PAFSO Awards
Dina Santos

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6/14/07

Thank you very much Mr. Baillie-David for your kind words and a heartfelt thank you to the members of the jury and to my colleagues for your nomination and support.  As I stand before you today, no words can express my excitement and immense gratitude. I feel very humbled and honored to be among the award recipients tonight and would like to share with you how gratifying it has been to work in the field of S&T.

My fascination with foreign affairs started at a very young age. I actually wrote that I wanted to be a diplomat in my high school’s year book! After a slight detour practicing tax law for approximately 2 years, I decided to write the Canadian foreign service exam. To my surprise and delight, I was selected among the successful candidates and simply could not resist the opportunity of joining the business development ranks of a stellar Canadian institution.

I first became interested in S&T early on during my first posting in Boston, when I was invited to attend a reception organized by MIT in honor of its graduate students that had participated in an international entrepreneurship class. What I thought would be a simple cocktail among some possible graduates of Canadian descent, actually turned into an aggressive networking reception where venture capitalists from Silicon Alley and other seasoned entrepreneurs were looking for their next investment opportunity.  One thing that struck me was the lack of Canadian companies offering internships as part of this community? If countries as diverse as Britain, Israel, and Denmark were represented, why not Canada? The enthusiasm and passion of these entrepreneurs was so contagious and exciting, and the cross-border business opportunities so palpable that senior management at the mission decided that I would devote a portion of the next two years of my mandate in Boston to build entrepreneurial linkages between the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Canadian counterparts such as the University of Waterloo and the province of Quebec.

Canada has a long and proud history of research excellence and scientific success.  From the discovery of stem cells by Doctors Tilly and McCullogh to the world-wide adoption of Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Canadian discoveries and innovations are making important differences in people’s lives and changing the world for the better. Despite these achievements, we face very real economic and environmental challenges: Canada’s widening productivity gap relative to our largest trading partner, the United States, and emerging countries such as China and India moving increasingly into higher segments of the global value chain based on their cost advantages and considerable number of highly qualified personnel. To succeed in an increasingly competitive global arena, Canadians must be at the leading edge of innovation and integrate into global supply chains.

In this vein, our Department has defined and implemented an innovative S&T Program that plays “a strategic leadership role in enhancing Canada’s Science and Technology (S&T) capacity, competitiveness and prosperity through effective international linkages for Canadian research institutions, universities and firms" and that is capable, in the words of Canada's most famous diplomat, the Right Honorable Lester B. Pearson, of "punching above its weight."

As an example of our Department’s commitment to S&T, and under the North American Platform Initiative, HQ reached out and developed additional linkages with in-Canada S&T Partner-Clients and launched approximately 3 years ago a technology partnering program across the United States supported by the creation of new Trade Commissioner partnering and innovation positions. I was one of the lucky officers that benefited from these new positions and was cross-posted to the Canadian Consulate in New York.

In the field, the S&T program in New York is integrated across the Trade, Investment and PERPA sections of the mission.  My day to day responsibilities vary tremendously and span across the full spectrum from cross-border research collaborations to technology commercialization. Examples of exciting and rewarding initiatives that I have had the opportunity of working on with colleagues include:

- mobilizing Canadian scientists to work with Tri-State and African counterparts to address the causes of hunger, non-potable water, environmental degradation and poor access to energy sources by joining the Scientists without Borders program spawned by the New York Academy of Sciences and the United Nations Millennium project
- in partnership with our Consulate in Boston and San Francisco, organizing corporate mentoring programs and profiling Canada’s Top 10 Life sciences and cleantech innovators at annual venture capital investment forums which have led to the US financing of a Canadian company commercializing ground-breaking vaccines to combat infectious diseases
- promoting Tri-state strategic alliances and private investment by firms such as BASF and Johnson & Johnson in Canadian R&D and advanced technologies.

This variety and wealth of S&T opportunities in the Tri-State area is of continual inspiration and I am placed every day in a privileged position of learning about emerging technologies that promise to revolutionize the world.

This award is also a wonderful recognition of the valuable networks of US Technology Partnering Officers, knowledge-based sector officers and investment officers. We work together on a daily basis regionally with other Consulates to create and implement cross-border R&D collaborations and technology partnering initiatives in the fields of stem cells, photonics and alternative energy. Examples of these collaborations include the North American Cell Therapies Consortium, the International Photonics Commercialization Alliance and the Canada-California Strategic Innovation Partnership Initiative.

I want to emphasize that many of my colleagues in our network, including myself, do not come from a scientific background but one of our core strengths as foreign service officers is that we are great facilitators.  Our passion and curiosity is shared and connects us easily with local and Canadian researchers and entrepreneurs, and our introductions have contributed to positioning Canada as a valuable international S&T partner. 

In closing, I have had the privilege of being surrounded by wonderful mentors, seasoned senior managers in the North American and Investment and Science and Technology branches at our Department such as Robert Noble, Michel Tetu, Alan Minz, Deborah Lyons and Daniele Ayotte that have constantly inspired me by their enthusiasm, vision and dedication to the incorporation of S&T in the daily activities of our overall IBD plans.  Their flexibility and openness to new approaches has not only given me the opportunity to be creative in the development and implementation of a new Departmental program but has also contributed to form a new model of innovative Trade Commissioners across our US network.  It is truly an exciting time to be part of the Department as it is currently reviewing its definition of clients and services to formally incorporate the Canadian scientific and venture capital community and I wake up every day with a deep sense of honor and commitment to serving our Canadian S&T community.

Finally, I would like to thank my husband for actually proposing to me even after knowing that I had made the decision to join the Canadian foreign service and for embarking with me on this wonderful adventure. I would also like to thank my parents for instilling in me an openness and curiosity to other cultures and languages.

Merci beaucoup encore pour cette merveilleuse reconnaissance. Thank you again for this wonderful recognition.