Canada's R&D sectors: Excellence in Action

The benefits of Canada’s partnering and networking approach to S&T are evident in many industry sectors where leading-edge Canadian companies can be found. During the mid-to-late 1990s, Canadian companies made their mark in telecommunications; by the turn of the millennium they were making great strides in the life sciences—particularly in pharmaceuticals, agricultural biotechnology and health research. Other sectors in which Canadians now excel include aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and resource and environmental technologies—particularly for climate change. Figure 8 shows the concentration of industrial R&D planned expenditures among industries in 2002.

Many of the developments in these sectors are centred in geographical areas with high levels of R&D and high-tech business activity. Anchored by major universities and labs, these R&D clusters are host to a whole spectrum of thriving, entrepreneurial companies, bringing access to core research capabilities, services and equipment. They also boast low R&D and labour costs; highly skilled pools of scientific and technical labour; modern, extensive and integrated transport and communications networks; and proximity to the U.S. market.

Most important, Canadian R&D clusters generate competition, which spurs innovation as best industry practices generate innovation and continuous improvement. Regional clusters are also attracting increasing venture capital and R&D partnerships with major North American and global S&T players.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

In 2002, Canada’s $60 billion ICT sector, with more than half a million workers, was the sector with the highest R&D intensity of any industry in Canada.

Toronto, Montréal, Quebec City and Ottawa from a vast pool of ICT resources composed of more than 5,000 firms and about half of all ICT workers. Ottawa, the national capital, is one of Canada’s ICT sector hubs. With companies such as Nortel Networks, Alcatel, Mitel Corporation and the highest concentration of high-tech companies in Canada, Ottawa also benefits from two universities (Carleton University and the University of Ottawa).

Toronto, with Nortel Networks, IBM, Celestica Inc. and Hummingbird Ltd., has impressive strengths in multimedia, software and microelectronics. These companies often interact with the University of Toronto, whose electrical and computer engineering programs are among the top 10 in North America. IBM’s new software laboratory, north of Toronto, is now the company’s biggest international research site, serving a prestigious array of corporate global mandates. Just an hour from Toronto is Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario, where the world-famous University of Waterloo graduates among the largest numbers of information technology professionals in North America. Drawing on this talent pool, the Toronto/ Kitchener–Waterloo area has developed into a major ICT centre.

Meanwhile, with nearly a quarter of all ICT workers located in the province of Quebec, Montréal is carving a niche market in multimedia and e-commerce, while Quebec City has a concentration in photonics. Well over half of the world’s special effects and animation software originates in Canada, and most films nominated for special effects at recent years’ Academy Awards used software created in Montréal. In addition, such large multinationals as Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Motorola have either R&D projects or facilities in the region.

Other provinces are equally dynamic in this sector. In British Columbia, both Vancouver and Victoria boast large numbers of high-tech firms, most of which are expanding at a phenomenal rate. In Alberta, Calgary is home to a fastgrowing wireless communications industry, while NRC’s new National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton is already spurring the growth of a technology cluster.

In Atlantic Canada, the ICT sector is also growing apace. Halifax, Nova Scotia, excels in Web applications and software development, while in New Brunswick, Moncton and Fredericton are becoming powers in e-commerce. Fredericton has been chosen as home to a new NRC institute of information technology and e-commerce—sure to be a catalyst in this emerging cluster’s growth.

Life Sciences

Canada is a world leader in life sciences research. Worth roughly $15 billion, this sector employs more than 60,000 people and is second only to the U.S. in the number of biotech firms. Canadian life-sciences activities support a public health sector that includes more than 100 hospitals and research institutes nation-wide. Furthermore, despite Canada’s 1.8% share of the world’s pharmaceutical market, the country has developed about 10% of the world’s new medicines and helped discover more than 25% of global disease-causing genes.

By 2003, annual investment in biotechnology R&D was approaching $2 billion, and three Canadian cities—Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver—had become world-class biotech clusters, containing more than 500 companies and ranking in the top 20 North American cities for biotechnology revenue.

While excellence in Canada’s life sciences sector falls into two areas in particular—pharmaceuticals and agricultural biotechnology—Canadian researchers are also making great strides in pioneering or improving medical devices for diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, genetic engineering, health care, telemedicine and environmental biotechnologies.

Montréal is home to more than 200 health-related biotech firms and ranks first in North America for biopharma contract research. Nearly every large international pharmaceutical company has a base in Montréal, attracted in part by the National Research Council’s Biotechnology Research Institute and the city’s four local universities (McGill, Université de Montréal, Concordia and Université du Québec à Montréal).

In Ontario, the Greater Toronto Area has approximately 110 biotech companies, research hospitals and institutes. The University of Toronto and its affiliated research institutions help make Toronto the fourthlargest medical R&D community in North America. Toronto has also developed major strengths in bioinformatics and genomics, while in nearby Guelph, significant agriculture research is being conducted at the University of Guelph and its surrounding cluster of biotechnology companies.

Other Canadian cities are also becoming leaders in life sciences. Winnipeg has developed a vibrant biomedical devices sector and Saskatoon has developed the largest agricultural biotechnology cluster in Canada. It is home to two federal laboratories (AAFC’s Research Centre and the NRC’s Plant Biotechnology Institute) plus the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and the Western College of Veterinary Medicine. On the Pacific coast, Vancouver has more than 70 biotech companies, with 70% of its life sciences cluster focused on health research.

Resource and Environmental Technologies

Increased global demand for environmental protection, for more fuel-efficient vehicles, and for energy and emissions’ reduction have focused the attention of Canadian researchers in government, university and industry labs on technologies to address these issues - particularly with respect to mitigating the effects of climate change.

For example, researchers at CANMET, Canada’s largest federal laboratory for energy technologies, are developing clean, energy-efficient, conventional alternative and renewable energy technologies to combat climate change. At other government labs, scientists are assessing the environmental and sustainable performance of technology in areas such as bio-ethanol production, enzyme bleaching in pulp and paper processes, and gas turbine development.

Nowhere is the challenge more apparent than in the automotive sector, where for every 10% in weight reduction, there is a 6 to 8% improvement in fuel efficiency. This has fostered major R&D investment in new materials that are cheaper, lighter and stronger. Primary-metal industries and automakers are working with CANMET’s Materials Technology Laboratory in Ottawa, and the NRC’s new Aluminium Technology Research Centre in Saguenay, Quebec.

Lighter weight is also critical to novel energy supply systems such as fuel cell vehicles, which offer the promise of significantly reducing the production of greenhouse gases and other toxic pollutants from the internal combustion engine. The governments of Canada, British Columbia and Quebec have played a critical role in fuel cell development in the past 20 years, collectively spending more than $150 million. Canada now boasts the largest and fastestgrowing cluster of fuel cell expertise in the world.

Natural Resources Canada is assisting Stuart Energy Systems, which has operations in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, to develop its hydrogen refueller, used in vehicles powered by fuel cells produced by Ballard Power Systems in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Collaborations between government researchers and Ballard Power Systems have resulted in fuel cell technology for car and bus transportation. In addition, in 1999 the University of British Columbia became the site of a national fuel cell research centre.

Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs)

AMTs are spreading within all regions and industries of Canada, including the automotive, aerospace, mining and resource industries, as well as biotech and life sciences. Our automotive, aerospace and natural resource sectors are the three largest users of AMTs.

Canada has a great track record for creating new technologies that have helped Canadian producers become major suppliers of AMTs worldwide. These technologies include integrated design and manufacturing software, robotics and intelligent processing equipment, net shape processing, multi-use equipment, continuous materials processing, surface treatment and micro-fabrication.

For example, researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and at Université Laval in Quebec City have been conducting leading-edge research in machining and metal-forming AMTs, while researchers at the University of Windsor in Ontario are partners with major automakers in developing casting technologies. DaimlerChrysler and the University of Windsor have partnered in a $500 million automotive research centre, focusing research on alternative fuels, automotive materials, vehicle durability, mechanical engineering design, vehicle safety, and fuel economy and emissions.

In aerospace, the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre (AMTC) on the Université de Montréal campus, will mobilize the facilities and programs of NRC's Institute for Aerospace Research and other related institutes across Canada. The AMTC will assist the aerospace industry to develop, demonstrate and implement advanced manufacturing methods.