Article Type: Generic

“National Priorities and Regional Advantages:
Opportunities for Atlantic Canada in Canada’s Science and Technology Strategy”

November 21, 2007
World Trade Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Speakers include: Industry Keynote — Atlantic Canada’s value proposition for global knowledge-based firms — Ron Keefe, President & CEO, BioVectra
Christa Bleyleben,Executive Director, Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, Rory Francis, Executive Director, PEI Bioalliance and Jorge Niosi,
Professor, Department of Management and Technology, UQAM,
Canada Research Chair on the Management of Technology

Partners
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency &
Nova Scotia Economic Development,
Business New Brunswick,
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
FMI: www.

Canada playing catch-up

After watching other nations take the lead, Canada is finally moving on developing its cyberinfrastructure (CI) for the research community with longer terms sights set on industry.

CANARIE is investing $15 million in academic cyberinfrastructure (CI) through its Network Enabled platforms (NEP) program. NEP is designed to accelerate the development and implementation of sustained research platforms by assisting research institutions involved in distributed research projects to adopt the tools, architectures and interfaces required for collaboration.

Non medical schools gain ground

Sponsored research income at Canada’s universities enjoyed a healthy 6.4% increase in FY06 to $5.53 billion driven by solid growth from the federal government, endowments and non-corporate funding.

Boom times in the Canadian economy have not translated into stronger industrial R&D performance, with the Top 100 Corporate R&D performers conducting 3.8% less R&D between FY05 and FY06. The R&D of those companies amounted to $11.

Negotiated agreements with the seven Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) are going to Treasury Board for final funding sign-off, paving the way for their launch early in 2008.

Industry Canada has unveiled a high-level group of industry and university leaders, scientists and government officials to serve on the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) with the first formal meeting slated for November 18th.

Refundability promises to dominate the federal government’s long-overdue review of its highly touted R&D tax incentive program. Announced October 5, consultations on possible changes to the scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) program will likely generate consensus that extending refundability to all R&D-performing companies is the minimum the business community is willing to accept.

Attracting world-class expertise

Alberta is raising the bar for attracting top research talent to Canada with the first in a series of planned research institutes that closely correspond to the provincial government’s economic priorities.

$500 million over seven years

The federal government is targeting later-stage development of biofuels technology with a new $500-million fund to be managed by Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).