Article Type: Generic

November 9, 2004 at the Ottawa Congress Centre: The Fourth Annual RE$EARCH MONEY Conference, “Commercialization: What’s Working, What’s Not” will bring business leaders together with policy makers and the research community to look critically at different models for commercialization being practiced and proposed around the country.

A consortium of energy industry associations is urging governments and the private sector to invest in the development and deployment of new technologies to help Canada meet its future energy needs.

The recommendation was contained in a submission to the Council of Energy Ministers by the Energy Dialogue Group (EDG).

The British Columbia government has unveiled its long-awaited endowed chairs program that it hopes will help create and reinforce centres of excellence and clusters of research expertise at the province’s publicly funded colleges and universities.

Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney major players

Industry Canada is teaming with the aerospace sector, including Canada’s largest aircraft manufacturers, to develop a suite of national, collaborative research projects in a key technology area considered critical to the future viability and competitiveness of the industry.

New and merged programs planned

The Ontario government is engineering a massive overhaul of its science and technology activities with a series of new programs and possible repatriation of flagship programs outsourced by the previous government.

The Networks of Centres of Excellence has chosen the McMaster Univ- headquartered AllerGen as its newest Network in a competition restricted to just one winner by severe fiscal constraints. AllerGen (Allergy, Genes and Environment Network) was chosen from a field of five full proposals culled from 12 letters of intent.

Executives at the Stem Cell Network (SCN) are developing a unique commercialization strategy that could have far reaching consequences for areas of research in which Canada has the potential to gain global advantage.

The National Research Council (NRC) is in the midst of an extensive consultation and strategic planning phase that will help to delineate the organization’s proposed role in commercialization in preparation for the next Budget.

Seeking $500 million over five years

Canada’s foremost facilitator of microelectronics and microsystems R&D says it’s time to crank up spending and endorse a national strategy to ensure that the country gets its fair share of existing and emerging commercial opportunities.

The Alberta Ingenuity Fund (AIF) has innovative plans to bolster targeted research excellence in the province but it’s being constrained by an endowment that hasn’t increased as originally anticipated.