Article Type: Generic

Removal of silos urgently required

Toronto’s powerful financial sector lacks an effective ecosystem to fully benefit from the explosion in information technologies transforming the services financial institutions offer and how startup companies are capitalized.

A dramatic decline in R&D spending by Blackberry Ltd in 2014 was all it took to push outlays from Canada’s Top 100 Corporate R&D spenders downward for the first time since 2010. R&D expenditures by the Waterloo ON-based provider of communications products and services plummeted $537 million or 40.

First decline in 14 years

By Debbie Lawes

Stagnant tri-council funding and tight provincial budgets are having an impact on Canada’s university sector, which saw its research income drop for the first time in 14 years, according to new data released by Research Infosource Inc.

The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) has released the summary of a confidential report highlighting its socio-economic impact on the province’s research, education and innovation (RE&I) communities.

Ontario has fully implemented its province-wide network of post-secondary based incubators and accelerators and initial data suggest they are beginning to have their intended impact. Managed by the Ontario Centres of Excellence, there are 10 Campus Linked Accelerators (CLAs) and 20 On-Campus Entrepreneurs Activities (OCEA) centres situated at 42 institutions with the express purpose of incenting and supporting entrepreneurial activity.

A new export panel report on Canada’s options for implementing a low-emission energy system concludes that climate change-inducing emissions can be cut between 60% and 90% using commercially available technologies and without jeopardizing the country’s competitiveness and long-term economic growth.

RE$EARCH MONEY London FinTech Conference

Policies contributing to the United Kingdom’s globe-leading expertise in crowdfunding and other forms of alternative financing is gaining a lot of attention.

RE$EARCH MONEY London FinTech Conference

An influential report by Canadian-born Sherry Coutu is having a major impact on the way the UK government supports high-tech companies, shifting emphasis from start-ups to high-growth firms commonly known as scale-ups.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May has compiled an exhaustive "to-do list" for reversing what she says is the damage inflicted on Canada by the outgoing administration of prime minister Stephen Harper.