For immediate release
OTTAWA, January 18, 2017 – Members of the Canadian cultural delegation, who recently concluded a visit to China, met with officials of the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum to discuss future collaborative projects.
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and Alex Benay, Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer, met with executives from the museum group in Shanghai. Together, the partners will promote cooperation and develop exchange programs on medical science and technology, exhibition research and development, as well as education and science communication.
Within the framework of this visit, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing future collaboration was signed between the following partners:
- Shanghai Science & Technology Museum
- Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
- University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine
- University of Ottawa Faculty of Arts
This collaboration is aligned with the Convention of Academic Collaboration for Teaching the Humanities in Medicine that was signed April 11, 2016 between the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the Université de Lyon.
Together, these four leading academic institutions shared the view that humanities play a key role in medical education. Each has committed to share resources on this subject to create summer exchange programs, projects for medical trainees, and online learning modules. These tools are all designed to foster critical thinking, professionalism and empathy for students in training to become future doctors and health professionals.
Quotes
“The Government of Canada is pleased to encourage cooperation, dialogue, and sharing of expertise in a broad range of cultural areas. This is an exciting time to promote relations between our countries, strengthen economic bonds, and develop greater collaboration among our artists, creators, cultural industries, and heritage institutions.”
— The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage
“The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation is proud to partner with organizations internationally for collaboration on projects that showcase Canada’s rich history of medical innovation and discovery. As custodians of that collection, we continually seek new and creative ways to display this on national and international scales. We look forward to working with our global partners to bring various perspectives of the field of medicine under one umbrella.”
— Alex Benay, President and CEO, Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation.
“This partnership between two world-class museums and the University will be unprecedented in scope and innovation. It will be an addition to the first-of-a-kind Ottawa-Shanghai Joint School of Medicine, established by University of Ottawa and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in 2014 and will open up a whole field of intersection between medicine, the humanities, science, culture and the digital world. It will contribute to the growing cultural, scientific and economic partnership that is fast growing between Canada and China.”
—Dr. Jacques Bradwejn, Dean of Medicine, University of Ottawa and Founding Dean, Ottawa Shanghai Joint School of Medicine
“Through signing this MoU, we hope a better development for both sides and to carry out more cooperation with Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation and other museum colleagues from Canada. At this moment, I’d like to thank Dr. Bradwejn and Dr. Wang from University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine, for their efforts to this cooperation.”
—Professor WANG Xiaoming, Director General, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
Media Contacts
Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
Caroline Boutin
Media and Government Relations Officer
Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
cboutin@techno-science.ca
613-410-5943
University of Ottawa
Amélie Ferron-Craig
Media Relations Officer
University of Ottawa
aferronc@uOttawa.ca
613-863-7221
Shanghai Science & Technology Museum
HUANG Yijing
Media Officer
Information Center
Shanghai Science & Technology Museum
hyj@sstm.org.cn
68622000-Ext. 7614
About the Partners
About the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
The Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation is Canada’s only comprehensive science and technology collecting institution. Headquartered in Ottawa, the Corporation operates three Museums: the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The Corporation’s mandate is to preserve Canada’s scientific and technological heritage, while promoting, celebrating, and sharing knowledge of that heritage and how it affects Canadians’ daily lives. To learn more, visit techno-science.ca.
About the University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is home to over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroads of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We are one of Canada’s top 10 research universities — our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today’s challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe.
About the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum
Shanghai Science & Technology Museum (SSTM) is a science museum group including Shanghai Science & Technology Museum and its two branch museums -- The new Shanghai Natural History Museum and the Shanghai Astronomical Museum (under construction). Over the past fifteen years, the group has received over 59 million visitors with nearly 4 million visitors a year. It is the only science museum in China which has been assessed at the same time as the National 5A Tourist Attraction, National First-Class Museum and National Demonstration Base for Research and Studies. The museum’s mission is to inspire public interest in nature, mankind and technology and to make museum services more accessible to all.