Toronto--Canada faces a bleak future without a large increase in federal spending on science, according to a new report prepared for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The National Advisory Board on Science and Technology, composed of academic, labor and industry leaders, found that Canada ranked last among eight industrial countries in several aspects of scientific achievement. Those areas included overall and industrial R&D spending as a percentage of gross domestic product, international patents, the per capita number of scientists and engineers, and the number of high-tech industries with a trade surplus. Its competitors were the United States, Japan, Britain, France, West Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The report recommended a sharp rise in government support for industry-based research, a new subsidy for additional staff at mid-sized R&D firms, science and technology program within business schools, a national system of paid educational leave, increased collaborative research, and new ways to license and ...
