October 2004
New focus to Ontario research funding
The Ontario government’s announcement of a new research fund is good news to Ontario’s research community.
At least $300 million is being committed for equipment and other research infrastructure over the next four years, an amount to be matched by another $450 million from the federal government and other partners.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made the announcement at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Economic Summit earlier this month.
In the modern economy, Canadian universities have the importance that mining and timber companies once held for Canada, Premier McGuinty stated. Universities should be mining ideas, and business and labour should be working with universities to commercialize those ideas, to turn them into viable, innovative products, he said.
Ontario is consolidating its three research funds — the Ontario Innovation Trust, Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund and Ontario Research Performance Fund, into the new Ontario Research Fund, now touted as "one-stop shopping" for researchers that need to access funding.
Economic Development and Trade Minister Joe Cordiano, who has responsibility of the new fund, said the move is meant to create “greater accountability, greater transparency and a made-in-Ontario research direction."
Details of how the research community will be able to access these funds are to be announced in the New Year.
Carleton University President Richard Van Loon welcomed the funding announcement, noting “this funding will enable Carleton and other universities to maintain their momentum of research and development so crucial to the advancement of knowledge and the future economic prosperity of Ontario.” Lorna Marsden, president of York University, told media that the research funding will help universities, which have to compete with other institutes around the world to attract the best people to do research.
The new focus on research funding complements an announcement in last year's Ontario Budget of $27 million over four years to establish a new Ontario Research Commercialization Program, to test, prototype and turn new ideas into commercial reality.
Earlier this year Cordiano told a luncheon audience at the Economic Club of Toronto that the government aims to strengthen Ontario’s international research relationships and attract leading scientists and researchers here.
He noted that, although Ontario is home to many of the best research and scientific minds in the world and the province has invested approximately $2.6 billion into public research during the last decade, less than 10 per cent of companies are tapping into the world-class research capacity that exists in our public research institutions.
Back to Headlines
|
|
