Article Type: Generic

A proposed new collaborative program is offering the best opportunity the federal S&T community has had in years to significantly boost its science capacity. As conceived and developed over the past five months, the Federal Innovation Networks of Excellence (FINE) program has been included in the forthcoming Innovation Paper and is poised to capitalize on the government’s commitment to double its investment in R&D over the next decade.

Valorisation-Recherche Québec

Quebec’s ambitious new vehicle for the exploitation and commercialization of the province’s research strengths is starting to produce results. Two years after its formation, Valorisation-Recherche Québec (VRQ) has committed nearly all of its $220 million in funding, with a multifaceted strategy to disseminate knowledge in a wide variety of research areas and disciplines as well as accelerating licensing and spin-off activity.

Research behind the third Annual Innovation Report of the Conference Board of Canada (CBoC) shows that Canadian companies score poorly in most tests for innovation and that the private sector currently lacks the capacity to absorb and utilize research emanating from the nation’s universities.

The release of the much anticipated Innovation Paper is now expected early in the new year, but RE$EARCH MONEY has obtained a draft copy which provides considerable insight into how the federal government plans to implement its strategy for making Canada one of the world’s most innovative societies.

Industry must take the lead in increasing R&D and become more passionate about innovation if Canada is to have any chance of achieving its goal of moving from 15th to 5th in global R&D spending. But for industry to achieve a nearly tripling of its current R&D spending by 2010 — the goal set down last year by Finance minister Paul Martin — dramatic changes and reinvestment must occur in the government and university sectors.

Canada’s research community needs a national focus, better coordination and more resources before it can work more closely with the United States on counter-terrorism, say senior science officials from this country who met with their counterparts in Washington Nov.

One the most promising areas of research Canada can offer to the US is an understanding of terrorism. At a Nov. 19 meeting of senior science administrators from both countries, the science advisor to president George W.

A Canadian delegation of senior science officials has cautioned the US against introducing new security policies that jeopardize cross-border scientific exchanges between universities and companies. Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development Gilbert Normand raised the issue during a Nov.

RE$EARCH MONEY Exclusive

Increased productivity and skills development are being offered up as the two central objectives in the quest to move Canada into the top ranks of the world’s most innovation nations.

The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is set to absorb the Strategic Microelectronics Consortium (SMC), expanding its representation to include the critical electronic components sector.