Canada’s performance on science and technology dropped further this year, according to a report released today by Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC).
STIC’s State of the Nation report found that Canada had slipped to 23 out of 41 other countries. Canada ranked 16th out of 41 countries in 2008 and 17th in 2010.
“Canadian business investment in research and development has continuously declined over the past decade. In 2011, Canada ranked 25th out of 41 economies,” said Sophie Forest, managing partner of Brightspark Ventures and a member of STIC. “Increased business R&D investment is essential to Canada’s future as a nation of innovators.”
The report identifies five areas for improvement:
business performance of research and development as a share of GDP;
business investment in information and communications technologies;
higher education expenditures on research and development as a share of GDP;
science and engineering doctoral degrees granted per 100,000 population; and
share of human resources in science and technology.
The federal government recently announced that the National Research Council would no longer do basic scientific research, and instead would work solely with industry to capitalize on innovation.
