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Nearly three years after its incorporation, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is still waiting for the federal and Ontario governments to back up their expressions of support with funding for its ambitious plans to make Canada a world centre for quantum physics research.

Canadian university research is in the midst of an unprecedented renaissance and much of it is being fuelled by the revolution in the life sciences, according to compelling new data contained in a report on the sponsored research income of 67 post-secondary institutions.

The Univ of Ottawa posted a remarkable 106.8% increase in corporate sponsored research income, according to data contained in the recently released Canada’s Top Research Universities Report: 2001. Ranked Number 8 overall in terms of sponsored research income, the institution ranks number 2 in corporate research funding, behind the Univ of Toronto, Canada’s largest university.

The first shoe has dropped from the British Columbia government’s business subsidy review, with three science and technology programs eliminated and at least two more facing the axe. Buried beneath the higher profile job cuts to the civil service, of the first phase of the subsidy review guts Technology BC (Tech BC), the core support mechanism delivered by the Science Council of British Columbia (SCBC).

The National Research Council (NRC) has received a ringing endorsement of its cluster and regional innovation strategy with $110 million over three years and the likelihood of much more to come. The new funding allows the NRC to kick-start previously announced technology clusters in photonics (Ottawa) and aluminum (Quebec), while boosting existing institutes in fuel cells (Vancouver), biodiagnostics (Winnipeg), biotechnology (Saskatoon) and the recently announced nanotechnology initiative (R$, September 5/01).

Ottawa’s focus on university research is the driving force behind a healthy 9.4% increase in projected federal R&D expenditures this year. Statistics Canada’s latest data show R&D expenditures of $4.

Federal Budget Coverage

Security concerns and a lagging economy put the squeeze on science and technology in the latest federal Budget, as ambitious spending plans related to the Liberal government’s emerging innovation agenda were significantly scaled back or deferred.

The Budget has unveiled a $200-million fund using year-end money to help defray the indirect costs of conducting university research. But its level of support is estimated at slightly more than half of the 40-45% target recommended in a report by the Advisory Council on Science and Technology (ACST).

SSHRC president questions disparity

A pre-Budget meeting to determine the minimum funding increase that the granting councils were willing to accept had little impact on the levels actually delivered, according to the president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

CA*net 4 concept approved

CANARIE Inc has received long-awaited funding to develop a radically new optical high-speed research network with the awarding of $110 million to build and operate CA*net 4.