Article Type: Generic

RE$EARCH MONEY Analysis

By Vincent Wright

If Paul Martin is truly a shoe-in to become the next Prime Minister, as most political pundits predict, then it appears quite reasonable to expect that S&T will gain even greater weight on the federal policy agenda.

Pratt and Whitney Canada (PWC) has received federal assistance for the seventh R&D project in as many years, bringing its total financial support under the Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) program to nearly half a billion dollars.

Noranda Inc is closing its 40-year-old centralized R&D operations in Pte-Claire PQ, a victim of sagging markets and multi-year losses by the mining and metals giant. A ‘For Sale’ sign went up in front of the massive, 17,000-sq-m Noranda Technology Centre (NTC) earlier this year.

Targetting new R&D investments towards the environment and completing the stalled national broadband initiative are the S&T highlights of Heritage minister Sheila Copps’ campaign platform for prime minister.

Continuing difficulties in the telecommunications sector will likely keep Canadian corporate R&D spending depressed for 2003, with only a slight improvement on the dismal estimates for 2002. The latest data from Statistics Canada show total projected industrial R&D expenditures of $12.

Spending by the patented pharmaceutical industry on basic research reached $198.6 million in 2002, accounting for 17.6% of all R&D outlays. The 21.8% increase over 2001 reverses a seven-year decline in the proportion of R&D expenditures devoted to basic research, according to the fifteenth annual report by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB).

Closing gap for licensing

A new report on technology transfer at Canadian universities shows that Canadian institutions are improving their performance and gaining on the US when gauged by licensing revenue as a ratio of sponsored research income.

The Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program is nearing the halfway mark of its goal to create 2,000 research chairs with the announcement of another 80 awards. The $69.7-million investment brings the funding-to-date to $906.

Backers of the novel Neptune Project should know this month whether the British Columbia government will match the $31.9 million made last year by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CF) (R$, July 8/02).

Bell Canada back in contention

Private sector R&D is demonstrating surprising resilience in the face of the high-tech downturn and economic uncertainty. With the removal of just one key firm from the picture, Canada’s top performing companies increased their total spending 6.