Topic: intellectual property

Government ‘can and should pick winners’ to grow scale-up companies, says federal advisor

In a recent report for the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, Sheldon Levy, special advisor to the federal minister of small business and export promotion, argued that government should identify and support select firms with high potential to become global competitors. “There are many countries that have to pick their laneway and can’t be the best at everything all the time,” Levy told Research Money.

After billions in funding, Strategic Innovation Fund failed to improve Canada’s innovation performance, experts say

Nearly $3.4 billion in federal spending through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) during the last three years has failed to improve Canada’s “disastrous” innovation performance and productivity, say some innovation and policy experts. An analysis by Research Money of SIF data shows that Ontario, Quebec and foreign-based firms have received the lion’s share of SIF funding.

Oil and gas innovation network has yet to spend $80 million of federal funding for cleaner technologies

A pan-Canadian oil and natural gas innovation network has yet to spend the bulk of $100 million of federal funding on commercializing new, cleaner technologies, two years after Ottawa announced the funding and seven months after a contribution agreement was signed. The Clean Resource Innovation Network, which aims to produce the world’s cleanest hydrocarbons, plans to announce details of its planned three technology competitions by end of March 2021.

The Short Report – Feb 17, 2021: NSERC supports Huawei research collaboration, ALS research gets a boost, Ottawa invests in SMEs transitioning to clean tech, and more.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council collaborates with the Canadian arm of Huawei Technologies, Canadian and international teams receive funding to accelerate ALS research, SDTC supports SMEs across Canada in their adoption of clean technology, an unexpected donation spurs Northern Ontario School of Medicine to address health inequities in marginalized populations, and more.