Author: Mark Henderson

Ottawa is joining the growing list of Canadian cities with a homegrown technology incubator and accelerator with the opening of its long-awaited Innovation Centre this fall. The facility — under construction in the historic Bayview Yards district near the city centre— will feature a digital media lab and a makerspace to facilitate 3D printing.

The provincial government has added science to the mandate of the Ministry of Research and Innovation and announced the creation of a chief science officer (CSO). The new holistic approach to the knowledge economy was decided following consultation with key players in the science and innovation communities and is intended to assist the process of advancing inventions and ideas by providing end-to-end support for commercialization and innovation.

Investment in applied research conducted by Canada’s colleges and technical institutes has increased more than 68% over five years and institutions boast more than 5,000 partnerships with the private sector.

Marginal increase of 1% this year

Federal S&T outlays are projected to inch up by 1% to $10.65 million in FY16-17 in what can be seen as an interim year between the election and budgetary pledges of the new Liberal government and any allocation of new funding.

Canada needs to focus on scalable firms to increase its productivity and competitiveness and capitalize on its high level of early-stage entrepreneurial activity and support by the general population, states a new report on Canadian entrepreneurship.

Unlocking federal research and data

Open government (OG) is set to take a significant step forward with the imminent release of a new action plan that includes research, innovation and evidence-based decisions among its major tenets.

Province’s flagship R&D program

Alberta Innovates (AI) is getting a major makeover with the consolidation of its four, six-year-old corporations into a single program for research and commercialization.

Governments play important enabling role

A Washington-based think tank is urging government policymakers to bypass neoclassical and neo-Keynesian approaches to economic growth and instead establish higher productivity as a principal economic and political objective.

NRC to act as facilitator

Smart textiles and wearable electronics are the focus of a new alliance that seeks to coordinate Canada’s growing cadre of firms in the emerging sector and build supply chains to accelerate growth and global sales.

America’s loss, it seems, has turned out to be Canada’s gain. Huawei has faced roadblocks selling into the US market since 2012, when a US Congressional report branded the company a threat to security, saying it could build back doors in their equipment to leak sensitive information from America to China—an allegation the Shenzhen-based company has repeatedly denied.