The organization’s specifics of research and development activities in Canada during the Second World War

Importance. The relevance of the chosen topic is justified from both a scientific and, to a certain extent, a practical perspective. Despite a number of domestic studies dedicated to Canada during World War II, there have been no works concerning the scientific sphere of this North American dominion. However, a more important aspect is the fact that studying the organization of interaction between Canadian science, business, and the state during the global conflict could be useful in the current situation for modern Russia. Of course, Canada of the 1940s and the Russian Federation of 2025 are very different countries. But studying Canada’s experience, its mistakes and successes in organizing military production and research in strategic areas could help to avoid similar mistakes or to competently scale successful models for our conditions. An argument in favor of this concept is that Canada faced the task of organizing military production within a market economy, in some cases “from scratch”. A similar situation exists in modern Russia – the existence of a market and the consequences of the 1990s allow for some parallels to be drawn.

Materials and Methods. This research relies on a body of official Canadian materials related to the work of various divisions of the National Research Council (hereinafter – NRC) of Canada, as well as a number of studies on the Canadian war economy and works dedicated to Canada’s participation in World War II. The methodological basis of the study is founded on a number of specialized historical research methods: the historical-systemic, historical-genetic, and historical-comparative methods.

Results and Discussion. The war fundamentally changed the NRC, transforming it from a small scientific council into a central body for mobilizing Canadian science and industry. Its structure became complex and branched. The structure of the NRC from 1939–1945 was a flexible and powerful network, with the Council itself as its central node, coordinating the efforts of science, the military, and industry through a system of committees, its own laboratories, and controlled corporations. It was not a rigid vertical but rather a “hub-and-spokes” model, where the NRC acted as the coordination center. In “long-term” projects, the use of associate committees allowed for combining the advantages of three elements: creativity from science, resources and capabilities from the state, and swift decision-making combined with pragmatism from business structures.

Conclusions. The system created by the National Research Council of Canada proved to be quite effective for solving problems “in the long run” and only through the combination of “science – state – business”. The NRC created a large national innovation network. This decentralized, yet excellently coordinated structure allowed Canada, a country with a relatively small population, to make a significant contribution to the scientific and industrial support for the Allied victory.