60 years of: smart science solutions.

Since 1947, the Saskatchewan Research Council has been going about its mission of helping the people of Saskatchewan strengthen the economy with quality jobs and a secure environment. As emphasized in their mission statement, they do this through research, development, and the transfer of innovative scientific and technological solutions, applications and services.

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This year the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) marks its 60th anniversary and it's appropriate that the gemstone attached to this particular milestone is a diamond. It's fitting because SRC's recent, massive expansion of its diamond laboratory serves as an applicable metaphor for the Treasury Board Crown. Spun off from the uranium laboratory of the geoanalytical business unit, the diamond laboratory has grown 40-fold in the last decade, largely as a result of the burgeoning diamond exploration activity in the province.

In the process, the SRC diamond lab has attracted worldwide acclaim as a 'laboratory of preference' for DeBeers. Although this has resulted in a growing client base from around the world, it bolsters SRC's availability, capacity and capability for Saskatchewan-based diamond exploration companies such as Shore Gold and Great Western Diamonds.

Similarly, each of the eight divisions of SRC, housing some 22 business units, have had their share of success stories. And while it's only natural that a government-funded organization that specializes in technology grows concurrently with the expansion of technological capabilities, SRC is not expanding for this simplistic reason. Rather, notes SRC CEO Laurier Schramm, SRC's growth, expansion and provision of services has been a result of a much more targeted approach.

"It (SRC's objective) was always about trying to use research and development to help the people of the province," Schramm notes. "From the earliest days the vision was that R and D was going to be needed to help the province develop an economy to help develop and use the province's natural resources. Also from the earliest times, there were words about the welfare of the province."

"One thing that hasn't changed is that we're here to serve the people," Schramm adds. "Yes, we're here to help the economy, but in a balanced way that looks out for the health, safety and security--therefore the environment--that we live in as well."

While the mandate hasn't changed over its 60 years, the way in which SRC achieves its objectives has changed significantly. For example, in its earliest days SRC was simply a granting agency, whereby a convened panel of scientific, educational and political leaders made granting decisions to fund research at the University of Saskatchewan. Without even a building or infrastructure of any sort, SRC didn't require any employees until 1953 when it hired its first employee, an administrative assistant. In 1955 SRC shifted its operation to provide a technical information service and in 1956 SRC added its first research director. Over the course of the next 15 years, SRC's role as a technical service provider expanded correspondingly as the need arose from Saskatchewan industry to process and overcome challenges.

"It turned out to be difficult to meet all of those needs simply through university work," explains Schramm. "University research is really good for uncovering new knowledge, learning and understanding new things. But it doesn't typically work on the time scale that matches industry's needs. They usually have a problem right in front of them now and they usually want an answer yesterday."

The value of the work being done at the university wasn't in question. It was more a question of being able to focus on more specific problems, develop whatever kind of solution was needed, then do it--and do it quickly. To try and respond to some of that demand, SRC started to acquire some of its own people to meet shorter-term, more applied needs of industry. Once that process began, it fueled a cycle that has been ongoing to this day.

"That was the most pivotal change, because SRC got pretty good at that," Schramm concedes of the organization's ability to meet industry needs. "In trying to respond to that, and then being successful at it, that just led to demands for more. As a company we've tried to respond to that."

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This new service-driven model required infrastructure, and in 1958, SRC opened its first building. The Tommy Douglas-led government of the time recognized SRC's potential to contribute to economic growth, which in turn led to more interest on the part of the government to fund such an organization. It was also noted that the province lacked the critical mass for commercial business to move in and provide comparable services. Therefore, the need was identified by the province to pursue areas of common good, and SRC delivered.

By the 1960s key areas of interest for SRC included agriculture and ground water, particularly in rural areas, while up-and-coming industries included potash and uranium. Other early areas of specialization were transportation, technical and laboratory services. Interestingly, each of these areas remains an integral part of SRC's services, which are now complemented by a wide array of services under the administration of 22 separate businesses falling under the SRC umbrella.

"I find this interesting because we're still working in all of these areas," admits Schramm. "The details have changed, the names have changed, but none of these (areas) have come and gone. They've just evolved over time."

Evolution is clearly evident with regards to mining, as some of the up-and-coming projects of the 1960s in fact developed into fully functional mine sites. And with the resources now depleted, SRC has been involved with the decommissioning of the sites, in the process bringing the organization's function full circle.

"We were involved in helping the Gunnar uranium mine site get going in 1958 and about the same time the Lorado mine, which were the two biggest uranium mines in the beginning of the Cold War era," says Schramm. "This is relevant to us today because now, just this year, we launched a huge project to clean up the Gunnar and other abandoned mine sites."

"We were there at the beginning when they were just being developed and now we finally got our opportunity to work on cleaning those abandoned sites up. We had a hand in trying to help back in that early time, and we're continuing to help today."

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Schramm is proud of the legacy SRC has established. He rightly points to the fact that SRC has been a leader within the province on many counts. One of the early leadership roles the Treasury Board Crown fulfilled was that of an equal opportunity employer, before such a term even existed.

"We see a lot of early pictures of women in non-traditional roles going all the way back to the 1950s," he says as he reviews a Power Point presentation he's creating to outline the company's storied history. "A lot of these old pictures show women in a variety of jobs, which wasn't happening everywhere else."

Yet another area highlighting SRC's leadership comes in the realm of groundwater studies, monitoring and data collection. Because of its importance to agriculture, which in the 1950s was the primary industry in Saskatchewan, SRC got an early jump on groundwater studies. As a result, the province of Saskatchewan now hosts the best groundwater monitoring network and historical database of any region in the country. Much of this data has been handed off to the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, but SRC's role in creating the original data was paramount.

SRC's current role regarding Saskatchewan's groundwater sees them spending less time identifying and monitoring underground water reserves, but devoting more efforts into determining uses for the water to make it more useful. An example of this includes working with brackish (salty) water to find industrial uses that currently do not exist.

"Just in terms of water available, we have no water problems, because there is huge water available," stresses Schramm. "But getting at it and making it useful is not a simple process. So we have significant work that we can conduct in that area."

Similarly, another of the areas that SRC has significant historical data is regarding Saskatchewan's climate. The council has more than a century's worth of climate observations. Like their work with groundwater, the earliest climate data was primarily gathered for agricultural purposes. Today, however, SRC's focus in terms of climate has taken on more of a global approach, with climate change being foremost among their going concerns.

"By 1972 we already had 70 years of climate observations in the province," Schramm says. "Because another area that was recognized as being important early on was climate. Not so much in terms of climate change in the context we're talking about today with global warming, but just the ability to understand climate and how it might vary again to help agriculture evolve."

"Our climate observation database has got to be one of the best on the continent because it goes back to 1902," Schramm continues. "So climate isn't a new thing here, but we've got a strong climate group here. Nowadays they're heavily involved in the climate change issue."

"And there again we've shifted," he adds. "Whereas some years ago our folks were focused on trying to understand what climate change might mean--what kind of things might be coming. Now that that's more clear than it was a few years ago as to what climate change might mean, our focus is shifting to help deal with 'How can we adapt to that?' How do we help businesses, industry, farmers and communities think about what kinds of things they can do to adapt to the climate change that is already happening and is forecast?"

As such, underlying much of the research, development and demonstration activities SRC undertakes--regardless of the business unit it falls within--environmental protection and sustainability are key components. Identifying energy consumption as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, SRC has established the Saskatchewan Office of Energy Conservation. This office facilitates the development and implementation of cost-effective, energy-conservation initiatives. Some efficiency results have included nationally recognized energy savings in government buildings, energy-efficient lighting in municipalities, innovative housing that uses 90 per cent less energy than conventional homes, and demonstrations of energy-efficient advances for vehicle fleets.

"Our work with alternative fuels is an example of us trying to help provide some solutions and work with businesses without yet knowing where the markets are going to go," Schramm says. "There's lots of interest in hydrogen right now. We're working with hydrogen-fueled vehicles, which we launched the first one in 2004."

"Nobody knows where the market demand will ultimately be," Schramm continues, using the analogy of VHS and Beta video cassettes for comparison. "So we're not trying to predict what the final outcome will be. We're trying to bring along a number of solutions that could work here and that we could start now, then see how things could evolve."

"But you have to start somewhere," he adds. "Fuel cell vehicles are still a ways off from being practical and there aren't a lot of hydrogen fuel stations in Saskatchewan right now. But we're hoping to open the first one later this year, perhaps early next year, if things go well."

Coinciding with its work for the greater good over the years has been the growth of SRC's fee-for-service model. Indeed not only has SRC been serving businesses and industries from across Saskatchewan but also from around the world. By 1973, half of SRC's revenues were from contracts. As grew the contracts, so did the need for staff to perform the necessary work. This cycle spiralled in other directions as well. With the growth in staff came the need for more space.

Although much of the early contract work was for larger corporations--Crown and otherwise--SRC saw the growing potential small and medium-sized enterprises represented to their client base. Therefore, they adopted a strategic approach to find ways to facilitate such enterprises.

"By the 1980s we started recognizing that there was a need to help small and medium-sized business," Schramm says. "Not just big industry, big agriculture and so forth, but small and medium-sized businesses. That began an offshoot that is still here today of trying to help small and medium-sized businesses move forward all the way down to a backyard inventor with a new idea, wondering where to go for help and advice."

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Along with this shift in focus came an opportunity to diversify. As such, SRC extended its operational research in the oil business when it acquired the R and D division of Sask Oil. Another opportunity came when SRC acquired the federal government's bovine blood typing laboratory. This has become SRC's Bova-Can Laboratories, which provides genetic services such as blood and DNA testing for traditional and specialty livestock.

"We also acquired the Building Science Division from the National Research Council in 1990," Schramm adds. "That also helped us get a quick jump up into moving into things like helping the construction industry from housing to buildings. We were dealing not just with the materials, but also with the air quality side. We're still doing lots of work in building construction and indoor air quality. Now we've moved into outdoor air quality as well."

SRC's diversification has been equally matched by its aptitude for specialization. Aside from the aforementioned example of the diamond laboratory, SRC has other glowing examples of their world-class capabilities. Primary among these is the Pipe Flow Technology Centre, which was established for both the petroleum and mineral sectors.

"It was started to meet the needs of these sectors in both Saskatchewan and Alberta," Schramm offers. "It's changed locations a few times, but this is probably only one of two centres in North America that can do serious, full-scale pipeline technology, development and demonstrations. It's a facility that we're very proud of."

Maintaining a delicate balance between its fee-for-service activities and those which fall under the greater good category has been challenging for the organization. While its original source of income came solely from government coffers, Schramm notes that serving the needs of private sector clients eventually tended to take up too much of the organization's resources. Therefore, a more balanced approach has been sought, and with it, Schramm says, new opportunities are arising.

"What we've been doing in the last six years is to try and bring a little more balance to that and to bring back some of the focus that had perhaps diminished over the years on the needs of our owner--the things that are important to the province in terms of provincial priorities as opposed to just following what business and industry want all of the time."

"We're trying not to shift the whole pendulum back to where we started, which is what I call owner needs-driven, but to work a little more of a balance," Schramm says. "What we've found is where we can actually make the two the same, then there's even more opportunity for us to consider. Because if we can align provincial priorities with industry's needs, there's usually an opportunity to put together bigger or longer-lasting programs that could have even more impact."

Such a realization branched out into becoming a service provider for communities. Whether it be in the form of water quality, air quality, energy efficiency or housing, SRC has a wide array of services that can be of benefit. Perhaps nowhere are greater needs identified than in Saskatchewan's First Nations.

As such, SRC has entered into collaborative projects with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and various Aboriginal communities to focus on environmental health, safety and sustainability of lands, water and other resources. Similarly, some projects are aimed directly at alternative sustainable energy production, such as the application of SODAR and other technologies to the mapping of winds and to wind turbine siting, with partners such as Gordon First Nation and Cowessess First Nation.

With hindsight being the most astute of indicators, the redefined priorities have undoubtedly paid dividends for SRC. Over the past five years they've doubled their revenues, while nearly doubling their staff at the same time. In SRC's current annual report, revenues were reported at $36.4 million, while its staff grew to 330.

"It's not that the numbers are important," stresses Schramm. "To me the relevance in growing, and the reason we wanted to grow, was so we could have more impact. With more horsepower properly aligned, we figured we'd be able to make more of a difference in the province."

"When you're doing research and development, it can be really easy to talk about what you're doing, how nice it looks and the publications that you derive from it," Schramm adds. "But it typically has been difficult to talk about: 'So what?' How is that helping anybody?"

"Where we're solving day-to-day client problems that's relatively easy because someone brings us an issue and we either solve it or we can't. If we can, you should be able to go to that client and they'll tell you. That's actually where we started in terms of trying to find a way to measure whether we're doing a good job or not."

This resulted in an audit process, which was introduced in 2002 and has evolved to its present-day status. Each year a cross section of SRC clients are asked if SRC's work made a difference to them. Respondents are asked things like: Has SRC helped them grow? Have they increased exports? Increased productivity? Weathered a downturn?

Identified as key performance indicators, these survey results sees SRC consistently rank in the higher percentiles in various customer satisfaction categories, oftentimes flirting with perfection. Furthermore, the findings indicated SRC's impact resulted in 3,000 jobs in Saskatchewan being either created or maintained as a result of their work. And with an annual economic impact of $400 million, as the findings indicate, Schramm notes that's a pretty good return on investment for the $8 million annual investment the provincial government makes in SRC.

Annually SRC conducts work on behalf of about 1,800 clients per year, 1,000 of which come from Saskatchewan. Those that are taken on from out of province, however, are done so to ultimately benefit Saskatchewan businesses and industry. Schramm uses the diamond processing facility to illustrate this point.

"We have (mineral) samples coming to us from all over the world," he says. "Even though we're here for Saskatchewan, and in this case to help Saskatchewan start a diamond industry as we don't have an operating diamond mine yet, we're attracting interest from all over the world."

"What that's helped us to do is establish a facility that has the capacity to do what the Saskatchewan industry is going to need," Schramm explains. "That money has got to come from somewhere, and where it's come from is exploration companies from around the world. If you want to think of it this way, we've used their money and by serving them, been able to attract the business that allows us to build the capability that we can use to serve Saskatchewan industry."

Emphasizing that they can't be everything for everyone, Schramm says that today's SRC is looking for the most strategic alliances between business and industry, and its owners, which ultimately are the people of Saskatchewan. You can look at their body of work from a dollars and cents perspective, which is represented by their growth and expansion over the years in terms of their clients, staff, business units and capabilities. Or you could look at it in terms of their contributions to greater good. Either way, SRC has established a legacy that sees it as one of the top research institutions in the country. Despite their impressive 60-year track record, many indicators suggest that their best work may be yet to come.