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March 8th in Ottawa
“Are Canada’s Business R&D Incentives Working?”
The sixth annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference examines the effectiveness of policies and programs designed to encourage R&D and innovation in our country.

Dr Alan Bernstein has issued his sternest warning to date that the ability of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to fund top-flight researchers is imperiled without a significant increase to its base budget.

A recently released audit report on the Communications Research Centre (CRC) provides a stark reminder of the lamentable state of federal laboratory infrastructure and the ways in which lab managers cope with severe funding constraints on their operations.

CFI: $78M; Matching: $90M; NSERC: $10M

The high performance computing (HPC) community has taken a major step forward with the awarding of $78 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to establish a network of mid-range research facilities, realizing a major component of its long-range vision to become a world leader in computationally based research.

TPC invests record $350 million

Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) will receive $350 million in federal assistance from Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), the largest single R&D investment in the aerospace and defence sector in Canadian history.

The National Research Council (NRC) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) have signed separate agri-biotech MOUs with India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to strengthen research ties between the two nations and plan for future collaborative projects The MOUs were signed December 6 in Bangalore and although they are separate, they may pave the way for a three-way collaboration between India, AAFC and NRC.

Science and technology in Alberta has been given far greater prominence within the new government structure announced by incoming premier Ed Stelmach. The day before his December 13th inauguration, Stelmach announced five priorities for his government and a restructuring of the provincial bureaucracy which includes a merger of Alberta Innovation and Science (AIS) and the Ministry of Advanced Education.

Report from Texas-based IC2 Institute

Civic leaders in Moncton are considering their first steps towards implementing recommendations contained in a rigorous assessment of the potential for boosting the city’s high-tech economic growth and employment.

Organizational challenges being addressed

Information technology and cancer stem cell research are emerging as the strongest contenders for initial research collaboration under the Canada California Strategic Innovation Partnership (CCSIP) (R$, October 18/06).

A key House of Commons committee is calling for the federal government to increase the base budget of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) by $350 million over three years. The Standing Committee on Finance endorsed only a small number of the recommendations submitted by a large number of witness and submissions as part of the run-up to the next federal Budget.