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Completes pan-Canadian network of institutes

The National Research Council (NRC) is about to achieve its long standing goal of establishing an institute in every province with the creation of a major new facility for nanotechnology research in Alberta.

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program has hit full stride with the announcement of four new networks and funding of $73.3 million over four years for a targeted competition that took more than a year to complete.

The Advisory Committee on Science and Technology (ACST) has engaged Sussex Circle Inc to conduct a thorough evaluation of the group’s performance since it was established in 1996 following the federal government’s exhaustive consultation process for a national science and technology (S&T) strategy.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) program has been extended to 2010 with a new contribution of $750 million in year-end federal funding. The unusual step of adding to the CFI war chest comes just five months after the government added $500 million to its accounts and years before the new funding will be required, eliciting charges from some quarters that the Liberals are acting irresponsibly by dumping surplus money on the eve of a possible recession.

The CFI is finalizing implementation plans for its two-part, $200-million international fund . Following a March 7 board of director’s meeting, the $100-million international joint venture fund is preparing to solicit letters of intent.

Natural Resources Canada minister Ralph Goodale says the Canadian Neutron Facility (CNF) is still on the table for possible future funding and is still being weighed against other research priorities.

Canadian universities are generating a far greater number of spin-off companies than previously thought with nearly 800 created over the past 40 years, 70% more than captured in the last survey conducted by Statistics Canada.

After quietly toiling away for 18 months developing a work plan and commissioning studies, the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (CBAC) has issued its first annual report and is planning public consultations on two of the five special projects identified last year as priority items.

Preliminary data from Statistics Canada’s latest biotechnology survey contains compelling evidence that the various industries which comprise the sector are growing rapidly and beginning to move from R&D to commercialization.

The National Research Council (NRC) took advantage of its annual Outstanding Achievement Awards dinner to announce the largest single royalty payment ever received by a government agency for royalties on sales for an invention.