New S&T report includes R&D funding & performing projections for 2010

Industry Canada has begun fleshing out the ambitious targets underpinning the Innovation Strategy, projecting the share of R&D each sector is expected to fund and perform by 2010. The new information is contained in its most recent report on federal S&T for 2002.

The projections were prepared from interdepartmental working group estimates and show that the overall share of funding by the federal government is expected to drop from 18% in 2000 to 15% in 2010. Also registering a decline is the higher education sector, dropping from 15% to 12% in the same timeframe. It’s anticipated that business enterprises and foreign sources will take up the slack, with each increasing their shares by 3% to 46% and 21% respectively.

Historical data on federal S&T indicators are also included, offering a helpful snapshot of the past five years.

This year’s version of the annual report — a clear improvement from earlier versions — is entitled Science and Technology Advice: A Framework to Build On. It devotes a complete chapter to the implementation of the 2000 framework (R$, June 9/00) that was based on recommendations included in the SAGE report by the Council of Science and Technology Advisors (R$, July 21/99).

Also covered are chapters on S&T governance (including sections on the two main advisory bodies and the S&T Community Management Secretariat) and statistical data of federal S&T investment.

Initiatives such as the Federal S&T Forum of last October, the Federal Innovation Networks of Excellence (FINE) and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI) are also included.

The report describes CRTI as a test case for FINE which it says “currently exists only as a concept, but its principles are influencing how the government organizes itself to deal with complex S&T-based issues”. It adds that initiatives for water and northern S&T also bear the marks of FINE, but offers no clues as to the proposal’s future.

A copy of the report can be found at: www.innovation.gc.ca/s-tinfo.

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