Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre | 179 (0.07%) | 247 (0.06%) |
| 11. Digital Technologies Research Centre | 166 (0.06%) | 235 (0.06%) |
| 12. Metrology Research Centre | 142 (0.05%) | 198 (0.05%) |
| 13. Medical Devices Research Centre | 130 (0.05%) | 176 (0.05%) |
| 14. Security and Disruptive Technologies Research Centre | 89 (0.03%) | 108 (0.03%) |
Top 10 NRC IRAP web pages visited (English only)
| Page title | Unique page views | Page views |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Financial support for technology innovation through NRC IRAP | 3814 (1.39%) | 4308 (1.11%) |
| 2. NRC IRAP Innovation Assistance Program (IAP) | 2128 (0.78%) | 2334 (0.6%) |
| 3. About the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program | 1628 (0.59%) | 2060 (0.53%) |
| 4. NRC IRAP funding to hire young graduates | 1801 (0.66%) | 2035 (0.52%) |
| 5. NRC IRAP IAP ‑ frequently asked questions | 691 (0.25%) | 795 (0.2%) |
| 6. NRC IRAP across Canada | 570 (0.21%) | 741 (0.19%) |
| 7. The Industrial Research Assistance Program‑Innovative Solutions Canada COVID‑19 Challenge Program | 537 (0.2%) | 639 (0.16%) |
| 8. NRC IRAP advisory services | 520 (0.19%) | 596 (0.15%) |
| 9. EUREKA | 497 (0.18%) | 567 (0.15%) |
| 10. NRC IRAP international collaboration | 273 (0.1%) | 306 (0.08%) |
Top 10 research facilities web pages visited
| Page title | Unique page views | Page views |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory research facility | 482 (0.18%) | 573 (0.15%) |
| 2. Advanced materials research facility | 205 (0.07%) | 242 (0.06%) |
| 3. Dominion Astrophysical Observatory research facility | 173 (0.06%) | 199 (0.05%) |
| 4. Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre | 121 (0.04%) | 155 (0.04%) |
| 5. Research aircraft fleet | 131 (0.05%) | 147 (0.04%) |
| 6. Microbial fermentation pilot plant research facility | 91 (0.03%) | 110 (0.03%) |
| 7. 9 m wind tunnel research facility | 88 (0.03%) | 96 (0.02%) |
| 8. Human health therapeutics research facility ‑ Montréal: Royalmount | 65 (0.02%) | 84 (0.02%) |
| 9. Microscopy facility | 64 (0.02%) | 75 (0.02%) |
| 10. Data Analytics Centre research facility | 65 (0.02%) | 74 (0.02%) |
Questions?
Please contact the media relations team at NRC.MediaRelations-RelationsMedias.CNRC@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.