Article Type: Generic

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program has agreed to a reduction in the time a Network can receive funding from two seven-year terms to two five-year terms except in “special circumstances”, in response a series of sweeping recommendations by an international advisory committee (IAC).

AUCC, CCA support initiative

The research community supporting one of Canada’s largest and most diverse economic sectors is seeking to enhance its contribution to Canadian innovation and competitiveness by raising its profile with governments and the public.

Enhances accountability measures

A new study indicates that Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) investments in research infrastructure are helping to increase the number of university spin-offs and attract a higher-than-average proportion of venture capital.

Less than 5% of experts in Ontario’s mobile content sector believe the province’s wireless industry is a leader in entrepreneurship and innovation, and only 20% agree that Ontario has a solid global hold on data-centric mobile devices, such as the Blackberry, according to preliminary survey results released by the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre.

Canada has finally signed a formal S&T agreement with Brazil that could pave the way for a significant boost in high-tech and other trade between the two nations. The agreement is the third Canada has signed recently with an emerging economy following last year’s collaborative pacts with India and China and comes at a time of increased Brazilian interest in investing in Canada.

By Debbie Lawes

Canada’s video games sector slipped from third place globally to fifth place this year, but “its long term position in the top echelons of the world’s great development territories seems assured”.

The expansion plans of Canada’s largest life sciences commercialization facility have been thwarted –— at least temporarily — with the suspension of construction on Phase II of the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.

The Canadian headquartered International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) has reached another key milestone with the launch of its first slate of research projects aimed at cataloguing the genetic abnormalities in tumors from 50 cancer types or subtypes.

A task force assembled by TRIUMF is telling the federal government to give serious consideration to experimental photo-fission technology for the production of medical isotopes. Photo fission uses low-enriched uranium and small, relatively inexpensive accelerators as opposed to the aging NRU nuclear reactor at Chalk River which is high cost, high maintenance and requires weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium.

ACCT Canada Conference

Canadian technology transfer activity is experiencing a rapid period of evolution as it adapts to the challenging shifts in technology financing and global competition. The virtual shutdown of the venture capital industry and the current financial meltdown are helping to accelerate the introduction of an ever expanding range of novel approaches and collaborations for taking university-based discovery into the marketplace.