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A Building and Health Sciences Network for Canada

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		NRC Highlights article: New network – better buildings
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The National Research Council Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) proposes the establishment of a new network to bring together the many Canadian building science and health sciences researchers who are concerned with making buildings healthier. The new network will coordinate knowledge and research in Canada about building-related health problems, and will formulate credible recommendations to improve building design, construction, operation and maintenance.

We envision a network of collaborative teams that will share information, foster interdisciplinary research, and improve the health of Canadians through innovations in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the built environment. This new community of researchers will support public policy, codes, standards, and guidelines by developing sound scientific knowledge about healthful buildings. It will seek evidence-based results and innovative resolutions to problems.

Such a network will only succeed if we find ways to share our scientific knowledge, not only of the physical conditions of our buildings, but equally about how people are affected by those conditions. We will need to draw on skills from many disciplines, including:

• Physics: (building and architectural)
• Architecture
• Engineering: (structural, mechanical, civil, and electrical)
• Chemistry: (analytical, organic, and physical)
• Biology (particularly mycology)
• Medicine: (toxicology, epidemiology, physiology, and industrial hygiene)
• Acoustics
• Psychology: (environmental, cognitive, developmental, health, and clinical)
• Mathematics (Mathematical modelling)

In creating this network we will exploit expertise available from across NRC's scientific research programs, as well as our construction codes and product evaluation activities. We will also engage and collaborate with other organizations such as Health Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and with academic researchers funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Next Steps

NRC-IRC will convene a symposium in 2008 to gather Canadian experts from all the various scientific and technical fields that bear on building and health science issues. Participants at this symposium will be invited to involve themselves in the planning and future activities of the Network. We also intend that the Canadian Building and Health Sciences Network will provide mechanisms for ongoing information exchange between researchers, using online tools currently under development.

Canadian building and health science researchers who wish to be informed of developments and to participate in this important work are invited to join the Canadian Building and Health Sciences Network.

You can also email us.