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Responds to long-standing need

A $100-million venture capital fund targeting series ‘A’ financing is the highlight of a new BC Tech Strategy that could see at least $500 million injected into the province’s rapidly growing high-tech sector.

Canada must act more aggressively in utilizing its key advantages for boosting industry R&D by promoting and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), says a new policy paper by Mitacs, which supports post-secondary training.

Sustainability a key criterion

A stronger focus on commercialization helped to distinguish two new networks joining the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program in a tough competition that saw two winners out of field of nine full proposals.

Compute Canada and the Canadian Association of Research Laboratories (CARL) are partnering to build a scalable national platform to meet the growing need for data storage and management. The new platform has been successfully piloted and aims to close growing gaps in research data management when attempting to bridge systems and address scalability.

As advanced research computing permeates the majority of scientific disciplines, the ability of Canada’s researchers to compete with the best is being hampered by its ranking among the world’s top supercomputing nations.

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.

Exploring alternative sources

An historic funding agreement between CMC Microsystems and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is coming to an end after 30 years. The granting council turned down CMC’s latest request for $57 million over five-years to support its National Design Network (NDN), instead providing progressively declining funds over the next three years.

New investigators a key focus

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has submitted a Budget proposal to reverse the decline in federal support that has reduced success rates for researchers and enflamed its research community as it adjusts to a new process for adjudicating and selecting grant recipients.