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MacDonald, Wettwiler & Associates Ltd (MDA) is getting out of the space business with the sale of its aerospace division to Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Edina MI, for $1.3 billion. The sale of its space and ground segment assets leaves MDA as an information technology (IT) firm and could mark the end of Canada as a significant player in the space side of the aerospace sector.

The Council of Canadian Academies has announced the membership of its Expert Panel on Private Sector Innovation in Canada. The federal government asked the CCA to conduct an assessment to help determine why private sector R&D spending in Canada is lower than other advanced nations.

One of America’s foremost experts on S&T’s relationship to global competitiveness says his continuing clarion call for the US government to enact major educational reform and increase basic research contains important lessons for all developed nations.

The federal government’s recent track record of boosting S&T spending appears to have ground to a halt according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. After increasing to 5.1% of the total government budget in FY05-06, federal S&T expenditures now account for 4.

The Univ of Ottawa’s DISCOVER Lab is boosting its research in collaborative tele-presence for national security applications with the awarding of $3.4 million worth of equipment and software from IBM Corp, Armonk NY.

Canada’s largest research hospital is expanding its operations in Shanghai as part of a long-term strategy to establish a network of international centres for collaboration and drug development. Toronto’s University Hospital Network (UHN) is ramping up its chemistry labs in Shanghai and has established a contract research organization (CRO) to help realize its mission of building on its strengths to become a preferred research partner locally, nationally and internationally.

MITACS has inside edge

The top official from the MITACS Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) is crisscrossing the country to line up support for the management of a new Industrial R&D Internship (IRDI) program to boost the amount of private sector R&D performed in Canada.

Boost S&T profile within government

An unreleased report from the former Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA) urges the government to create S&T National Expert Teams (S&T NETs) to tackle the increasingly complex issues of the 21st century.

Group to report to Industry Canada

The increasingly urgent challenge of providing sufficient and stable operating costs to Canada’s major science facilities is slowly resurfacing, two years after it fell off the government radar.

Members of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) have emerged from their first meeting November 19 with several requests for advice and with confidence that their work will achieve more success in affecting federal S&T policy than past advisory councils.