Budget 2010 and Canadian S&T

Budget 2010 has been described as a “steady-as-she-goes” plan by many commentators. That in itself was reassuring, given the dire predictions of austerity and deep cuts we had been hearing. The same description applies to the parts of the budget plan that deal with Canada’s  S&T activities, but with the encouraging addition of a light sprinkling of the seeds of some important changes. These seeds, as I see them, are small yet high-leverage investments in key areas. I am only guessing, but I think that the new STIC might have had a role in this.
The following comments are made in the order in which the details appear in Chapter 3.3 of the Budget Plan: “BUILDING A STRONG ECONOMIC FOUNDATION”, in the section “Creating economic growth and jobs through innovation”.

The first notable item is one of those seeds: the creation of a new postdoctoral fellowship program that will eventually support 140 fellowships annually at $70,000. There is a bit of confusion between the Budget Speech and the Budget Plan on this one; the Plan refers to attracting “top-level talent to Canada,” while the Speech refers to Canadian Ph.D.’s who will “make their mark right here at home.” In any case, a prestigious program of fellowships for postdocs is a welcome idea. We already have really good scholarship programs for master’s and doctoral students, and Canada Chairs for faculty, and now the gap at the postdoc level is being filled. It is not mentioned in the document, but the funding of additional postdocs will be a big boost to the research productivity of our best research groups.

Next we see that the commitment to build the Canadian High-Arctic Research Station is reaffirmed, and money is being allocated for its design. TRIUMF follows. Its funding is tight, but the good news is that the importance of TRIUMF is explicitly acknowledged in the Budget.

Funding for the direct costs of research distributed through the three Research Granting Councils (still called councils rather than agencies in the Budget) is being increased by a modest, but significant, $32M per year. The NSERC share of $13M is split two ways: $8M for “advanced” research, presumably usable for discovery grants, and $5M for their new Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation.  The latter signals a redesign of the Research Partnership envelope, a set of programs that have been effectively (if perhaps not visibly enough) connecting university researchers and industry for decades. It is also significant that the Budget recognizes the importance of providing proportionate funds for the indirect costs research, allocating $8 M, i.e.: at the 25% level.
It was a relief to see $75 M in the current year for Genome Canada. Canada’s achievements in genomics research over the last decade have built up a scientific momentum that is opening up new opportunities for advances in many areas where unsolved problems loom. The new focus on forestry and the environment is a case in point.

Here’s another seed. I was happy to see a doubling of the funds for the College and Community Innovation Program. This program diffuses Canada’s capabilities in S&T to the community level through the hundreds of local community college campuses, and makes them available to small and medium-sized companies. The sum allocated there is small compared to many others, $15 M per year, but it represents the doubling of an important and successful program. This is high-leverage funding.

There are several other positive S&T items in the Budget, but I will conclude with another seed that focuses on innovation: “Promoting Innovation by Small and Medium-Sized Businesses.” There is $40 M over two years for this. Few details are given, but they are enough to suggest to me that the government has recognized the importance of its own role as a lead customer for Canadian innovations, playing the risky role of the early adopter of new technologies. Given that tech SMEs that survive and grow will likely find only 5% of their sales in Canada, and will have to go abroad for the other 95%, the ability to tell potential foreign clients that the Canadian government has adopted their product is a huge boost to credibility in the global market. 

These are positive signs for Canadian S&T in Budget 2010, but the S&T community must not take anything for granted. Budget 2011 will start work on slashing the deficit, and program spending in most areas will come under careful scrutiny. Here is the exact language: “To ensure that federal funding is yielding maximum benefits for Canadians, the Government, in close consultation with business leaders from all sectors and our provincial partners, will conduct a comprehensive review of all federal support for R&D to improve its contribution to innovation and to economic opportunities for business. This review will inform future decisions regarding federal support for R&D. The government is currently developing the terms of reference for the review.”  

The message is clear. It is a given that Canadian research and advanced education of HQP must continue to cover the important areas in which world science and technology are advancing, and must be judged as excellent by international standards. Canadian companies that compete with the world’s best require nothing less than that. But the connection between advances in S&T and increased wealth creation by the Canadian private sector is not automatic. To achieve success on a significant scale, there must be an adequately large pool of investment capital, sufficient numbers of entrepreneurial people with the appropriate knowledge and skills, and the necessary supporting institutions. Excellence in research is an essential requirement, and our researchers are meeting that one. But excellence in commercialization by the private sector is needed too and, for whatever reason, we keep learning that we are still not great in that. Nevertheless, I believe that the Canadian research community has to be ready to make a clear, credible and persuasive case to governments, to business, and ultimately to the public showing that it has been contributing to Canadian prosperity, and that it is ready to do more if circumstances allow.