Ontario Budget takes strategic approach to enhancing research and innovation

While Ontario works to complete its new research and innovation strategy for release this spring, its latest Budget contains a host of targeted items that suggest the strategy's implementation is already underway. Working within its $1.7-billion, five-year commitment to research, commercialization and outreach, the new initiatives target industry-university collaboration in the auto and energy sectors, environmental technologies and fundamental interdisciplinary research.

The new research initiatives come wrapped up in Ontario's second consecutive balanced Budget on expenditures of $88.8 billion, and accompany a commitment to shore up the province's embattled manufacturing sector with the creation of an Ontario Manufacturing Council.

"We're still in the middle of the (provincial) strategic plan and the budget initiatives are consistent with that," says Dr Alastair Glass, DM, Ministry of Research and Innovation. "The strategy is step one. Step two is to align funding behind the strategy, which will be high level goals and principles. An operational/action plan will follow."

The Budget's two largest research and innovation initiatives are funding for the Stronach Centre for Innovation (see page 5) and the Univ of Toronto's Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage & Competitiveness. The latter will receive $20 million up front followed by $6 million annually for the next five years. The U of T Centre is the brainchild of Dr Roger Martin and is associated with the Rotman School of Business. Funding will go towards the creation of a $120-million facility to house the new think tank. It will work in parallel with the existing Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity and its permanent task force, which Martin also chairs.

Queen's Univ is the recipient of another new initiative focused on industry-academic collaboration on new advanced materials and bioprocessing. The Advanced Research & Innovation Institute will receive $21 million. Its industrial partners include Novelis Inc, a spin-off of Alcan's rolled aluminum products division that was recently acquired by Mumbai India-based Hindalco Industries Ltd for US$6 billion. The Institute is a personal project of Queen's Univ principal Dr Karen Hitchcock, and is aimed in part at stemming the outflow of promising small companies from the Kingston region.

Fundamental research was also recognized in the Budget with renewed provincial funding for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (see below).

OCE energy centre

The growing importance of the provincial energy sector was given a major boost with $15 million in year-end funding for the Ontario Centre of Excellence's Energy Centre. The new funding will significantly enhance the Energy OCE, which was launched as a virtual centre with $8 million over four years (R$, January 24/05).

"The incremental funding will drive a more aggressive research, innovation and commercialization agenda in a critical area of the Ontario economy," says Mark Rom-off, OCE's president and CEO. "This will bring the Centre up to scale with the other centres."

The OCE is examining how to best use the new funding, since all of its centres conduct collaborative R&D in the energy field. The program's core annual budget now stands at more than $34 million.

"This will position Ontario on the global stage and it's a strong vote of confidence in the OCE and our model," says Romoff. "It comes with obligations but we're up to the challenge ... The OCE has had really good results over the last little while."

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