Author: Mark Henderson

As the new president and CEO of Genome Canada, Marc LePage finds himself back in the same office he occupied 14 years ago when he was executive VP of the then fledging research agency. This time around, LePage is at the helm of a much larger, more sophisticated organization that has been instrumental in vaulting Canada back into the rapidly evolving field of genomics and proteomics.

The massive commercial potential for using water and a nickel catalyst for generating hydrogen without CO2 emissions has prompted the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to deploy its little used Discovery Frontiers Initiative (DFI) to accelerate the research.

Another decline in R&D spending in 2014 by the Canadian pharmaceutical industry has set off a new round of counterclaims and recriminations. Data from the annual report of the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (PMPRB) show that pharma R&D fell 1.

The National Research Council is overhauling its executive suite, expanding the number of VPs responsible for R&D from three to five. In place of VPs for life sciences, emerging technologies and engineering, the new VP titles are food and health, environment and sustainability, emerging science and technology, intelligent systems and productivity and prosperity.

Key investments required

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) will be seeking “significant investment” to position itself as Canada’s convenor for the front end of the national innovation ecosystem.

Thousands of PhD graduates will have a better shot at landing careers in academia, industry and government if a proposal for a new suite of fellowships is accepted and funded by the new federal government.

Canada has the opportunity to take a leading position in reactivating a largely neglected clause of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) enshrining the right of all people to share in scientific advancement and its benefits, says one of Canada’s preeminent research ethicists.

A new report on Canadian-European collaboration in science, technology and innovation (STI) reveals that researchers from Ontario and Quebec are most active in the European Framework Programme for Science and Technology (FP7) and also have the highest number of scientific agreements with European Union (EU) member states.

Compute Canada is returning to its user community to help map out the future research needs for advanced research computing (HPC) between 2017 and 2020. It is asking for bold world-class proposals to shape its request for new funding in the next round of the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Major Facilities Infrastructure competition.