Advise
How the Centre is structured, and how a volunteer organisation delivers research and advice for Canada.
The Centre is built around three departments and run entirely by volunteers. Fellows, researchers, and contributors give their time, and senior leadership is unpaid. This keeps the Centre independent, free of conflicts of interest, and unable to distribute funds to individuals, which also mitigates the risk of foreign influence. Membership fees are directed to operational work, primarily within the Observational Research Department, rather than to salaries.
Three departments
In-depth, desk-based research in an academic style, led by chief advisors and supported by volunteer researchers and international fellows.
The academic research department conducts in-depth, desk-based research in an academic style. Leadership is provided by chief advisors, supported by volunteer researchers and international fellows. The department produces academic-style publications that deliver strategic advice to members and Government of Canada stakeholders, with analysis that often reaches across disciplines, reflecting national security concerns that extend beyond geographical borders.
Collects, collates, and analyses information from publicly accessible environments across Canada, under the chairperson’s direct oversight to ensure legal compliance and separation of duties.
The observational research department collects, collates, and analyses information from publicly accessible environments across Canada, drawing exclusively from lawfully obtained sources. The chairperson provides direct oversight to ensure legal compliance, independence, and separation of duties. Its work maintains a clear distinction between collection, analysis, reporting, and community engagement, and is delivered by volunteers with paid contractual support where required.
Volunteer-driven support that keeps the Centre running day to day.
The administrative department provides the volunteer-driven support functions that keep the Centre operating efficiently. It sustains the organisation’s day-to-day operations and coordinates the Centre’s events, ensuring that research and advisory work is fully supported while the Centre remains independent and volunteer-led.
The Centre leads a GC Advisory Board that provides consultative input to the Government of Canada. The relationship is consultative rather than directive: the board takes the Centre’s findings and, where it chooses, adjusts policy. Discussions are typically ad hoc, with members carrying insights back to their own organisations.