Government departments and agencies submit billions in S&T proposals as White Paper process nears completion

The federal government’s science based departments and agencies (SBDAs) have locked onto the pending Innovation White Paper as their best chance for strengthening their roles in Canadian S&T after years of neglect and budget cuts. They have flooded the Industry Canada-led process with at least $12.5 billion (and reportedly as high as $20 billion) in multi-year proposals that run the gamut from substantially higher funding levels for science and engineering research grants ($1.6 billion) to the development and launch of RADARSAT III for space-borne land mapping ($210 million).

Documents obtained by RE$EARCH MONEY clearly demonstrate the importance the SBDAs are placing on the white paper process, having received strong indications in several recent speeches that their turn at gaining access to the government treasury may have arrived. And while there’s no certainty that even a minority of the proposals will received the green light from Cabinet, the sheer magnitude of the requests has been feeding Ottawa’s S&T gossip circuit all Spring.

An official says the White Paper will likely begin showing up in speeches by MPs as an increasing number of ministers engage in the process. He adds that timing remains a challenge, with late June remaining the target date for the project’s completion.

A detailed reading of the proposals indicates that many of the SBDAs have taken heed of the years of consultation and analysis following the 1996 federal S&T Strategy. Many of the larger proposals are being pitched in conjunction with each other or with outside partners, displaying a horizontal, collaborative approach that was sorely missing in years past. While the proposals seek to move the SBDAs to the leading edge of S&T in the public good, they also confront the increasingly desperate issues of aging infrastructure, dwindling personnel and years of stagnating budgets.

Some SBDAs have been much more ambitious than others in compiling projects that they contend are worth funding. Natural Resources Canada has submitted at least 14 proposals including a $380-million program to establish a national program for advanced energy technologies, $250 million for Northern S&T and $300-600 million to establish nodes of excellence to accelerate the convergence of geomatics, remote sensing and geoscience data.

Industry Canada is even more ambitious with 20 separate proposals. They include up to $740 million for biotechnology, spread over a number of vehicles including Technology Partnerships Canada, a new bio-products institute modelled after Genome Canada, a biotechnology curriculum and training program and amendments to the scientific research & experimental development (SR&ED) tax credit program.

Other Industry Canada initiatives include funding for:

• universities in the form of support for indirect costs, transformative technologies and commercialization;
• skills training including up to 9,000 international and domestic internships for information and communications technologies graduates; and,
• eco efficiency initiatives including fuel cell demonstration projects, design platforms and environmental management systems for small firms.

Among the major proposals, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada weighs in with a $950-million request for life science which includes infrastructure and market development. Western Diversification is requesting $400 million to fund research, support commercialization and identify technology needs for smaller firms. The Canadian Space Agency has 11 separate proposals worth $1.6 billion that range from the practical (multimedia space satellite technologies) to the esoteric (launching a mission to an unspecified target in the solar system.

Environment Canada has targeted the overhaul of the Meteorological Service of Canada as its largest proposal ($247million over four years), while $135 million has been requested for biotechnology initiatives to address environmental problems.

But the largest request package ($3.5 billion) comes from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council. It includes $680 million to increase research partnerships support and $400 million to implement its novel NSERC Innovation Platforms proposal (R$, January 29/01).

The requests from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council are more modest ($285 million) and include $150 million for graduates and young researchers, and $135 million to increase the success rate of grant competitions to 50% from the current 24%.

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