New Precarn funding doesn’t allow for implementation of broader mandate

The Budget has dealt Precarn Inc a 60% reduction in the amount of funding it has managed over the past five years, and effectively sealed the fate of yet another sunsetting Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE). The Budget provided Precarn with $20 million over five years which is the same base funding it received in 2000. But it’s far less than the $50 million it previously managed, including $20 million on behalf of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) NCE and $10 million from CANARIE.

The funding announcement appears to be a setback for Precarn’s new business model, which called for $150 million over seven years to support a combination of university researchers and companies within a single network. But without any money to replace the NCE’s support for IRIS, that network will wind up operations. Precarn’s president says that while the new support is a vote of confidence, some tough choices lie ahead.

“Essentially we won’t be able to fund any university-led research programs which is what we were spending roughly $4 million a year on. The IRIS side we won’t be able to fund … which is a great shame because it was a very valuable program.” says Dr Anthony Eyton. “It’ll allow us to keep the lights on and get some requests for proposals out on the street, so that we can maintain some momentum for the program until the commercialization agenda is sorted out and we see where we are placed in that.”

Eyton says that once the commercialization agenda is finalized, Precarn could be given a new mandate and additional funding to expand its activities into areas such as broadband, microelectronics and information and communications technologies.

“We’re hoping that we’ll get some top-up funding that will get us back up to our normal operating level within a year or two,” says Eyton. “And we’re hoping for an expansion of our mandate.”

4TH PILLAR ORGANIZATION

Precarn is a not-for-profit consortium and is one of several organizations that describe themselves as Fourth Pillar organizations. They have increased collaboration and engaged in a long lobbying campaign for funding renewal. Another fourth pillar organization, the Canadian Microelectronics Consortium is primarily funded by Science and Engineering Research Canada (NSERC) and is reportedly about to receive a substantial increase from that granting agency. CANARIE is funded by Industry Canada and did not receive new funding in the Budget. But Industry minister Dr David Emerson says its applications development programs may be revived as part of the forthcoming commercialization agenda.

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