Des enfants de la guerre : les centres de recherche universitaires canadiens, 1945–1960

Abstract

This paper on Canadian university-based research centres and institutes in the immediate post-war period shows that the traditional view of federal government support for university research must be revised. We have found that centres financed by the Defence Research Board of Canada did not only perform fundamental research and that the federal agency relied on extra-scientific criteria in the distribution of its research funds. Beside enhancing recent work that show that universities have never been “ivory towers”, our study sheds knew light on the role and place of research centres in Canadian institutions of higher education. By responding to the knowledge needs of external constituencies, centres enable universities to access a broader range of research support. They also serve to buffer the academic core of the university from the distortions that those demands would undoubtedly cause if they had to be met within a departmental context.