StatsCan reports decline in R&D personnel

Industry R&D personnel fell 11.4% in 2010 following an 8.3% decline in 2009, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. The shrinkage in industrial R&D positions contributed to an overall drop of 5.9% to 221,360, with all provinces suffering declines except for Manitoba and the three territories. Ontario and Quebec accounted for 62% of the decreases, while Alberta and British Columbia accounted for 31%.

The year-over-year declines halted a series of increases between 2000 and 2008, reflecting the impact of the economic downturn and continued weak performance of business R&D in Canada.

Also declining — albeit at a slower rate — is government R&D staff. Federal R&D personnel dropped 1.1% while those employed by the provinces and provincial research organizations slipped 3.1%.

An earlier StatsCan report on federal S&T expenditures projects continuing declines in federal personnel. Scientific and professional personnel is set to decline to 19,844 in FY12-13, down 4.1% from 20,701 the previous year, while all categories of S&T personnel are set to drop 4% to 37,382 (R$, September 20/12).

The higher education and private non-profit sectors are displaying some resilience, with the former rising by 6.3% in 2010 and the latter enjoying a 4.8% jump.

IP management pilot survey

A new StatsCan pilot survey on intellectual property (IP) management shows that while 5% of firms in selected industries held or used patents in 2010, they are most prevalent in the life sciences (27%) and transportation equipment manufacturing industries (16%).

Copyrights are most commonly used in the publishing industry (50%) while the biggest users of trademarks are pharmaceutical firms (40%), chemical manufacturing industry (39%) and publishing (31%).

Open source IP is used by 12% of industries within the sectors captured by the survey. The most common is in the software sector, with 18% of firms classified as information and communication technology.

Firms with more than $5 million in revenues use patents, copyrights or trademarks far more than smaller firms.

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