This is John Preece guestblogging about recent reports issued by two of Canada’s influential advisory bodies – the federal Science, Technology and Innovation Council and the provincial Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity. The reports detail the current status and future directions of innovation in Canada: State of the Nation 2010 and Canada’s Innovation Imperative.
Both reports highlight the fact that Canada is in a strong economic position, but that investment in research and development has been declining for years. Canada has been falling in international rankings not due to a significant drop in output, but due to other countries investing and innovating more. Federal and provincial governments need to take advantage of the relatively robust economy and invest in innovation (principally by encouraging businesses to invest more) for Canada to close its productivity gap with the USA and retain its place as a world leader in science and innovation.
SIN Canada works closely with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to identify innovative Canadian companies and innovation-enabling government policies. Part of our mission is to enhance innovation in the UK by facilitating the sharing of knowledge, policy and examples of best practice. As always, watch this space for news on how we’ve been doing this.