Article Type: Generic

The writing was on the wall for those who chose to see it long before the largely unnoticed demise of ACCTCanada last year. The message: technology transfer by universities, and later by colleges, has become an increasingly futile exercise in perpetuating the traditional push model for moving academic-based discoveries into the marketplace.

As the 10-year mandate of the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) is set to expire, its interim president Janet Bax is optimistic that the government will refund its operations when the next Budget is tabled.

Cisco, Open Text and Linamar tapped

Ontario is touting its massive $2.5-billion, 10-year Jobs and Prosperity Fund (JPF) as Canada’s economic growth forecast shifts to southern Ontario’s manufacturing heartland.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has selected nine research facilities to share $25 million in operational support as part of a special competition under its Major Science Initiatives (MSI) fund .

The government has chosen March 31/18 as the date when it will shut down the NRU reactor, Canada’s only nuclear reactor devoted to medical isotope production and neutron physics research. The announcement signals the government’s decision to abandon its plans for seeking a five-year extension past the October 31/16 end of its current licencing mandate.

One of Canada’s few programs for supporting bilateral industrial R&D is set to close its doors nine years after it was introduced. Funding for International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada (ISTPCanada) will expire March 31/15 with no indication that its funder — the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) — is prepared to maintain support beyond the end of the fiscal year.

Entrepreneurs and companies in Nova Scotia and Israel will be pursuing collaborative R&D partnerships via a new program struck between the two jurisdictions. The Nova Scotia-Israel Innovation Program (NSIIP) is intended to facilitate the creation and commercialization of technologies by start-ups with the aim of developing full scale operations with global market reach.

Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation

A new report on the first five years of a research strategy for industry-academic collaboration indicates that the suite of programs created by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is resulting in an unprecedented number of joint projects and activities, many of which have evolved into long-term relationships.

RE$EARCH MONEYConference 2015
Canada’s Innovation Agenda — Building on our Natural Resources Advantage

March 31 – April 1 2015
National Arts Centre, Ottawa

The 14th Annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference will expand and deepen our analysis of implications of recent federal budgets for business innovation support.

Toronto’s financial services sector is tapping into Ontario’s high-tech expertise to address growing challenges and gain competitive advantage. The Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and Toronto Financial Services Alliance (TFSA) have entered a collaborative agreement that will see financial firms partner with academic-based researchers and tech companies to develop common intellectual property (IP) and new spin-offs.