Article Type: Generic

A group of senior business, academic and government leaders has issued a suite of recommendations to help promote a strong culture of commerce that will translate into greater “sales from new and significantly improved goods and services”.

The Univ of Toronto has pulled its commercialization arm back inside the university, merging it with its technology transfer operations and appointed Dr Tim McTiernan as its new executive director. The move is in response to a 2004 review of the operations of the Innovations Foundation led by John Manley and is aimed at improving commercialization performance to match its formidable research output.

The new Conservative government is dusting off the Liberal innovation strategy and is preparing its own version in time for the next election. A small group in Industry Canada has been given the task of developing an S&T Framework with input from the S&T ADM Committee for release this fall.

An award by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) through its rarely used Exceptional Opportunities Fund (EOF) will allow Canadian scientists to play a significant role in a major project being developed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility in Switzerland.

May 18, 2006, Vancouver BC
Hear from business leaders, investors and private and public sector researchers
about how Canadians are working in Asia Pacific to expand and diversify our
economic activity and research base.

Matter of national urgency

A select group of Canadian business leaders is urging the federal government to consider spending up to $1.1 billion on a suite of commercialization-related initiatives designed and monitored by an industry-led Commercialization Board (CPB).

Quebec is home to a new seed and early-stage technology venture fund with strong ties to Silicon Valley. Garage Technology Ventures Canada (GTVC) LP has completed its initial closing of $50 million and aims to raise $100 million through a second closing later this year, making it a major player in an area of technology funding that is currently under-served.

Quebec government invests $50.4 million

Genome Quebec has struck a major research collaboration with Merck Frosst Canada potentially worth more than $15 million and secured $50.4 million from the Quebec government, boosting its capacity for contributing to the development Quebec’s life sciences sector with an emphasis on human health.

The new Conservative government is dusting off the Liberal innovation strategy and is preparing its own version in time for the next election. A small group in Industry Canada has been given the task of developing an S&T Framework with input from the S&T ADM Committee for release this fall.

An award by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) through its rarely used Exceptional Opportunities Fund (EOF) will allow Canadian scientists to play a significant role in a major project being developed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility in Switzerland.