DELIVERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR IMPACT

Management Framework

The Defence S&T; Enterprise operates within a management framework that ensures that all activities enabled by the departmental S&T; investment are focused and coordinated to contribute to the achievement of the Canadian Forces and departmental mission-critical outcomes. This contribution is only realized through the exploitation of carefully selected S&T; outputs be they advice to decision makers or the introduction of battlespace-ready applications of S&T.; The production of these outputs depends upon the availability of S&T; capabilities within the department or within external performers, which are maintained through appropriate investments and strategic partnerships. Figure 1 summarizes the main interdependent perspectives of the framework, which are further described below.

Figure 1 - Management Framework for the Defence S&T; Enterprise

Contribution to Mission-Critical Outcomes

The Defence S&T; Enterprise works towards clearly defined objectives that are shared by all members. These objectives are consistent with directions articulated in strategic documents defining Government of Canada and departmental policy. They address existing capability requirements of the Canadian Forces, while challenging S&T; to seek out solutions that provide decisive military advantage into the future.

Eight strategic mission-critical outcomes² have been identified to target Canadian Forces and departmental capability objectives where S&T; can contribute. These outcomes are derived from departmental objectives enunciated in policy and strategic guidance albeit refined appropriately to more explicitly express the contributions expected from S&T.; These outcomes are expected to be enduring for the shelf-life of this strategy though they must clearly remain consistent with the evolution of defence strategy documents.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Petty Officer 2nd Class Bruce Campbell (left), Corporal Jasmine Maitland and David Monsour, members of the Information Technology Support NAD Supply Personnel, work together in a server room.

The outcomes are:

1. Trusted situational awareness, intent prediction and decision making for achieving operational superiority;
2. Robust operational command and control in Canada and abroad;
3. Seamless interoperability with other government departments, other Canadian partners and allied forces in a complex environment;
4. Agile, tailored force for deployment and operations in complex environments;
5. Full-spectrum protection including from weapons of mass destruction;
6. Sustainability, affordability, supportability of operations, assets and people;
7. Asymmetric advantage for defeating terrorist groups and tactics; and
8. Defence policy and force development informed and enabled by S&T; developments.

Exploitation of Science and Technology Outputs

The return on S&T; investment can only be achieved through exploitation of the outputs of S&T; activity. In order for exploitation to be accomplished, three principles guide the management of the S&T; Enterprise:

• S&T; activities are formulated and managed taking into consideration the ultimate uses of their output in terms of the core processes they support.
• Providers and ultimate users of the in-service application of S&T; output participate from early the stages of S&T; activity to ensure that formulation and execution consider exploitation needs. Exploitation is not only desirable it must also be achievable by those mandated to bridge S&T; outputs with in-service deployment.
• The management of the S&T; investment mitigates potential barriers to exploitation, including facilitating the management of intellectual property and the development of external partnerships.

S&T; integration plays an important role in exploitation. Through multi-disciplinary teams of S&T; providers and consumers, the Enterprise ensures that outputs can be effectively introduced into both future plans and current operations with minimal risk and interruption. These teams combine the knowledge resident in the S&T; areas of expertise, the knowledge of requirements and the knowledge of the departmental core processes.

The management of the S&T; Enterprise always ensures that exploitation of S&T; outputs is a principal consideration throughout the planning and execution of S&T; activities.

Production of Science and Technology Outputs

The S&T; Enterprise produces S&T; outputs to:

• Provide specific products or advice for exploitation within the core processes;
• Develop the expertise and capabilities for present and future S&T; contributions.

The Defence S&T; Enterprise Activities (see Box - this page) are formulated in an integrated manner as described below.

S&T; integration optimizes the effort towards achieving mission-critical outcomes.

The S&T; Enterprise plans for ultimate exploitation of the output from each activity to contribute to the achievement of mission-critical outcomes. Therefore, knowledge application is a major consideration in the selection of S&T; activities.

To promote knowledge generation, S&T; activities use internal capability together with that of partners in the Canadian and global innovation systems. For S&T; to respond across the spectrum of expectations it is essential to have a balance of internal and external S&T; capabilities that work synergistically in an approach that favours co-discovery and co-development of solutions. Knowledge can be generated through research and development, operational analysis, concept development and experimentation, engineering and test and evaluation.

The Defence S&T; Enterprise only has the capacity, even with partners, to generate but a fraction of the scientific and technological knowledge that is needed by the department and the Canadian Forces. Therefore, mechanisms and methodologies are required for knowledge access - to monitor, access and assess the implications of global S&T; advancements thereby capturing and exploiting knowledge from other national and international sources.

Management of the S&T; Enterprise prioritizes and coordinates S&T; activities to produce outputs that are balanced across the many expectations of S&T; within the department.

Building Science and Technology Capabilities

The Defence S&T; Enterprise requires a foundation of S&T; capabilities that is either resident within the enterprise or is reliably accessible through partnerships with external S&T; performers. Capabilities in knowledge generation and knowledge access are integrally linked and need to be coordinated to maximize the benefits of both while making the best use of available resources. The S&T; knowledge base, whether generated internally or accessed externally, needs to be harmonized to avoid duplication and to ensure that S&T; capabilities exist to meet the "full-service" expectations placed on the departmental S&T; investment.

The decision to create or retain S&T; capability within the department versus relying on outside sources is based on the following criteria:

• Certain knowledge is of a sensitive nature and inaccessible or is too specific to be of interest to others;
• Niche capabilities are of value to trade when cooperating with partners or allies to generate or access knowledge that is of common interest; and
• Fundamental understanding of certain subject areas is critical to be able to interpret information that is available from other sources.

Figure 2 identifies eleven primary areas of S&T; expertise³ in which critical mass must be maintained

Figure 2 - Areas of S&T; Expertise

in order for the departmental S&T; investment to affect the mission-critical outcomes. These S&T; areas are grouped in three domains: physical, information and human. A number of these areas, such as system autonomy and complex systems, include aspects of more than one domain. Multi-disciplinary teams will be established to understand and advance such areas. The national and international innovation systems are major sources of S&T; capability that can be used to complement internal capabilities. Internally-retained skills for knowledge access and knowledge application are needed to interpret available information. This requires not only domain-specific expertise but also knowledge of techniques for accessing and analyzing information from diverse sources and for identifying what is relevant to the Canadian Forces and the department. The S&T; Enterprise should also maintain an internal capability for S&T; integration.

Finally, management of the S&T; Enterprise addresses all factors related to the development and retention of key S&T; capabilities, including human resource planning, management development and S&T; infrastructure investment.

² Outcomes are further clarified in Annex A to this document.

³ Areas of S&T; expertise, and the challenges that they address, are described in Annex B to this document.

[ Previous | Table of Contents | Next ]