I'm not going to speak extensively about the current market difficulties of the auto industry except to say that without any doubt, as others have said, the problems being faced by our auto sector are being played out around the world in every auto-making nation and region, from Asia to Europe and, of course, here in North America. This is not unique to us at all.
I think one of the key points--and I suspect others have made it too, so I won't belabour it--is that this crisis happened at the same time as the industry was making big efforts to create future vehicles that are cleaner, safer, and more efficient. Those efforts can only be financed by the cashflow generated by strong sales, which were taking place in the 1990s and up until early last year or the middle of last year. When those sales dried up, the availability of funds to create new products became very scarce.
The key thing to understand--and it is probably a bit surprising that I would say this--is that R and D is not going to fix this problem right now. This is a short-term consumer credit issue. But R and D, research and development and innovation, is vital for positioning Canada's automotive companies to be viable in the future, to be there when the economy recovers and when sales recover, so that we have great products that people will want to buy and that will keep our citizens working. And that's what I want to talk about today.
I would say that the investments being made today--and they are being made today--are really important for positioning Canada's automotive industry for the future. Each day, a dedicated community of Canadian researchers is helping automotive companies take advantage of the opportunities presented by the present challenges, and the ones coming forward in the future, to which our sector has to respond.
The other key thing to understand about the innovation efforts of Canada's auto industry, and the public sector organizations that work with it, is that the young Canadians who are in school today--my kids and your kids--will need jobs in the future. And those jobs are going to be high technology jobs, as Dennis has very correctly said. We need to make sure we have prepared our young people for those high technology jobs so that not only are the companies positioned with great technologies but we have the people who can go in there and take those jobs and help our country progress in the future. That's why again, I think, even during this period of difficulty, it's important to continue to invest in innovation, because a good part of our innovation efforts are actually training activities for young people.
Through AUTO21's industry-driven, industry-supported research program and our dedicated, award-winning student development program, which, incidentally, won the Yves Landry Foundation award for program of the year in 2006, we've already trained more than 1,200 young engineers for the automotive sector and for other great careers in the idea end of the business, which is really where the business is headed, as Dennis has said. Our present and future programs will help to train thousands more people. This will be a vital contribution during the time when jobs are scarce and our best and brightest have to contribute and have to get on with their lives in any way they can.
So we are providing a place where our best and brightest young people can keep the pot boiling during this very difficult time. I think that's not to be undersold.
When the market returns to more normal levels, the companies that have remained viable and that have retained their key technical staff members and have developed new products, processes, and methods will be well positioned for success, thanks to the new technologies and knowledge developed in partnership with Canadian research experts.
AUTO21 is Canada's national automotive research program, stretching from coast to coast and encompassing 44 universities and research institutes. We support the work of over 300 researchers across Canada. Over 500 graduate students get their living stipends from AUTO21. And more than 240 private and public sector partners support our research programs--I mean financially--and receive the knowledge we create. I think that's a core aspect of AUTO21 that really has to be borne in mind. It's a program that pays its way, because we create knowledge that companies commercialize and use to improve their product lines in the future. And that keeps people going.
In my little brief—there are some copies available here—there are four or five success stories that will illustrate the kinds of benefits that have come from AUTO21 research over the years. I won't read all of them. I just want to feature one of them, really, and these are just representative of the more than 90 patents and licences that have been generated from AUTO21 research, in partnership with our industry supporters.
The one I wanted to feature was just an example of how we work. We were the first Canadian research organization to support a large-scale effort in automotive biomaterials, and that was back in 2001, before biomaterials were really on the scene. At that point they were somewhat of an academic curiosity, but there was industrial interest in them and so we made an investment in this research.
The project has been led by a University of Toronto forestry professor, and it involves a multi-disciplinary team of researchers at a number of schools across the country, in collaboration with the Ontario Centres of Excellence. This has resulted in a spin-off company called GreenCore Composites, which was named one of Canada's top 10 Cleantech companies last year, and it has resulted in a number of new product innovations that are just entering the market now, albeit at a slow pace because of the sales, but they're there. The Woodbridge Group has a new product out called BioFoam, which is going to be used in the headliner of the car, which is the overhead part, inside the roof of the car. Decoma International, a division of Magna, is involved in this research program, as well as Canadian General-Tower, and so on.
So on these research projects, it's not a bunch of professors doing curiosity-driven work. It's real work that is generating real outcomes for Canada's economy and, in the process, creating training opportunities for, at this point, over 1,200 young Canadians who are now becoming experts in these new technologies. And as I say, there are other success stories in the back of the brief.
This is what we call a knowledge-pull model. We don't start a research program until we have a knowledge receptor company that is interested in the work, making an in-kind financial commitment to the work and a commitment to receive the knowledge and to commercialize it in Canada first. Over 160 private sector companies have participated in our research projects, and that number has grown significantly over time.
Other countries are recognizing this model and are adopting it, and I have a lot of contacts around the world, as does Dennis and other auto industry people, because as Mr. LaSorda said, it is a global industry. The German and American models are terrific, but they're very large countries, operating on a scale that is difficult for us in Canada to replicate. But I think one of the best models I've seen on a scale that's commensurate with Canada is called the AutoCRC, or the Cooperative Research Centre, which is in Australia.
Now, Australia's auto industry is literally about a tenth of the size of ours. The AutoCRC was founded in 2005, which is four years after AUTO21. They actually have a larger budget than we do, but they have adopted a very good model. It was actually founded on the layout of AUTO21, but they've done some really interesting things there that have been very good. I just participated in a review of that program in its third year of operation. It was very good, very well done.
I'll just conclude, because I know we're short of time, by saying that government investment plays a key supporting role in innovation by providing specialized people and facilities that industry simply doesn't need all the time and really can't afford to maintain, especially Canadian companies that are generally of a scale that doesn't support large in-house R and D efforts.
Those facilities and people are often at universities, and so organizations like AUTO21, which can broker the relationships and help buy down the risk of doing innovation work in Canada, really can make the business case very attractive to do it here, and that will help our companies to be viable and competitive in the future.
I look forward to your questions.
Thank you.