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Research into biofuels, the marine environment and health care technologies for the elderly will receive $73.8 million over the next five years as the winners of the latest Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) competition, bringing the number of NCE-funded networks to 17.

Canada needs to follow lead

Canada would be wise to participate in US efforts to develop a strategy to inject technological breakthroughs into its advanced manufacturing (AM) processes in a bid to stop the erosion of its manufacturing industries, says a leading US S&T policy advisor.

The seeds sown in the report of the Jenkins Panel are bound to grow although it will take several Budgets before the full extent of its impact will be known, says Nobina Robinson. The Polytechnics Canada president says the 2012 Budget has moved on several recommendation and indicated that further consultations are planned for the National Research Council, public support for venture capital and the federal R&D tax credit program.

Budget 2012 has embraced the growing importance of industrial internships to industry-academic collaboration with the doubling of a key program administered by MITACS. The Industrial Research and Development Internship (IRDI) program received $14 million over two years which will allow MITACS to boost the number of internships it funds, expand its scope to include a wider range of disciplines and implement new sector and cluster strategies.

By Debbie Lawes

It’s taken more than a decade of painstaking fundraising, pilot trials and unprecedented cooperation, but Canada has finally launched a coordinated program for brain research that offers the best hope yet of developing the diagnostics, treatments, and ultimately cures, for more than 1,000 brain disorders, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and epilepsy.

By David Crane

There are provisions in the 2012 Budget that will clearly help Canadian enterprise become more innovative and hence better able to compete in the global marketplace. It is through innovative new activities — in the form of successful new businesses or new activities within existing businesses — that new wealth and jobs will be created, so it is imperative that public policies are strongly focussed on innovation and the knowledge economy.

11th annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference

Starkly opposing views on the latest federal initiatives to support and stimulate innovation emerged as business executives and policy makers convened last week at the 11th annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference to assess the 2012 Budget.

Budget permanently doubled

The Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) is gearing up to strengthen its status as the federal government’s primary mechanism for direct innovation assistance and boosting its impact on innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Canada’s Digital Economy Strategy (DES) is missing in action and a government committee says e-commerce must be included when it is finally released to help close the gap between Canada and competitor nations.

New portfolio structure in place

The National Research Council (NRC) is accelerating its transformation into a portfolio-based research technology organization (RTO), endorsed and abetted by the recent federal Budget which doubled support for the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP).