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Welcome to the 2002-2003 Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Annual Report. Again this year, we are presenting the NCE Program's achievements in an online, interactive form that allows you to search according to your needs and interests. We have found that this is a very efficient way of delivering information about the NCEs to researchers, government, industry and Canadians at large, and we trust that you will find it interesting.

The Networks of Centres of Excellence Program is an initiative of the three granting agencies: the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) in partnership with Industry Canada. It is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the education of highly qualified people as vehicles for improvements in the quality of life and the growth of value-added economic activity in Canada.

I am pleased to report that during 2002-2003, the Networks of Centres of Excellence continued to make notable contributions to Canadian research, as noted by an independent evaluation of the NCE Program by KPMG in 2002 which found that the NCE Program has transformed the way research on large-scale problems is conducted in Canada. Overall, the respondents to the KPMG study agreed that the networks made a difference in multi-disciplinary collaborative research, student training, partnerships with users, knowledge and technology transfer, and development of local and national critical mass of intellectual capacity to address problems of great complexity and large scale.

Networks achieved this by bringing together leaders in business, industry, research and government to create effective partnerships . Overall this year, the NCE Program supported 1,613 researchers in 68 universities. The program's partners included 624 companies, 184 provincial and federal government departments and 232 agencies from Canada, and 298 international partners, making it a truly national and international program.

These achievements would not have been possible without the vision and hard work of the scientific directors and the chairs of the boards of directors who have contributed to forging partnerships among research leaders from all sectors and disciplines. I want to thank them for their invaluable contributions, and in doing so, I know I speak also for the NCE Steering Committee: Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of CIHR; Dr. Marc Renaud, President of SSHRC; and Mr. Peter Harder, Deputy Minister of Industry Canada.

Our mission at the NCE is to mobilize Canada's research talent in the academic, private and public sectors and apply it to solving important problems, developing the economy and improving Canadians' quality of life. We must also guarantee that Canadians receive the best possible return on their investment in the NCEs, and that the NCEs continue to deliver results both efficiently and effectively. In this regard, the numbers speak for themselves. Last year the NCE Program stimulated outside investments of over $69 million, including more than $33 million from private-sector companies. With the addition of the Program's own investment, the total dedicated to research, training and commercialization in 2002-2003 reached more than $147 million. The NCEs also nurtured the commercialization of research through 153 patents and licenses and the establishment of five spin-off companies in areas of high economic and social value. Equally important, the NCEs helped lay the foundations for Canada's future competence and prosperity by training 4,772 research staff such as postdoctoral fellows, students, research associates and technicians to carry our strategy into the new century.

In December 2002, the Honourable Allan Rock, Minister of Industry, announced an investment of $39 million over four years to continue the work of three NCEs: the Canadian Stroke Network, the Network in Aquaculture (AquaNet), and the Canadian Network for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics. This investment will involve almost 300 researchers in universities and industries right across Canada and will contribute significantly to research, training, and knowledge and technology transfer in the health and aquaculture sectors.

We also continue to look to the future. The 2003 Competition for New Networks is well under way with seven groups of applicants invited to submit full proposals. A second competition, launched in January 2003, will help establish additional NCEs in 2005.

In concluding, I would like to thank the Honourable Allan Rock, Minister of Industry, for his support of the NCE Program. I believe that this program will continue to contribute to the lives of all Canadians through its dedication to our country's intellectual, social, economic and technological progress.