minutesofthecanssi(annualgeneralmeeting …...3 canssi annual general meeting june 10 2017...

H MINUTES of the CANSSI Annual General Meeting May 28, 2016 at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario. 4:30 – 5:30PM EDT. Chair: Nancy Reid, University of Toronto (CANSSI Director) Recording Secretary: John Braun, UBC (CANSSI Deputy Director) Present: Mary Thompson, University of Waterloo (CANSSI Associate Director, Ontario) Hugh Chipman, Acadia University (CANSSI Associate Director, Atlantic Region) Alexandre Leblanc, University of Manitoba (CANSSI Associate Director, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, NWT and Nunavut) Jeffrey Picka, University of New Brunswick Jean-‐François Plante, HEC Montréal Shirley Mills, Carleton University Hanna Jankowski, York University Angelo Canty, McMaster University Julie Horrocks, University of Guelph Changbao Wu, University of Waterloo Jim Stallard, University of Calgary Jason Loeppky, University of British Columbia and UBC Okanagan Derek Bingham, Simon Fraser University Aaron Smith, University of Ottawa Christian Léger, Université de Montreal JC Loredo-‐Osti, Memorial University René Ferland, UQAM Myron Hlynka, University of Windsor Ed Susko, Dalhousie University Yogendra Chaubey, Concordia University (CANSSI Board Member)

Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute Institut canadien des sciences statistiques

www.canssi.ca www.incass.ca

Data • Discoveries • Decisions Données • Découvertes • Décisions

2

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment A

1. Approval of agenda The agenda of the meeting had been sent to institutional members, posted on the CANSSI website, and distributed at the meeting. Motion (Thompson, Canty): To approve the agenda. Carried.

2. Approval of minutes of 2015 Annual General Meeting (Attachment A)

Motion: (Canty, Chipman) To approve the minutes of 2015 Annual General Meeting. Carried. 3. Director’s report and new initiatives (Attachment B) The Director summarized activities undertaken over the previous year, including the rapid advances made by the recently established Health Science committee. Four new LOI proposals have been received for the CRT program. New Initiatives:

• The Board has just approved the CANSSI Distinguished Visitor program, which is inspired by the Distinguished Lecturer program at Fields.

• A fast application process for CANSSI funding to support participation in ASA’s DataFest program will be put in place soon.

• A “kickstart” program for small amounts of funding for researchers who want to push the envelopes or step outside of their current research programme.

• MITACS MOU is under discussion. • Industrial Problem Solving Workshops • CANSSI Collaborative Health Science Centres initiative • Statistics Canada internship initiative

Jason Loeppky expressed support for the kickstart program. Jeff Picka raised questions about ASA support for DataFest and about how CANSSI is developing connections with computer science. 4. Minor changes to operating policies – benefits of membership Motion: (Reid, Bingham) To approve additions to the list of benefits of membership:

• employment advertisements featured on CANSSI web pages and in CANSSI social media posts

3


• eligibility for CANSSI Distinguished Visitor Program • eligibility for DataFest funding

Carried. 5. Review of finances and budget (Attachment C)

• Nancy Reid reviewed the financial statement for 2015-‐2016. She discussed the carry-‐forward in the institutional membership funding, but noted that this should not be a problem, since not-‐for-‐profit organizations often need contingency funds of about the amount being carried forward.

• John Braun asked about in-‐kind support from U Toronto, which is not reflected in the budget. Reid replied that this was taken out because the true dollar figures are difficult to ascertain. Angelo Canty asked about the postdoc budget differential from one year to the next; this is because PDFs in 2015-‐2016 were paid from NSERC funds instead of institutional membership funds. Reid pointed out that a large number of workshops have been funded. Braun pointed out that Fields and the other institutes will still support statistics workshops. Canty asked why the SSC Student Conference was funded at such a low value; Reid replied that more has been given this year.

Motion: (Chaubey, Leblanc) To approve the financial statement for 2015-‐2016. Carried. Nancy Reid summarized the budget for 2016-‐17 that had just been approved by the Board, and she mentioned the new carry-‐forward policy for Collaborative Research Teams adopted by the Board. 6. Board Nominating Committee Report and election of CANSSI Board for 2016-‐2017 (Attachment D) The BNC has submitted a slate equal to the number of vacancies, and the two representatives of the institutional membership are continuing, so no ballots are needed. Alex Leblanc (BNC chair) summarized the nomination proceedings. Two new Associate Directors were to be found (for Atlantic and for AB/BC/Yukon). These Associate Directors have been approved by the Board. Four positions in the Board need to be replaced. Motion: (Leblanc, Chaubey) To approve the list of incoming at-‐large positions for the Board of Directors, given in the report of the Board Nominating Committee. Carried.

4


7. Planning for the future of CANSSI (Attachment E) We are beginning to prepare for the renewal of CANSSI funding in 2019. Nancy Reid led a discussion about the next grant application and how the institute might evolve. First, it may be advisable to incorporate as a national non-‐profit organization. Second, thought must be given to the future location(s) of the institute. Two models could be considered:

1. upon selection of a new Director, the home university of the Director becomes the host of the institute, or

2. the host location becomes fixed at a particular location, and any new Director is re-‐located there.

The first model is currently being followed. The math institutes follow variants of the second model. Under the second model, there is the possibility that there would be regional nodes. Christian Leger asked how much space is required for CANSSI. The answer is “not much”, currently. There are likely to be local arrangements issues once we become more independent of the math institutes, if CANSSI is to independently support events such as thematic programs and workshops. This will require substantially more infrastructure. 8. Other business Nancy Reid acknowledged the contributions of the outgoing members of the Directorate: Will Welch, Hugh Chipman and outgoing Board Members Yogendra Chaubey and Michael Kramer. Hugh showed off the new CANSSI t-‐shirt.

Reid welcomed incoming Associate Directors, Gemai Chen (Alberta/BC/Yukon) and Joanna Mills Flemming (Atlantic). 9. Motion to adjourn (Canty, Chaubey): Carried. The meeting adjourned at 5:25PM.

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment B

1

Report of the Director A brief overview of CANSSI activities for the past year follows, with emphasis on activities for which institutional membership funds played a crucial role. Collaborative Research Teams On April 1 we launched our ninth CRT, Statistical Analysis of Large Administrative Health Databases: Emerging Challenges and Strategies, led by Grace Yi, Joan Hu and Robert Platt. Our initial three CRTs have graduated from the program, so we are currently supporting six teams. Our most recent call for Letters of Intent resulted in six new CRT proposals being submitted; these are now being reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Committee and external referees. We are planning this summer to review the CRT program, beginning with exit interviews of the leaders of Teams 1 to 3. Research from the CRTs is being presented in three invited paper sessions at the SSC AGM this year. New Initiatives Thanks to the efforts of Board member Chad Gaffield we are supporting a one-‐week module “Introduction to Machine Learning in the Digital Humanities” (June 12 – 16) at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute. The course was full as of May 4; the instructors are Paul Barrett, McMaster and Nathan Taback, U Toronto. Board member Wesley Yung has successfully used our network to recruit two MSc level statisticians to internships at Statistics Canada. He reported being pleased with the quality of the applicants and a wish to continue to use our network in this way. We have had two competitions for the “Kick-‐Start” program, which is designed to help individual researchers get started in new collaborative opportunities. The uptake for this program has been modest, and we have funded one proposal to date. Thanks are due to Associate Director Gemai Chen, who has been the leader on this file. The CANSSI Distinguished Visitor Program has supported four speakers to date: Professor Peter Guttorp visited UBC-‐Okanagan in fall 2016, Dr. Hilary Parker visited McGill University in spring 2017, Professor Richard Cook visited the University of Calgary in February 2017 and Professor Philippe Soulier at Université d’Ottawa in March 2017. Professor Waagepetersen will visit UQAM in June 2017.


2

Our call for proposals for Health Science Collaborating Centres led to the creation of seven such centers. A meeting of the leaders of these groups will be held during the SSC Meeting. There is also a panel discussion on Tuesday on Improving Statistics at CIHR. The Health Sciences Committee, chaired by Mary Thompson, reviewed all the proposals and made recommendations about their support. The report of this committee to the Board, recommended another call for HSCCs and suggested revised terms of reference for this committee going forward, which are discussed later in the agenda (Attachment D). We are actively participating in the development of a national network on data science, with a plan to submit a proposal to the next Network of Centres of Excellence program. Jean-‐François Plante, HEC Montréal, has agreed to chair a working group in Data Science, with a view to establishing a network of Data Science Collaborating Centres. NSERC We submitted our third annual progress report to NSERC on March 15, and sent this to Board and SAC members as well. The period covered was the calendar year 2016. The format of the report was changed this year, with a limit of 10 pages, and all information on research moved to an annual report, which is available at http://www.canssi.ca/news-‐events/2016-‐canssi-‐annual-‐report/. Our Scientific Coordinator is working on turning this into an Annual Report to the Board, to be presented each year at our spring board meeting. The March budget of the Government unfortunately did not include additional funding for the tri-‐Council (NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR). The Fundamental Science Review, released about a month later, recommends substantially increased funding for NSERC, and we are committed to working with NSERC to press the case for more funding for fundamental research. Hosting CANSSI The call for expressions of interest in hosting CANSSI was posted this year, and several proposals were received. A subcommittee of the Board of Directors (Arvind Gupta, Chair; Adrian Levy; Richard Smith) have been charged with reporting to the Board on these proposals. Strategic Planning We are in the process of creating our first Strategic Plan, and preliminary versions were discussed at a strategy meeting and at the Board of Directors meeting on June 8. Our goal is to circulate a draft plan in September to the membership, board, and other stakeholders, for feedback, and to present a final version to the December Board meeting.


3

Departing Board members Board members Jiguo Cao, Richard Smith and Wesley Yung are completing their terms. Thanks are due to all for their efforts on behalf of CANSSI. Jiguo has been a helpful representative of the institutional membership, sending prompt and thoughtful replies to every email. Happily Wesley has agreed to stand for election for a second term. A special thanks is due to Richard – he has been a keen supporter of CANSSI from the outset, and for three years served as an extremely helpful and capable Board Chair. Our relationship with SAMSI is our strongest international link, and we were very lucky to be able to build this with Richard at the helm.

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment C

1

Report of the Deputy Director

Overview

This report highlights some of my activities over the period from July, 2016 to the present. As reflected in this report, I am principally responsible for the Industrial Innovation Committee, oversight of postdoctoral fellowships, and workshops, although there are additional duties that arise from time to time.

C.1 Postdoctoral Fellowships

Five PDFs have now graduated from our program and 3 have academic positions, 1 is a research scientist with the CFS and one is continuing as a PDF with funding from FQRNT.

Current CANSSI PDFS are at the Universities of Ottawa, Toronto, McGill/Laval and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

We have made three offers for 2017-‐2018: we had 8 nominations for these positions, up from 4 in 2016 and 3 in 2015. This year's CANSSI PDFs are Bamdad Hosseini (SFU), Myriam Brossard (UT) and Kieran Campbell (UBC).

CANSSI has also partnered with CRM-‐Statlab to fund a PDF. Mohammad Belalia will take up this year's position.

We have also arranged a joint offer with SAMSI for a two-‐year PDF. The PDF will have funding from SAMSI during their year-‐long program on climate statistics position, and will spend the second year (2018-‐19) at the University of Victoria with funding from CANSSI, SAMSI and the University of Victoria. This is the first time that SAMSI has arranged the second year PDF at an international location.

C.2 Workshops

We have funded several workshops and provided sponsorships to several conferences. Locations for the workshops have been spread fairly well, geographically, with uptake from BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. The Atlantic region might be encouraged to submit proposals in the near future. Topics for the workshops have ranged from topics like microbiome data and medical physics to survey sampling and digital humanities. Many of the workshops are short -‐-‐ 1 or 2 days -‐-‐ but there was a summer program on causal inference which ran for four weeks.

C.3 Industrial Innovation Committee

This committee liases closely with the Industrial Innovation Platform representatives at the math institutes and has provided assistance with the statistical side of IPSW activities and meeting MOU internship targets set by MITACS and the institutes. The committee conducted a survey in 2016 which suggested that uptake by academic statisticians in the MITACS internship programs is not so much

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment C

2

constrained by the review process as by the dearth of connections between industry and academics. The committee members have begun to identify ways to rectify this situation and will be promoting the NSERC Connect programs as a way to link industry and academic statisticians. Liasing with MITACS BDOs and local NSERC representatives is also being advocated.

The committee is undergoing a modest transition whereby the chair of the committee will no longer be the Deputy Director; that position will become ex officio on the committee, and the chair will be selected from among the other members. Membership on the committee will include both academic statisticians and representatives from industry.

C.4 Other Activities

Collaboration with SAMSI continues in the form of support of Canadian undergraduates who wish to participate in SAMSI workshops.

CANSSI participated in the 2017 AAAS meetings in Boston by presenting a symposium on Fisheries and Forests, featuring research from 2 of our CRTs. Nancy Reid chaired the session.

The Distinguished Visitor Program was initiated at the UBC-‐O campus, with Peter Guttorp giving an address on the statistics of climate change to a public audience of about 240.

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment D

1

Changes to the Operating Policies The operating policies require updating to reflect

• new benefits of membership, • adjustments to the work of the Board Nominating Committee, • changes in the terms of the committees, and • the addition of two new committees.

These changes have been recommended by the Board for approval by the membership.

Motion: to approve the following amendments of the Operating Policies ========================================================== Excerpts from the Operating Policies; proposed changes in blue ========================================================== MEMBERSHIP Benefits of institutional membership for universities The benefits of institutional membership for universities include the following: • the right to send a representative to vote at the annual general meeting • participation in planning of scientific directions through an annual meeting of

sponsoring institutions • access to partial funding of postdoctoral fellowships • assistance with local research events such as workshops • employment advertisements featured on CANSSI webpages and in CANSSI social

media posts

NEW:

• access to funding from the Distinguished Visitor Program • access to funding from the KickStart Collaborations Program • streamlined application process for ASA Datafest Competititons

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Election of Board members

The Board Nominating Committee shall present to the Board in advance of its May-‐June meeting a slate of nominees who have agreed to let their names stand for election as Board members, with duties to begin immediately after the Annual General Meeting of the current year. The Board shall hold an email vote to accept


2

the slate as presented by the Board Nominating Committee. The Board Nominating Committee shall provide an opportunity for the (previously: membership) community to make (previously: nominations in addition to the proposed) suggestions regarding the composition of the slate. NEW: The Board Nominating Committee shall also request nominations of candidates to stand for election as representative of the institutional members. The final slate shall be published by seven days in advance of the Annual General Meeting. An election (by ballot) of all Board members who are not Officers or designated representatives of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, or the Centre de recherches mathématiques shall be held at the Annual General Meeting.

Note: The changes above reflect the current operation of the Board Nominating Committee, which solicits both suggestions for at-‐large members, and nominations for institutional members.

COMMITTEES

Committees of the Board of Directors The Board may from time to time appoint any committee or other advisory body, as it deems necessary or appropriate for such purposes and with such powers as the Board shall see fit. Any such committee may formulate its own rules of procedure, subject to such regulations or directions as the Board may from time to time make. Any committee member may be removed by resolution of the Board of Directors. Standing committees shall normally include the following. NEW: Committee memberships are normally for three years, with terms of members staggered to maintain continuity. The terms of membership for the Board Nominating Committee and the Scientific Advisory Committee are the calendar year. Terms of all other committees are July to June. Approval for appointments to these committees will be requested by email vote of the Board, following the Annual General Meeting. Management Committee This committee shall consist of the Director (Chair), Deputy Director, and the Associate Directors, collectively called the Directorate. It shall provide occasional advice to the Director and Deputy Director, and deal with minor administrative matters not requiring full Board attention. Executive Committee This committee shall consist of the Chair of the Board, the Director of CANSSI, and the Directors of CRM, Fields and PIMS. This committee shall be able to call a Board meeting if needed, but shall also have the power to act for the Board on urgent matters for which there is not time to call a telephone meeting that will have quorum, or to hold an email vote.


3

Finance Committee This committee shall consist of the Director of CANSSI and one other Board member. Together with the financial administrator of CANSSI, this committee shall work with the financial administrators of the organizations hosting CANSSI account(s) or providing funding, and shall provide financial statements and budgets to the Board. Scientific Advisory Committee This committee shall be chaired by the Director of CANSSI (non-‐voting). The voting membership shall consist of nine (9) prominent statistical scientists, normally from outside Canada. The membership shall reflect the diversity of the discipline, including theoretical statistical scientists and those collaborating in disciplines that use statistics. Each of PIMS, the Fields Institute and CRM shall be entitled to nominate a member of this committee. The committee membership shall be ratified by the Board at the December Board meeting or soon thereafter, for service in the next calendar year. A committee member is normally to serve for three (3) years, and thus it is expected that one-‐third (1/3) of the committee will have to be replaced each year. Consecutive three-‐year terms are rare. Its charge:

• to adjudicate competitions for Collaborative Research Team projects and major workshops and conferences

• to recommend those selected to the Board for approval of funding • to receive information annually on the progress and outcomes of

programs, and major projects such as Collaborative Research Team projects

• to help identify subject areas that are of emerging scientific importance. Board Nominating Committee This committee shall be formed at the December Board meeting, and shall consist of at least three Board members, one of whom shall chair the committee. Its charge:

• to review the terms of current Board members, to establish which are continuing, which are coming to the ends of their terms but eligible for renewal, and which are coming to the ends of their terms but not eligible for renewal

• to consult Board members, CANSSI members and stakeholders concerning the expertise needed on the Board and to gather suggestions of individuals whose expertise would be useful

• to invite potential new Board members and confirm their willingness to serve

• to provide to the Board for acceptance a proposed slate of continuing and new Board members

• to provide an opportunity for the membership to make nominations in addition to the proposed slate

• to publish a final slate, for the election at the Annual General Meeting. Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) Nominating Committee


4

The membership of the SAC Nominating Committee shall consist of the Director and/or Deputy Director, an Associate Director, and two additional members from the Board. Its charge:

• to review the terms of current SAC members to establish which are continuing, and which are coming to the ends of their terms

• to consult SAC members, Board members and other experts concerning the expertise needed on the SAC and to gather suggestions of possible members

• to invite new members to fill the vacancies and confirm their willingness to serve

• to provide to the December meeting of the Board or soon thereafter a proposed slate of continuing and new members for approval.

Governance Committee The membership of this committee shall include (but not be limited to) the Director of CANSSI, one Associate Director, and the Director of one of PIMS, the Fields Institute and CRM. The charge to the committee is to write the Operating Policies of CANSSI for approval by the Board and the membership. It is expected eventually to begin the process of incorporation and write the bylaws of CANSSI. Strategy and Development Committee This committee consists of the Director and several other Board members, and possibly additional members. The committee advises on strategic directions, including funding and partnership opportunities. NEW

Health Sciences Committee The membership of the Health Sciences Committee shall consist of four members from the health sciences and statistics research communities. The Chair will be recommended to the Board by the Director, after consultation with the Deputy Director and Associate Directors. At least one member will also be a member of the CANSSI Board of Directors. Its charge: • to provide support and coordination of the HSCCs, facilitating their interaction

as a network, and continuing to help identify other sources of support, provincial and national

• to advise CANSSI on the merit and timing of a new call for proposals for HSCCs

• to provide advice and support to the CANSSI Director in dealing with CIHR and other funding agencies around the roles of statisticians and data scientists in health science and collaborative research

• to provide information and mentorship to statistical scientists on obtaining funding for research in the methods applicable to the health sciences


5

Industrial Innovation Committee The membership of the Industrial Innovation Committee shall consist of five members, one of whom shall be the Deputy Director of CANSSI. The Chair will be recommended to the Board by the Deputy Director, after consultation with the Directorate. At least one member will also be a member of the CANSSI Board of Directors. Its charge: • to serve as a resource for developing industrial collaborations, though

programs such as those of NSERC and Mitacs and also directly with industry • to liaise on an ongoing basis with industrial activities at the mathematics

institutes • to advise CANSSI on potential opportunities for direct collaboration with

specific industries, and to suggest potential candidates for membership on the IIC and on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Committee

• to provide information and mentorship to statistical scientists on obtaining funding for research partnerships with government and industry

PIMS CRM Fields NSERC Fields Provincial CANSSI Total

Research

CRT 1 - Copula Dependence Modelling 33,658 33,658

CRT 2 - Statistical Modelling of the World 38,076 38,076

CRT 3 - State-Space Models for Fisheries Science 44,278 44,278 88,556

CRT 4 - Evolving Marked Point Processes (Wildland Fire Regime Modelling) 34,593 15,942 15,942 66,477

CRT 5 - Statistical Inference for Complex Surveys with Missing Observations 63,998 63,998

CRT 6 - Modern Spectrum Methods in Time Series 8,617 8,617 17,235

CRT 7 - Neuroimaging Data 46,814 46,814

CRT 8 - Rare DNA Variants 18,587 18,587

Short programs & workshops 34,282 11,404 11,404 51,646 108,736

Postdoctoral positions (non-CRT) 18,417 26,563 26,563 71,543 Sub-Total 153,765 134,660 106,804 106,804 51,646 553,679

AdministrationDirector expenses 6,475 6,475 Deputy Director 10,000 10,000 Scientific Coordinator 55,669 375 56,044 Financial Administrator 19,129 19,129 Fields Financial Administrator 5,661 5,661 Board & Promotional Expenses 2,930 2,930 SAC Expenses -

Sub-Total 55,669 - - - 44,570 100,239

TOTAL 209,434 134,660 106,804 106,804 96,216 653,919

CANSSIStatement of Expenditures

For the year ended March 31, 2017

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment E

1

Management Discussion of CANSSI Finances and Budget

CTRMS Funding

CTRMS funds from NSERC are CANSSI’s primary source of funding. In the year ended March 31, 2017, CANSSI, using CTRMS funds, supported 8 Collaborative Research Teams, 8 workshops or conferences, and 4 post-‐doc fellowships. Total CTRMS funds spent amounted to $450,899. An additional $106,804 was spent from Fields Provincial funds, bringing the total to $557,703 (see attached Statement of Expenditures). The balance remaining at each institute is as follows:

PIMS CRM Fields Fields

$ $ $ $

Five Year Commitment (Ending 2019)

1,000,000

525,000

500,000

500,000

Amount Spent as at March 31, 2017

425,273

331,754

226,970

226,970

Balance Remaining

574,727

193,246

273,030

273,030

When planning the annual budget, we allocate the administration of CRTs and Workshops/Conferences in a way that attempts to equalize the drawdown between the three institutes, while leaving the Institutional Membership funds for expenses that are not NSERC eligible. However, there are many factors to consider and it has been difficult to keep the drawdown of funds equitable on an annual basis. At March 31, 2017 approximately 43% of PIMS and 45% of Fields funds have been spent, compared to 63% of funds at CRM. This will balance out over the course of the next two years as we seek to spend proportionately more at PIMS and Fields. The 2017-‐2018 budget is attached.

Non-‐CTRMS Funds

In addition to CTRMS funding, CANSSI generates annual revenues from Institutional Memberships. In the year ended March 31, 2017 the number of universities participating (29) remained static from the previous year. Annual fees are assessed at one of six levels ($15,000, $10,000, $7,500, $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000), based on the size of the department. Funds from Institutional Memberships are used to pay personnel (CANSSI Financial Administrator, Fields Institute financial administration, Deputy Director) and operating and board expenses, as well as to support conferences, workshops and postdoctoral fellowships. Below is a comparative summary of CANSSI’s non-‐CTRMS revenues and expenditures.


2

Summary of Revenues and Expenses (Non-‐CTRMS) For the years ended March 31

2017 2016 2015 2014

REVENUE

$ $ $ $

Institutional Membership Fees 116,500 116,500 102,500 87,000 University of Toronto -‐ Special Contribution 10,000 10,000 -‐ -‐

126,500 126,500 102,500 87,000

EXPENSES

Salaries

29,504 30,362 10,767 -‐

Operating Costs

15,066 15,710 5,015 -‐ PDFs

-‐ -‐ 29,673 -‐

Workshops

51,646 26,930 15,238 -‐

96,216 73,002 60,693 -‐

During the year ended March 31, 2017 CANSSI spent $96,216, of which $51,646 (54%) went toward workshops, while the remainder was spent on operations. The remaining cumulative balance of non-‐CTRMS funds is $212,589. Planned expenditures of $172,594 for 2017-‐2018 will exceed projected annual Membership revenue by approximately $56,000 and will therefore reduce this balance. As noted in the 2017-‐2018 budget (attached), CANSSI has committed to spending $110,895 of non-‐CTRMS funds on workshops and conferences. The remaining portion of the non-‐CTRMS budget (36%) is allocated to administrative expenses (personnel and operating expenses).


3

PIMS CRM Fields NSERC Fields Provincial CANSSI TotalResearch

32,000 32,000

CRT 2 -Statistical Modelling of the World 12,000 12,000

10,000 10,000 20,000

66,000 11,000 11,000 88,000

108,100 108,100

51,000 51,000 102,000

CRT 7 - Neuroimaging Data 63,100 63,100

CRT 8 - Rare DNA Variants 20,000 34,225 34,225 88,450

30,000 20,000 20,000 70,000

Short programs & workshops 44,200 - 10,000 10,000 110,895 175,095

Postdoctoral positions (not in CRTs) 38,750 7,500 16,875 16,875 - 80,000 Sub-total 254,050 167,600 153,100 153,100 110,895 838,745

AdministrationDirector - Director Expenses 4,000 4,000 Deputy Director 10,000 10,000 Scientific Coordinator 57,236 57,236 Financial Administrator 27,440 27,440 Fields/DoSS Financial Administration 5,259 5,259 Board Expenses 5,000 5,000 Promotional Expenses 5,000 5,000 SAC Expenses 5,000 5,000

Sub-total 57,236 - - - 61,699 118,935

Total 311,286 167,600 153,100 153,100 172,594 957,680

CRT 9-Large Administrative Health Databases

CANSSI 2017-2018 Implementation BudgetFor the year ended March 31, 2018

CRT1 - Copula Dependence Modelling: Theory and Applications

CRT 3 - Advances to State-Space Models for Fisheries ScienceCRT 4 - Evolving Marked Point Processes with Application to Wildland Fire Regime Modelling

CRT 5 - Statistical Inference for Complex Surveys with Missing Observations

CRT 6 - Modern Spectrum Methods in Time Series Analysis


4

Short Programs and Workshops: Budget

Workshop on Medical Physics and Statistics (April 4-5, 2017) 7,000$ PIMSCanadian Human and Statistical Genetics Meeting (April 22-23, 2017) 6,000$ Fields

DataFest (May 5-7, 2017) 2,000$ CANSSI

10,000$ PIMS

Contemporary Theory and Practice of Survey Sampling (May 24-27, 2017) 2,500$ CANSSI

Digital Humanities Summer Institute (June 5-9, 2017) 2,000$ CANSSI

SSC student conference (June 10, 2017) 300$ CANSSI

SSC student conference (June 10, 2017) 700$ PIMS

Statistical Society of Canada (student travel) 2,500$ PIMS

4,500$ PIMS

Vancouver Sports Analytics Symposium and Hackathon (July 8-9, 2017) 3,500$ PIMS

ICSA (August 18-20, 2017) 6,000$ PIMS

Genest - Risk and Thematic Program Workshop #1 Dupuis 12,790$ CANSSI

Genest - Risk and Thematic Program Workshop #2 Bernard 10,740$ CANSSI

Genest - Risk and Thematic Program Workshop #3 Nezh 11,565$ CANSSI

Health Sciences Collaboration Project 50,000$ CANSSI

Health Sciences Collaboration Project 10,000$ Fields Provincial

Kickstart 10,000$ CANSSI

SAMSI undergrad workshops 3,000$ CANSSI

Distinguished Visitors Program 5,000$ CANSSI

Distinguished Lecture Series in Statistics 1,000$ CANSSI

Distinguished Lecture Series in Statistics 4,000$ Fields

PIMS workshop (Yilmaz) 10,000$ PIMS

175,095$

Workshop on Statistical Challenges and Opportunities for the Analysis of Microbiome Data (May 9-10, 2017)

SSC CANSSI Invited Speakers - Y. Rabhi, K. Nadeem, M. Carey (June 11-14, 2017)


5

Short Programs and Workshops 2016 - 2017:

Amount

$

18,500 PIMS

8,000 Fields

Data Fest University of Toronto (April 29 - May 1, 2016) 1,000 Fields

3,671 CANSSI

9,954 CANSSI

5,409 Fields

SSC Student Conference (May 28, 2016) 1,000 CANSSI

Statistical Society of Canada (May 29-June 1, 2016) 2,500 CANSSI

10,000 PIMS

2,795 PIMS

International Biometric Conference (July 10-15, 2016) 3,000 CANSSI

19,233 CANSSI

3,901 Fields

9,925 CANSSI

Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis (December 3, 2016) 2,987 PIMS

Distinguished Lecture Series in Statistics 5,362 Fields, CANSSI

Distinguished Visitors Program 1,500 CANSSI

108,737

5th Annual Canadian Human and Statistical Genetics Meeting

(April 16-19, 2016)

SAMSI Undergraduate Workshops (May 22-26, 2016) (February

27-28, 2017)

International Conference on Statistical Distributions and

Applications (October 14-16, 2016)

6th International Workshop on the Perspectives on High-

Dimensional Data Analysis (May 25-27, 2016)

Statistical Causal Inference and its Applications to Genetics (July

24 - August 19, 2016)

Novel Probabilistic Methods for Decision Support Systems

for Food Security in Canada (May 24-27, 2016)

Statistical Analysis of Large Administrative Health Databases:

Emerging Challenges and Strategies (April 4-5, 2016)

Ordered Data and their Applications in Reliability and Survival

Analysis: An International Conference in Honour of N.

Balakrishnan (August 7-10, 2016)

13th International Meeting on Statistical Climatology (June 6-10,

2016)

Introduction to Causal Inference: Philosophy, Framework and

Key Methods (June 8, 2016)


6

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment F

1

Report of the CANSSI Board Nominating Committee The Board Nominating Committee (BNC) identified nominees for two Board positions in the members at-large category. Continuing members of the Board are listed in a short Appendix to this report. A call for nominations for at-large positions was sent out on March 27 with a deadline of April 7 and a separate call for nominations for electing a new representative of the membership was sent out on May 8 with a deadline of May 22. Associate Director: (one position to be filled for Ontario) Mary Thompson (Waterloo, Dept. of Stats and Act.Sci.) concludes her term as Associate Director for Ontario this year. She was approached and agreed to serve for one more year if reappointed. Paul McNicholas (McMaster, Dept. of Math and Stats) was approached and agreed to serve as AD for Ontario for a three-year term starting in June 2018 if appointed. The goal would be to invite Paul to join meetings of the directorate as an observer starting in January 2018. It was felt this approach would be worth trying in the near future as it could help with the transition for new members of the directorate. Members at-large of the board: (up to two positions to be filled) The following two individuals have been approached to be candidates for positions on the Board in the members at-large category. Both have agreed to serve on the Board for a three-year term if elected.

• Wesley Yung (Statistics Canada) for a second mandate • Michael Boehnke (University of Michigan, School of Public Health) for a first

mandate Representative of the Membership: (one position to be filled) Nominations for the position of representative of the membership on the Board can be sent to the chair of the BNC until May 22. As of May 17, the received nominations were (both have agreed to serve for a three-year term if elected):

• Syed Ejaz Ahmed (Brock, Dept. of Math and Stats) • Joan Hu (SFU, Dept. of Stats and Act. Sci.) • Andrei Volodin (Regina, Dept. of Math and Stats)

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Board Nominating Committee. Alexandre Leblanc (Chair) John Braun Gemai Chen Adrian Levy Nancy Reid


2

Appendix Continuing members of the Board: The following is the list of continuing members of the Board. Note that the two Associate Directors serving on the Board will be selected after the appointment of the incoming members. Members from the Directorate: (two Associate Directors to be selected later)

• Nancy Reid Director, CANSSI (ex officio) Directors of the Mathematical Institutes:

• Ian Hambleton Director, Fields Institute (ex officio) • Luc Vinet Director, CRM (ex officio) • James Colliander Director, PIMS (ex officio)

Representatives of the Institutional Members: (one continuing, one incoming)

• Liqun Wang Univ. of Manitoba (until 2018) Members at-large: (seven continuing, up to two incoming)

• Francis Zwiers UVic, Pacific Climate Impact Consortium (until 2018) • Arnoldo Frigessi Univ. of Oslo (until 2018) • Chad Gaffield Univ. of Ottawa (until 2018) • Adrian Levy Dalhousie Univ. (until 2019) • Charmaine Dean Western Univ. (until 2019) • Arvind Gupta UBC (until 2019) • Paul Kovacs Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (until 2019)

Bios for new members of the Board: Associate Director: Paul McNicholas is the Canada Research Chair in Computational Statistics and a Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at McMaster University. He has been involved in industry collaborations for several years and has enjoyed related funding from several sources. This includes an Engage and Collaborative Research and Development grants from NSERC, a Collaborative Research grant form the Ontario Centres of Excellence, and a MITACS Accelerate grant. Paul has previously served as President of the Business and Industrial Statistics section of the Statistical Society of Canada. Members at-large of the Board: Michael Boehnke is the Richard G. Cornell Distinguished University Professor of Biostatistics and Director of the Center for Statistical Genetics and Genome Science Training Program at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on development and application of statistical designs and analysis methods for human


3

genetics, with emphasis on identification of genetic variants that predispose to human diseases and traits. He is a principal investigator of the FUSION study of the genetics of type 2 diabetes (T2D), steering committee chair of the T2D-GENES multiethnic genome sequencing consortium, and a PI of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership T2D Knowledge Portal project, the BRIDGES bipolar disorder sequencing project, and the InPSYght schizophrenia and bipolar sequencing project. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Wesley Yung is Director of the Business Survey Methods Division of Statistics Canada. He holds a BSc and MSc from Dalhousie University and a PhD, all in statistics, from Carleton University. He has over 25 years experience at Statistics Canada and has been involved in all aspects of Business and Household surveys. His research interests include variance estimation, integration of administrative data in surveys and collection research. Nominees for Institutional Member Representative Position: Syed Ejaz Ahmed is Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science and a Professor of Statistics at Brock University. Before joining Brock, he was a professor and head of the Mathematics & Statistics Department at the University of Windsor and University of Regina. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario. He is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and holds many adjunct/guest professorship positions. His areas of expertise include big data analysis, statistical inference, and shrinkage estimation. He has more than 150 published articles in scientific journals and has reviewed more than 100 books. Further, he has written several books, edited and co-edited several volumes and special issues of scientific journals. He has supervised numerous PhD and master’s students and organized several workshops/conferences and many invited sessions. Ejaz serves on the editorial board of many statistical journals and as a review editor for Technometrics. He served as a Board of Director and Chairman of the Education Committee of the Statistical Society of Canada, and as a VP communication for ISBIS. Recently, he served as a member of an Evaluation Group, Discovery Grants and the Grant Selection Committee, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Joan Hu received her PhD in statistics at University of Waterloo in 1995 under the supervision of Jerry Lawless. She was a faculty member at University of Memphis (1998-2003) and an adjunct faculty member at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (2000-2003), following her research experiences with Health Canada and Harvard School of Public Health. She joined Department of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences at Simon Fraser University in 2003, and is now a Professor of Statistics. Joan obtained an NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement (DAS) (2016-2019), an NSERC University Faculty Award (2003-2008), the Frank Wilcoxon Prize of 1998 (jointly with JF Lawless), and the Pierre Robillard Award of 1996. She is an American Statistical Association (ASA) fellow and an elected International Statistical Institute (ISI) member. She has served on the editorial boards of Canadian Journal of Statistics


4

(2010-2012), Lifetime Data Analysis (2010-present), Statistical Papers (2011-2016) and Statistics in Biosciences (2009-present). She has served as a member on Committee on Women in Statistics (2015-2018), the President of Biostatistics Section (2013-2014), and an Alberta - British Columbia - Yukon Regional Representative of the Board of Directors (2011-2012) of Statistical Society of Canada (SSC), a member of the International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) Board of Directors (2010-2012), and a member of the Education Office Review Committee of Chinese Government Award for Self-Financed Students Abroad (2007-2012). Andrei Volodin is Professor of Statistics at the University of Regina. His research has focused primarily on Mathematical Statistics and Probability Theory, though his current work has expanded to Applied Statistics. Andrei’s research program revolves around a common theme: asymptotics (expansion of a statistic or of a distribution). Currently his research involves the following four main components: statistical testing for expression of genes; dependent bootstrap procedure; point estimation for parameters in some applied statistical problems; and the interval estimation problem for the ratio of two binomial proportions. Andrei received his PhD in Mathematics from Vilnius University in Lithuania and his PhD in Statistics from the University of Regina. He spent two years working as a Professor of Statistics at the University of Western Australia and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Thammasat University in Thailand. Andrei was one of the founders of the Probability division at the Statistical Society of Canada and served as its chair in 2005-2006. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of several other international journals, including Lobachevskii Journal of Mathematics and Journal of Inequalities and Applications. He has active international research, including research partnerships at University of Pisa, University of Sevilla, Public University of Navarra, the National Tsing Hua University, Thammasat University, Aarhus University, Copenhagen University and Uppsala University among others.

CANSSI Annual General Meeting June 10 2017 Attachment G

1

Draft Strategic Plan

The Directorate has been developing a draft strategic plan over the past several months. A strategic planning session will be held just before the Board Meeting on June 8, with members of the strategy and development committee and invited participants. We will be discussing the vision and mission statements, strategic priorities, and plans for assessing CANSSI’s activities with reference to these priorities. We will update the Board on the discussion at this meeting. Outlined below are the strategic priorities that we have identified to date. Our goal is to circulate a completed draft strategic plan by September for feedback from the Board, Institutional Members, and other stakeholders, and to bring a final version for Board approval in December 2017.

Strategic Priorities

1. Promote and encourage collaborative research with statistical and data scientists as leaders and engaged partners

2. Encourage disciplinary and cross-‐disciplinary advanced training in statistics and data science

3. Enhance the global standing of Canada in multidisciplinary research involving statistics and data science

4. Build community and outreach by engaging statistical scientists across the country

5. Enhance innovation and knowledge translation through collaborations with government and industry

Some questions connected with this include:

• are these the right strategic priorities? • should they be ordered by importance? • do we need a separate strategy around data science • among our list of activities, which are most effective in supporting these

priorities? • are their other activities that could be more effective?

We are in the process of assessing the resources, in both leadership and funding, to adequately support and/or enhance our various activities.

minutesofthecanssi(annualgeneralmeeting …...3 canssi annual general meeting june 10 2017...

Documents