This is a preliminary description, please consult the linked accession.
This series consists of the records of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Associate Committees. Included in the series are meeting minutes, reports, briefs, studies, and correspondence, among other records. The series is organized by committee, with a subseries devoted to each committee for which there are records; also included in the series are two files summarizing the activities of Associate Committees during the 1940s.
For more than fifty years, the NRC relied on associate committees to support the fulfillment of its mandate. Indeed, before the NRC developed its own laboratories with its own scientific and engineering staff, associate committees were the main means through which the NRC pursued its work. Associate committees were struck on a range of topics, including specific emerging issues as well as broader research areas. In general, associate committees were composed of (unpaid) scientific and technical experts from universities, industry, and government. Associate committees were originally authorized by, and reported to, the NRC Council, but were largely self-governing.
The roles, activities, and terms of existence of NRC associate committees varied greatly, not only through the years but also between committee to committee. Associate committees could hire staff to pursue scientific and technical work and some committees did so until the mid-1940s. Associate committees were also a core means of managing NRC's extramural funding through the 1950s. In some cases associate committees were managed by NRC staff to meet a statutory function of the NRC. In a few cases, a committee's status as an NRC associate committee was an administrative convenience for the existence of a national committee. Committees could also special committees or sub-committees to focus on specific aspects of their mandate. In principle, these committees had a finite lifespan, since they were convened to address specific problems; a number of associate committees, however, were in existence for decades.
In 1969, the NRC established an Associate Committee's Secretariat which created some administrative and policy homogeneity. The associate committee structure was abandoned in 1991 amidst the NRC's reorganizations.
Note this series contains only the records of Associate Committees. The records of other types of committees are found elsewhere in the fonds, for instance among central registry records, and among the collection of bound reference material from NRC committees.
