Person: Ron Freedman

Unfinished business — A R$ conference primer

By Ron Freedman

While the country is still trying to dissect recent federal and provincial government budgets to see where innovation policy is headed (the May 16-17 RE$EARCH MONEY conference will tackle this matter head-on) it is useful to reflect on some of the big issues that we are failing, on the whole, to address.

Could Canada’s innovation cup be half full?
By Ron Freedman

Can things really be this bad? The Science, Technology and Innovation Council’s 2011 state of the nation report contains the typical compendium of statistics purportedly showing how badly Canada is doing at research and innovation.

Re-Thinking Canada’s BERD Gap
By Ron Freedman

All the Experts Agree. If there is one fact of innovation policy that every analyst can agree on, it is that Canada suffers a “BERD Intensity Gap” with the rest of the OECD; specifically, a gap between the amounts that Canadian business spends on R&D as a proportion of GDP, compared with its counterparts in other OECD countries.

Zero Sum Gain
By Ron Freedman

It is not often that governments get something for nothing and in the process do the right thing. This year and next are exceptions. This year the federal government doubled the budget of the National Research Council’s IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program) by adding an extra $100 million to the pot.

Leveraging creative destruction
Turning recession to Canada’s S&T advantage

By Ron Freedman

Canada’s economy has entered its greatest period of “creative destruction”. Whether the process is entirely destructive, or whether it sows the seeds for future wealth creation is at least partially in our hands.

Planning Through the Rear-View Mirror
By Ron Freedman

Here’s a thought experiment that you might find interesting. Imagine if Canada had to survive in the world of the future without a manufacturing industry or a natural resource industry.

The universal role of government science
By Ron Freedman

Commitments in the 2007 federal budget and S&T strategy potentially signal the start of a new era in how federal government science and technology (S&T) is managed.

Canadian Innovation: Stuck in Neutral
By Ron Freedman

There are four major reviews of Canada’s S&T system under way today. As it happens, all are being led or commissioned by Industry Canada. A new S&T strategy is being devised.

Getting to the next level
By Ron Freedman

Is Canada’s innovation system “maxed-out”? Has it reached some sort of natural limit? That is one conclusion that could be drawn from a new report on scientific publishing in Canada, CUP 20061.

Time to Focus on Industrial Research
By Ron Freedman

Since the sluicegates opened on university research funding in 1997, the policy community has been preoccupied with measuring funding inputs and tweaking commercial outputs in the higher education sector.