Author: Mark Henderson

The first comprehensive evaluation of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) program recommends that it be continued for another five years to attract more international research talent to the country, support the government’s objective of achieving global excellence in research and assist universities in building research capacity in the priority areas outlined in the federal S&T Strategy.

The federal budget’s $1.33-billion allocation to the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) represents the single largest disbursement in the organization’s 18-year-old history. Beginning in FY17-18 and spread over six years, the funding goes a long way to capitalizing many of the CFI’s existing funds while allowing ample time to consult, plan and hold future competitions.

Canada’s premier physics laboratory can now implement more of its ambitious strategic plan with $45 million in additional funding. The Budget allocated the money to allow TRIUMF to launch and operate its new $100-million Advanced Rare IsotopE Laboratory (ARIEL) as well as maintain base operations including its core cyclotron facility.

Collaboration among 10 nodes

Genome Canada is betting that access to enhanced computational resources and expertise at new innovation centres across Canada will increase collaboration, competition and commercial outputs.

U of O study issues final report

When the management of Nortel Networks Ltd pulled the plug in 2009, Canada’s largest technology company had $2.5 billion in the bank and a treasure trove of patents worth billions more.

Canada’s decision to fully back the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project with $243.5 million over 10 years is being welcomed throughout the tightly knit astronomy and astrophysics research communities as a major step forward in Canada’s determination to remain a major player in the global drive to accelerate discovery of the universe.

14th Annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference

S&T performers and policy makers from all sectors need to breathe life into the federal government’s new Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Strategy and a policy review of the tax credit system for corporate R&D performers is long overdue.

Preliminary venture capital data indicate that Canada is on track to have its best first quarter for investment since 2007 – prior to the economic downturn – with $431 million in financings. Released by Thompson Reuters, the data show that the information technology sector received the greatest share of quarterly investment ($260 million/60.

Provincially funded research has escaped the cost cutting measures of the recent Quebec Budget which balanced the books for the first time in several years by reducing expenditures in key areas such as education.

Performance far superior to silicon

The National Research Council (NRC) is aggressively pushing ahead with its Gallium nitride (GaN) R&D program as the technology expands from niche to widespread use in radio frequency (RF) electronics, LED lighting and power electronics.