Best Wishes for 2016

2015 has been a busy year for the Network. In addition to our regular activities, we successfully went through an international review of our activities over the past 15 years, conducted a successful search for our next Executive Director to succeed Bob McNutt, and submitted a new grant proposal to SSHRC and CIHR for the next five years. Pending approval of this submission, 2016 promises to be a big year again, as we are getting ready to embark into new ventures. We will continue to count on your collaboration and support which have been instrumental in making the Network a success. Without you, whether as researchers, academic directors, students, analysts, or partners, we could not make it work. A most sincere thank you to you all, and our best wishes for the new year.

A New Executive Director
We are happy to announce that Dr. S. Martin Taylor has accepted the position of Executive Director of the Network beginning on April 1, 2016. Professor Emeritus of geography at the University of Victoria, where he acted as first Vice-President Research from 1998 to 2007, Martin spent the first part of his career at McMaster where he taught and held various administrative positions for more than 20 years. He also is the Founding President and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada which he led until 2012. Welcome Martin!

Annual Conference 2015
Thanks to the hard work of the Toronto Regional RDC team and the organizing committee chaired by Michael Baker, the annual conference was a resounding success, attracting more than 150 participants from across the country. The video recordings and slides of most presentations are now available on our website. For your convenience, we have listed them by theme (click on the green arrow to select a presentation).

Health, Wealth and Happiness in Canadian Society
This year, the conference will be hosted by the SKY RDC and will take place in Saskatoon in November. Stay tuned: the call for proposals will be issued in the spring.

Acknowledgments for RDC-Based Publications
We wish to remind researchers that all RDC-based publications (e.g. scientific article, thesis, book chapter, and research report) and presentations should include an acknowledgment of the support provided by the granting councils (SSHRC, CIHR, CFI), Statistics Canada and host university. For your convenience, a draft text is proposed here (see the note to researchers).

Calls for Proposals
Conference season is coming up and several calls for proposals have been issued. Among them, the 50th annual conference of the Canadian Economic Association in Ottawa in June: deadline is February 6; the annual meeting of the Canadian Population Society in June in Calgary: deadline is January 31; the Acfas in May in Montreal: the QICSS invites you to submit a proposal by February 12; the 2016 Canadian Indigenous/Native Studies Association Conference in June: deadline is January 31.

New Datasets in the RDCs
Several new datasets have been added to our data collection over the past few months, including the General Social Survey - Victimization (2014), and the Canadian Income Survey (2013).