Author: Mark Henderson

By Debbie Lawes

Huawei’s global leadership in fifth-generation (5G) mobile internet could be decided by the bench strength of its researchers and engineers in Ontario. Last month, the Canadian arm of the Chinese telecom giant announced it will receive up to $16 million from the Ontario government as part of a 2014 commitment by Huawei Canada to invest $212 million and create 250 new R&D jobs to drive its 5G Ontario initiative.

New report contends massive underreporting

A controversial new report alleging underreporting of Canadian business expenditures on R&D (BERD) has been released as Statistics Canada completes a redesigned survey that includes the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in its calculation of BERD as well as a host of other changes (see chart).

Canada needs to put a “substantial and rising” price on carbon, and rethink its innovation, regulation and green infrastructure policies, says a new annual report on Canada’s clean tech industry. The 2016 Clean Technology Industry Report found that industry revenues declined for the first time in 2014, down 3% from the previous year to $11.

The three original Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Networks have been renewed for another three years with funding of $400,000 per year for a total of $3.6 million. The smallest initiative under the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) banner, KT-NCEs do not conduct original research but seek to maximize impact by assembling and disseminating existing basic research into society.

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program wants to capitalize on the growing globalization of research with a pilot program that seeks international linkages to foster network consortia and partnerships for knowledge translation and commercialization.

The inaugural slate of Governor General’s Innovation Awards has been announced with five individuals and a Quebec-based robotics firm being selected through a merit-based selection process administered by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and a six-person selection committee.

The Vancouver-based Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) has successfully made its pitch for evolving into a national cluster for drug development and commercialization with $32 million over two years in last month’s federal Budget.

The TACCAT Network is having a significant impact on connecting companies with the expertise and state-of-the art infrastructure at its 25 member colleges and Cégeps. Comprised of 14 Technology Access Centres (TAC) and 11 Centre d’accès à la technologie (CAT) affiliated with Quebec’s community colleges, the network was launched as a two-year pilot last September to develop a common services model for industry to access TACs and share best practices among the centres.

There were many highlights at RE$EARCH MONEY’s 15th annual conference which assembled a slate of respected leaders from industry, government and academia to discuss ways of moving Canada’s innovation game to the next level.