Check in at the Registration Desk located on the 3rd floor to collect your badge. Staff will be available here to provide assistance with inquiries, directions, and event information. The desk will also serve as the designated drop-off point for presentations materials.

Wondering how best to become involved in RSC activities domestically and internationally? This is the breakfast for you! 

For 2025 Award Winners only. The session will prepare Award Winners for the Ceremony, to receive boutonnieres, to organize the group in order and to take a group photo.

Each year the RSC presents a series of prestigious awards and medals to honour individuals selected for their exceptional contributions.

For Class of 2025 College Members only. The session will prepare the incoming College members for the Ceremony, to receive boutonnieres, to organize the group in order and to take a group photo.

This ceremony welcomes new Members of the College in a format that showcases the interdisciplinary character of the College.

LIVE TRANSCRIPTION

Join us to celebrate the Class of 2025!

For Class of 2025 Fellows only. The session will prepare the incoming Fellows for the Ceremony, to receive boutonnieres, to organize the group in order and to take a group photo.

This ceremony welcomes new RSC Fellows into the RSC. During this event, new Fellows sign their names into RSC’s original and historic Charter Book and are presented with a Diploma and RSC lapel pin.

Celebrate the Class of 2025 and raise a glass in honour of the new RSC Members, Fellows and Awards Winners.

Check in at the Registration Desk located on the 3rd floor to collect your badge. Staff will be available here to provide assistance with inquiries, directions, and event information. The desk will also serve as the designated drop-off point for presentations materials.

RSC AGM Breakfast

Breakfast 7:00am – 8:00am

Annual General Meeting 8:00am – 9:00am (Live Stream)

At the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the membership elects RSC Board of Directors, and receives the RSC’s financial statements.

The Festival of Ideas provides an arena where RSC Members can showcase their work – whether through a visual display, a multimedia presentation, or a book display (or other formats: use your imagination!). Friends and partners of the RSC also have space in the festival to promote engagement opportunities. Meet the Participants between 9:30 and and 10:30am. Displays will be available until 2:30pm.

Researchers find themselves trapped in a publishing system under strain: libraries can no longer afford rising subscription costs, journals have gone digital but retained outdated print-era conventions, and the pressure to publish in prestigious venues continues to shape careers and research priorities. Today, the system faces a deeper crisis of credibility: paper mills and AI tools fabricate fake articles, while editors struggle to find reviewers as submissions soar. As commercial publishers profit from open access policies through fees that are based on prestige not production costs, pressure on editors to publish more, faster, and on marketable topics continues to grow. However, the call for reform has never been louder, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. considering caps on article processing charges (APCs) and the Royal Society in the U.K. adopting a collectively funded diamond open access model. With an updated Tri-Agency open access policy about to be released, the panel will discuss what role Canada, and foremost Royal Society members, can play in reclaiming scholarly publishing as a trustworthy, sustainable, and community-driven public good.

Meet the Academy President and In-coming Academy President. This informal meet-and-greet will allow you to discuss current and upcoming initiatives in the Academy as well as ways to participate in activities throughout the year.

Meet the Academy President and In-coming Academy President. This informal meet-and-greet will allow you to discuss current and upcoming initiatives in the Academy as well as ways to participate in activities throughout the year.

Join us for an informal meet-and-greet with the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). Nicolas Lafrenière (Membership & Awards Officer) and Russel MacDonald (Programmes Manager) will be available to outline how the RSC supports scholars, artists, and scientists through membership pathways, awards, and national programming. We’ll cover how institutions can engage, tips for strong nominations, upcoming timelines, and ways members can participate in RSC activities throughout the year.

This session offers an inside look at FACETS—Canada’s first interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary open access journal, and the official journal of the Royal Society of Canada’s Academy of Science— as it celebrates a decade of innovation and impact.

Join FACETS Co-Editor-in-Chief Dr. Fanie Pelletier and Canadian Science Publishing’s CEO Elaine Stott to explore how FACETS is shaping the future of scholarly publishing by advancing equitable access to knowledge, championing excellence in peer review, and navigating new challenges such as Artificial Intelligence and paper mill detection, while strengthening research integrity and inclusivity. Learn about opportunities to become involved with the journal, including the upcoming 10-year anniversary collection and the RSC Reviewer Board, and discover how the journal continues to grow as a home for interdisciplinary research, inviting you to shape its next decade.

Meet the Academy President and In-coming Academy President. This informal meet-and-greet will allow you to discuss current and upcoming initiatives in the Academy as well as ways to participate in activities throughout the year.

Lightning talks aim to share deep insights within six minutes each. They are opportunities for new and current Members to introduce their work and to share areas of ongoing and emerging focus. More details to come.

LIVE TRANSCRIPTION

The Romanowski lecture features a discussion of some of the greatest challenges facing the environment, and research that is contributing to addressing these challenges.

Professor Catherine Mulligan FRSC, the 2024 recipient of the RSC’sMiroslaw Romanowski Medal for scientific work relating to environmental problems will deliver this year’s luncheon lecture titled, “The geoenvironment: Why it is important and what can we do to protect it.“

Catherine Mulligan is an internationally recognized expert in the decontamination of water, soils, and sediments, and a pioneer of green remediation technologies. She is the founding Director of the Concordia Institute of Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems. Her fundamental and applied contributions to research and her service to the engineering profession have been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada.

LIVE TRANSCRIPTION

The RSC Eric Jackman Prize in the Human Behavioural and Social Sciences was established in 2025 with the support of a generous endowment from the Jackman Foundation to recognize path-breaking and sustained scientific contributions to preventing harm, strengthening resilience, or otherwise benefiting humankind through research in one or more behavioural and social science fields.

Professor Sean B. Rourke, the inaugural recipient of the RSC Eric Jackman Prize will deliver this year’s luncheon lecture.

The RSC is proud to serve as Canada’s National Representative Body (NRB) for The Frontiers Planet Prize, and we are delighted to be joined at COEE2025 by Dr. Suzanne Tank, who was selected as Canada’s 2025 National Champion. Dr. Tank will give a lecture on her award-winning work on the land-freshwater-ocean continuum, and how climate change, permafrost, carbon cycling, and nutrient dynamics interact in freshwaters and connected systems throughout the pan-Arctic watershed.

Following Dr. Tank’s lecture, we will be offering an information session on the prize itself, where members can learn about the role of Canadian universities and research institutions as National Nominating Bodies (NNBs), the process for nominating top scientists, and the journey from national selection to the international stage.

Cocktails – Dinner - Dance |Dress Code: Formal

COAT CHECK located on level 2 of the PALAIS DES CONGRÈS DE MONTRÉAL in Viger Hall

Timeline of the Evening

Doors Open 5:45 pm

Networking & Cocktail Hour 6:00pm – 7:00pm

​​Start of Gala 7:00 pm

​Dance 9:00pm

End of the Gala 11:30pm

Bring the conference to a close with a delightful breakfast. Take a moment to enjoy the morning with colleagues, or pick up something to take with you as you depart.