In 1932, laboratories were built on Sussex Drive in Ottawa and the Medical Research Committee was formed with Dr. Frederick Banting as the inaugural Chair.

With the impetus of World War II, the NRC grew rapidly and for all practical purposes, became a military science and weapons research organization.

Many inventions and innvoations during this period and beyond drew upon the skills of engineer George J. Klein, who is often touted as the most productive inventor in Canada during the 20th century.

Foreign signals intelligence gathering officially remained with the agency when, by Order in Council, the Examination Unit became the Communications Branch of the NRC in 1946.

His presidency was characterized by a dramatic drop in publications and patents,[12] by significant cuts in scientific staff,[13] and by a 23-month period during which NRC management was aware that the organization was contaminating the water table outside its fire-safety testing facility in Mississippi Mills, Ontario, with perfluorinated chemicals used in firefighting foams and did not inform that community's inhabitants.

Under Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan, the Trudeau government changed the focus of the NRC, to develop partnerships with private and public-sector technology companies, both nationally and internationally.

[citation needed] Under the previous federal Minister of State (Science and Technology), Gary Goodyear, the NRC became in the words of one wag a "toolbox for industry" and dented basic-research infrastructure.

[18][20][21] In September 2020, President Iain Stewart was shuffled to the troubled Public Health Agency of Canada,[22] and in December 2020 Bains named Mitch Davies to fill the vacancy.

[36] In 2008, researchers from five I-CAN organizations were developing a Carbon Algae Recycling System (CARS) to "feed waste heat and flue gas containing CO2 from industrial exhaust stacks to micro-algae growing in artificial ponds.

[40] Working with breeders and scientists at the Crop Development Centre and at AAFC, they will be integrating long-term research with genetic improvement of wheat.

[43][44] The NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) was introduced in the 1950s to support product developments in small to medium-sized businesses.

[45] Some of the many innovations by NRC personnel included the artificial pacemaker, development of canola (rapeseed) in the 1940s, the Crash Position Indicator in the 1950s, and the Cesium Beam atomic clock in the 1960s.

No sound gets in, none gets out, and what occurs within gets completely absorbed with nary a bounce.From 2002 to 2006, John R. McDougall, who was appointed President of the NRC in 2010, was a member of the NRC-IRAP Advisory Board.

Oasys Healthcare, a company that provides "innovative audio and video solutions for the medical marketplace" received a $13,000 NRC grant for its new technology for operating rooms.

Jeffrey Ross Jewellery's product called Dimples, imprints fingerprints in silver using an innovative process and material, developed through a NRC $35,750 grant.

[52] "Scientists for the governmental agency Environment Canada, under threat of losing their jobs, were banned from discussing their research without political approval.

[citation needed] An article published in April 2016 and based on information from the office of the Minister of Science gave the following figures for the period 2011–2015: In the five years from 2011 through 2015, the number of studies in academic journals were 1,889, 1,650, 1,204, 1,017 and 549, respectively.

[57] McDougall's tenure as president included the period during which the NRC contaminated the water table in the Eastern Ontario community of Mississippi Mills, without informing its inhabitants.

[citation needed] In January 2014, NRC employees at the fire-safety testing facility in Mississippi Mills were told to start drinking bottled water.

[citation needed] In December 2015, 23 months later, residents of Mississippi Mills with homes near the facility were warned by the NRC that their well-water was contaminated with toxic chemicals called perfluorinated alkyl substances, often found in firefighting foam.

[58] In July 2016, Acting President Maria Aubrey formally acknowledged that the NRC's National Fire Laboratory was the source of the groundwater contamination in Mississippi Mills.

[59] In December 2016, it was reported that owners of homes near the lab in Mississippi Mills were launching a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the NRC over water contamination.

On July 20, 2019, an online petition titled "A Call to Divest Canada's Research Funding for the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea" has been posted on Change.org.