The Institute of Competitiveness & Prosperity (IC&P) is urging the federal government to loosen its definition of R&D and craft an innovation policy in which there's a better balance between support for hard sciences and the "softer skills that enhance communications skills, consumer understanding and team building". The IC&P recommendations were in a submission to the Expert Review Panel on Research and Development. It is also urging the government to design innovative education programs that connect inventors with business people and ensure that markets are intensely competitive to pressure firms to be innovative. A more flexible definition of R&D would make consumer research, test marketing, pilots and other product development activities carried out by non-scientists eligible for funding. IC&P says Canada also needs a new approach to venture capital....