From the annual report of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation [my emphasis]:
Large amounts of public funding are available for researchers to get started. Large amounts of capital are also available for companies when they reach their growth stage, after they have taken flight. Banks make loans and, and stock markets offer IPO’s.
What about that fledgling point in between? Very little.
This graphic shows there is much more available funding for Fundamental Research (left) then (left to right) Applied Research; Proof of Concept; Seed Capital & Early Stage Venture Capital; hence NBIF’s focus on these. Venture Capital & Growth Capital are represented as much larger as well.
My own observations are showing this may not be the case, but I haven’t done extensive research. However, one of the primary funding agencies for fundamental research (e.g. discovery grants) is NSERC, which is definitely moving toward applied research, as reported by CBC:
Funding involving industry now represents about one third of NSERC’s budget, and is expected to grow. The agency wants to double both the number of academic-industry partnerships and industry participation rates in NSERC programs by 2014-15, Walden said.
‘These sponsors aren’t paying for the research out of philanthropy. They want results.’— Janet Walden, NSERC
She presented the figures as part of a panel titled “Universities as economic powerhouses: industry-academic collaborations” at the Canadian Science Policy Conference in Montreal.
Other agencies, such as Canada’s NRC and ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund also fund applied research
The purpose of the Atlantic Innovation Fund is to:
- increase research and development (R&D) being carried out in Atlantic Canada research facilities leading to the launch of new products, processes and services;
- improve the region’s capacity to commercialize R&D;
- strengthen the region’s innovation system by supporting R&D and commercialization partnerships and alliances among private sector enterprises, universities, research institutions and other organizations in Atlantic Canada; and
- enhance the region’s ability to access national R&D programs.
Perhaps the NBIF graphic no longer portrays the situation in Canada. If significantly less money goes toward fundamental research, what will happen to the innovation continuum? I wonder if we are racing to the middle and in our quest to be “innovative” we are forgetting the basic research that fuels all innovation. One example is that for the widely-used Global Positioning System (GPS) to work you need to employ both theories of relativity. Now who would have thought of that application when those theories were first put forth?
