Among the new programs and policies implemented to incent more industrial R&D, few are more ambitious than the Centres of Excellence for Research and Commercialization (CECR). Introduced in 2007, there are now 23 CECRs spread across Canada’s research landscape focused on moving discoveries into the economy and society as well as training the kind of skilled talent industry requires to capitalize on new knowledge.

What to make of the new Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Strategy? Billed as a re-fresh of the 2007 version, the document does a good job of outlining existing programs and past investments. It also updates the vocabulary of STI to include trends, concepts and technology developments that have emerged in the intervening years.

Is Canada about to jump on to the advanced manufacturing band wagon? It appears so, although the nature of the announcement and lack of detail raise speculation that it could be more pre-election politics than smart policy.

So just what is the state of federally performed S&T? On the one hand, elected officials assert that record investments are being made. On the other hand, Statistics Canada and several prominent observers point to a long, slow decline in financial support.

Could Mitacs be a strategic weapon in Canada’s arsenal to obliterate the obstacles to increased productivity and economic growth? What if corporate Canada was infused with 10,000 interns instead of the 2,500 that are currently ensconced in companies from coast to coast?

The Mitacs leadership believes such an expansion of its Accelerate internship program could reap dividends for Canada and help businesses boost their R&D output — a task that a succession of reports contend is an essential prerequisite for greater innovation and competitiveness.

The federal government’s expanded network of business accelerators is giving Canadian firms a much needed boost in their attempts to break into potentially lucrative foreign markets. The Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA) program is now located in 11 US, European and Indian technology and business hubs.

Canada’s forestry research strategy is like a nearly completed jigsaw puzzle with most of its pieces firmly linked together leaving a few scattered spots still to be filled. Following the sector’s meltdown in the late 2000s, it has made great strides towards developing a path forward that could yield considerable benefits for the nation while reducing its environmental footprint.

With the fall season upon us, new research funding announcements are coming fast and furious. From new granting council awards to the funding of more research and commercialization networks, the S&T community is forging ahead with new programs, projects, models and strategies all designed to enhance Canada’s scientific and economic output.

Break out the pails and sharpen those axes. Unless Canada undertakes forceful measures to add significant value to its natural resources, the deindustrialization of Canada will continue apace. That’s a key conclusion of an important new study by the Energy Pathways Task Force, released under the auspices of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (see lead story).

Aerospace is one tech-based sector where the federal government is doing a capable job of tracking, analyzing and promoting the industry in all its component parts. With the release of a joint Industry Canada-industry report on the composition, performance and future opportunities for space and aerospace, all players have a strong statistical basis for moving ahead on the R&D, production and sales fronts (see page 4).