Article Type: Generic

Canada’s most prominent innovative companies are still on track to thrust Canada into the top five R&D spending nations but the target of 2010 may be difficult to achieve, according to a new report prepared for the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC).

The Queen’s Univ professor whose previous research led to the formation of Neurochem Inc is the driving scientific force behind the creation of AtheroChem Inc. The cholesterol research of Dr Robert Kisilevsky, a professor of anatomic pathology, is deemed to possess considerable scientific and commercial potential for reversing the development of atherosclerosis, the primary cause of coronary heart disease.

Prime minister Paul Martin has completed his first major changes to the senior ranks of the federal bureaucracy, placing new faces in the departments of Industry, Environment, Agriculture and Agri-Food and International Trade.

Measures set the stage for next year

The federal Budget confirmed growing speculation that Ottawa’s innovation agenda and strategy for stimulating commercialization will emerge gradually, with major initiatives likely sidelined for at least another year.

NRC being positioned as main delivery agency

Universities and government laboratories are receiving new resources to develop and deploy pilot-scale commercialization models and projects while Ottawa’s chief science officials study ways of improving the commercialization environment.

The federal government is calling for the creation of a new Network of Centres of Excellence to direct Canadian research expertise towards Mad Cow and related diseases. The Budget announcement of the new NCE has taken many within the scientific community by surprise and sideswiped or at least stalled plans to expand the program via the so-called NCE II proposal.

Genome Canada will develop a strategic plan and its investments will undergo a strategic review in conjunction with Industry Canada as it sets the stage for a second five-year mandate. The federal Budget issued the directives along with $60 million in bridge funding to the arm’s length agency to tide it over for another year and the end of its first five-year funding agreement, ending March 31/05.

Alberta has unveiled a new Innovation Program that will pump $34 million over the next three years into projects designed to improve service delivery and encourage innovation in the economy. It is one of the few specific innovation-related initiatives highlighted in the March 24 Budget to include financial information — yet another indication that the provincial government is less likely than other jurisdictions to announce new spending measure within the budgetary process.

Liberal Cabinet ministers fanned out across the country this week to announce the latest awards under the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program, yet another indication that a spring election is a near certainty.

The National Research Council (NRC) is striking a task force to examine the need for realigning its governing council and possibly propose amendments to its enabling legislation. The task force was a response to a recent report on the NRC by the Auditor General of Canada (AG), which was critical of the governing council’s role in managing the agency and setting strategic direction for its scientific activities.