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First award under TDP

By Debbie Lawes

Canada has funded the first collaboration under its Technology Demonstration Program (TDP), nearly three years since launching and three and a half years after a federally commissioned panel warned that Canada will lose its position as a global aerospace power without new investments.

Governments play important enabling role

A Washington-based think tank is urging government policymakers to bypass neoclassical and neo-Keynesian approaches to economic growth and instead establish higher productivity as a principal economic and political objective.

NRC to act as facilitator

Smart textiles and wearable electronics are the focus of a new alliance that seeks to coordinate Canada’s growing cadre of firms in the emerging sector and build supply chains to accelerate growth and global sales.

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.

America’s loss, it seems, has turned out to be Canada’s gain. Huawei has faced roadblocks selling into the US market since 2012, when a US Congressional report branded the company a threat to security, saying it could build back doors in their equipment to leak sensitive information from America to China—an allegation the Shenzhen-based company has repeatedly denied.

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.