Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage—2007

Chapter 4: Knowledge Advantage — A 21st-Century Research Plan

Consistent with the directions set out in Advantage Canada, the Government of Canada will help to make our country more productive and competitive by positioning Canadian researchers at the leading edge of the important developments that generate health, environmental, societal, and economic benefits. We will do this by:

• Focusing strategically on research in the national interest from a social and economic perspective.
• Maintaining our G-7 leadership in public R&D performance.
• Enhancing value for money, accountability, and the responsiveness of Canada's three granting councils.
• Exploring new approaches to federally performed S&T.

4.1 Focusing Strategically on Research in the National Interest

The federal government will continue to play an important role in supporting basic research. University research generates tremendous benefits that are not predictable at the outset. It is important for society and for Canada's private sector that universities continue to explore lines of enquiry that will seed longer-term social and economic opportunities.

While basic research is a necessary foundation for advancing knowledge and innovation, Canada must increasingly harness science and technology to meet our social and economic needs. By setting research priorities, the government will focus funding, build partnerships, and lever Canada's public research base to address social and economic challenges and maximize our competitive advantage.

The Council of Canadian Academies has identified Canadian S&T strengths and opportunities in areas where Canada can leverage our research strengths to achieve economic and social advantage. These include:²³

• Environmental science and technologies.
• Natural resources and energy.
• Health and related life sciences and technologies.
• Information and communications technologies.

The granting councils and the National Research Council of Canada, in collaboration with other federal funding partners that support higher-education research, such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation, will work together to build a critical mass of expertise in these priority areas. They will support multidisciplinary research that brings together expertise from diverse fields, including natural sciences and engineering, social sciences and humanities, and health sciences. The councils will report annually on their collective progress.

This will build on and complement other federal initiatives that support important S&T advances in these priority areas.

The Minister of Industry will periodically renew research priorities, in consultation with other federal government departments and provincial departments responsible for innovation. To inform this process, the government has asked the Council of Canadian Academies to undertake periodic assessments of Canada's S&T strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

Policy Commitments

Canada's federal government will target resources that support world-class research excellence in areas of social, environmental, and economic opportunities for Canada by:

• Directing resources to priority areas where Canada can build global research and commercial leadership: environmental science and technologies, natural resources and energy, health and related life sciences and technologies, and information and communications technologies. Federal funding agencies will coordinate their efforts to support research priorities and report on progress. As announced in Budget 2007, the government will provide $85 million per year in new resources to the granting councils for priority research, $30 million to the Rick Hansen Foundation to keep Canada at the leading edge of spinal cord research, $500 million over seven years to Sustainable Development Technology Canada to help Canada become a world leader in developing and commercializing next-generation renewable fuels, and $100 million to Genome Canada to position Canada as a world leader in genomics and proteomics research.

4.2 Maintaining Our G-7 Leadership in Public Research and Development Performance

Canadian governments and higher-education institutions performed more than $12 billion of R&D in 2005, representing 0.9 per cent of Canada's GDP. The Government of Canada's contribution was significant, with a $4.7 billion investment in higher-education R&D and in its own (intramural) R&D. These investments helped put Canada in a leadership position, ranking first among G-7 countries.

Public R&D performance of G-7 countries as a share of GDP

Canada	0.90 per cent (2005)
France	0.78 per cent (2005)
Germany	0.76 per cent (2005)
Japan	0.73 per cent (2004)
United States	0.69 per cent (2004)
United Kingdom	0.58 per cent (2004)
Italy	0.56 per cent (2004)

Source: OECD 2006

In addition to its own research activities, the federal government provides significant support for research activities in the higher-education sector, including universities, colleges, and research hospitals. Federal support targets all aspects of the post-secondary research enterprise, including:

• Direct research support provided through the federal granting councils.
• Support for the indirect costs associated with federally sponsored research through the Indirect Costs of Research Program.
• Funding to attract and retain leading scientists and future research leaders, including through the Canada Research Chairs Program, which supports 2,000 research chairs in universities across the country.
• Support for leading-edge research infrastructure, including through the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a not-for-profit corporation that funds research equipment and facilities at universities, colleges and research hospitals, and through CANARIE, a not-for-profit corporation that manages an ultra-high-speed research network linking universities, research centres, government research laboratories, and schools to each other and with international peer networks.
• Support for global networks of top researchers and students, including through the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR), a not-for-profit organization that enables Canadians to participate in and lead groundbreaking research on the international stage.

This comprehensive approach ensures that all aspects of our post-secondary research environment are globally competitive, enabling Canada to generate the new discoveries and the highly skilled graduates we will need to succeed in the knowledge-based economy.

Policy Commitments

Canada's federal government will maintain Canada's G-7 leadership in public-sector R&D performance by:

• Making new investments in R&D, including through the granting councils, in areas where Canada has the potential to be a world leader. Budget 2007 announced increased support for targeted research in priority areas (see Policy Commitments).
• Ensuring that higher-education institutions have the leading-edge research equipment and facilities required to compete with the best in the world. As announced in Budget 2007, the government will provide $510 million to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support state-of-the-art higher-education research infrastructure in another major competition before 2010, and $120 million to CANARIE to maintain and further develop its research broadband network.
• Supporting leading-edge domestic and international research and networks in areas of strategic importance to Canada. As announced in Budget 2007, the government will provide $10 million over two years to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research to strengthen academic global research networks.
• Encouraging a supportive higher-education research environment, including through ongoing support to the Indirect Cost of Research program. As announced in Budget 2007, the government will provide an additional $15 million per year to the Indirect Cost of Research program to help post-secondary institutions support the additional research activities enabled by the new resources provided to the granting councils for priority research.

4.3 Enhancing Value for Money, Accountability, and the Responsiveness of Canada's Three Granting Councils

In keeping with the 2006 Budget commitment, the government completed a review of the accountability and value for money of the granting councils' activities. The International Review Panel of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and an examination of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council identified opportunities to strengthen outcomes and improve accountability to Canadians.

The granting councils are taking steps to improve governance arrangements. For instance, through recent initiatives such as quarterly reporting on activity and results, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council is working to strengthen reporting to government. By enhancing the role of the external Vice-President of its council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is increasing its openness to the views of the community and oversight of the President and staff.

The granting councils will continue to improve their responsiveness and accountability to the government, research community, and wider public. Currently, the President of each granting council also serves as its Chair. These roles should be separated, in keeping with good governance practices. In addition, the councils' membership should be drawn from users of research and non-academic research communities to ensure that investment decisions reflect a broader view of Canada's economic and national needs and opportunities.

The government can improve value for money by developing a more comprehensive approach in its management of the overall envelope of support for higher-education R&D. This includes ensuring the right balance in funding for researchers, direct and indirect costs of the research they perform, research infrastructure, and research networks.

The granting councils should continue to improve client service to the research community. As more and more research questions cross disciplinary boundaries, it is important to ensure an efficient grant application system that recognizes and addresses this fact. Access to a suite of well-integrated and aligned programs across the granting councils will reduce the administrative burden on researchers, allowing them more time to focus on their research.

The selection of world-class research initiatives requires a competitive process that is informed by international developments. There are currently differences among Canada's three granting councils in the extent to which they rely on international experts to select world-class projects for funding, the competitiveness of their grant review processes, and the form and level of support provided. These differences call for careful consideration to identify best practices and ensure public funding supports international levels of research excellence.

Policy Commitments

Canada's federal government will enhance accountability and value for money from the granting councils by:

• Improving governance measures, including by separating the functions of the Chair and President of the granting councils. As the government fills vacancies on the councils' governing bodies, it will seek out more business and community representation to ensure that the composition of granting council governing bodies reflects Canada's broad economic and national interests.
• Adopting a more integrated approach to support academic research and improve client service. Funding agencies will develop a plan to consolidate, integrate, and align programs.
• Ensuring that grant application procedures are competitive and promote international excellence. As part of their plan to improve program coordination and integration, the granting councils will jointly review their research application procedures and funding allocation processes to identify best practices, in consultation with university and research stakeholders, and make appropriate changes.

4.4 Exploring New Approaches to Federally Performed Science and Technology

The federal government invested $5 billion in 2005 on its own S&T initiatives. This included over $2.2 billion for government R&D, and $2.7 billion for related scientific activities (data collection, testing and standards development, feasibility studies, and education support such as scholarships). These investments allow the government to uphold regulatory, public policy, and operational mandates in important areas such as health care, food safety, and environmental protection.

In some instances, science is best performed by federal departments and agencies. For example, some aspects of science activities supporting the regulation of products and technologies may need to reside within government for reasons of public trust. Yet in other instances, federal science can benefit from partnerships with others.

To fulfill their mandate and serve Canadians, federal science-based departments and agencies must be in a position to set and implement policy on a wide variety of issues. This means having the right assets and highly trained personnel, and using the latest scientific methods in support of decision-making.

Looking forward, a number of federal science organizations are challenged by an aging infrastructure and workforce, and will need to explore new approaches to ensure that they are adequately resourced, effectively managed, and squarely focused on delivering results. At the same time, how the federal government invests in S&T in order to fulfill its regulatory, public policy, and operational mandates must take into account the fundamental changes that have taken place in Canada's S&T system and the context in which the government operates.

The Council of Science and Technology Advisors recently examined the changing environment affecting the federal government's S&T effort. S&T capacity is now widely distributed across the innovation system, with competence in key areas frequently residing in academia and industry. Recognizing this, federal departments and agencies have developed a wide range of domestic and international partnerships to bring together the knowledge and talent necessary to address today's increasingly complex and interdisciplinary policy and regulatory issues, and stimulate innovation in the economy.

We must aggressively break down the barriers that stand in the way of more strategic S&T collaborations among federal departments and agencies and between the federal S&T community and universities, industry, and the non-profit sector. Collaboration on S&T issues is sometimes impeded by legislative, policy, regulatory, financial, infrastructure, human resource, and cultural factors. Differences in intellectual property policies and management arrangements, for instance, may present particular obstacles for collaboration between federal science-based departments and agencies and universities and colleges. The challenge now is to develop effective, results-based strategies and approaches for overcoming these barriers. The Assistant Deputy Ministers Committee on S&T is the whole-of-government coordinating committee for science-based departments and agencies and is the appropriate venue to continue efforts aimed at strengthening S&T collaborations.

At the same time, we must continue to explore and develop innovative new models for S&T collaboration between federal departments and agencies and other sectors. As set out in Advantage Canada, the government has committed to consider transferring the management of some non-regulatory federal laboratories to universities in order to lever university and private-sector strengths, create better learning opportunities for students, and foster research excellence.

Policy Commitments

Canada's federal government will protect the public interest and increase the impact of federal S&T investments by:

• Focusing the government's own S&T activities where the federal government is best able to deliver benefits to Canadians, and ensuring that federal departments and agencies have access to the S&T capacity required to fulfill their important policy and regulatory mandates in areas such as health, environment, and safety. Budget 2007 announced $39 million over two years for Department of Fisheries and Oceans science research programs to strengthen fisheries management and resource conservation, and $10 million to Public Safety Canada to expand the activities of the Canadian Police Research Centre which supports S&T in policing and public safety.
• Launching an independent expert panel to report to the President of the Treasury Board on options for transferring non-regulatory federal laboratories to universities or the private sector, and identify up to five laboratories that could be early candidates for transfer. As announced in Budget 2007, the government will relocate Natural Resource Canada's CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory to new state-of-the-art facilities at the McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton, Ontario.
• Enhancing collaboration within the federal S&T community and developing improved approaches for fostering research, talent, knowledge transfer, and commercialization among science-based departments and agencies, universities and colleges, and the private sector. As part of this effort, the government will review its own intellectual property policies to ensure they do not impede S&T collaboration and technology transfer, and strengthen collaboration among science-based departments and agencies through the revitalization of the Assistant Deputy Ministers Committee on S&T.