Industry committee  In addition to improving the plants themselves, we also spent a fair bit of effort working on how to extract value from all parts of those plants, whether it's interesting chemicals or new greener ways of producing cosmetics and that type of thing.

Industry committee  We don't have any current examples of working on a GMO, but I could give you an example of our wheat program. Wheat breeding is typically a public sector activity, and in Canada the wheat varieties are bred by organizations like Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of

Industry committee  It's very complex. In a situation like that there are many groups that own IP along the way. At the end of the day, it's the companies that sell the seeds that have the critical IP they own, which gives them the right to sell.

Industry committee  We don't have specific programming. It's not a primary mandate of the NRC to look at issues like that. However, we do have scientific expertise and we work with Environment Canada and other departments to provide the scientific expertise to support them in identifying the blue-gr

Industry committee  I think the NRC has a lot to contribute to water.

Industry committee  In the last couple of years, we've been seeing a breakdown of the silos and a trend towards working together. Certainly Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the NRC have a long history of working together. Some of it goes back a long way, but it's much more active recently, with

Industry committee  It's always a cart-and-horse game when it comes to who steps in first to make the investment. Sometimes it happens at the same time, as it did in Edmonton with the National Institute of Nanotechnology. In Prince Edward Island, they recently introduced an innovation strategy. They

Industry committee  When you have areas with a focus that are not too broadly set, such as biosciences and life sciences, but rather get a specific focus like agricultural biotechnology here in Saskatoon, that raises investor confidence. If you have the mechanisms in place to achieve a certain level

Industry committee  I apologize; I'll do this very quickly. The issues that warrant consideration are that we need to continue to invest in the development and application of the latest technologies and cutting-edge sciences, as these will be essential to the development of products beyond the year

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Rajotte. I thank the committee for inviting the Plant Biotechnology Institute of the National Research Council to give this short presentation on agricultural biotechnology. For over 90 years, the National Research Council has successfully played a leadership rol

Industry committee  As you indicated, it's a very successful program, and we know from our metrics that its performance is high. The companies that have IRAP support end up successfully raising venture capital; there's greater confidence in them and the like. It is an oversubscribed program.

Industry committee  Yes. Just to build on that example, it's serendipity. You have to be in the right place. You have to be in Windsor to make that leap from one technology to the other. Another good example we have from our IBD branch in Calgary is the use of MRI technology--which we normally thi

Industry committee  The story you actually have here in Winnipeg with medical device development, which I'm familiar with, obviously started with attracting some key high-quality people. The other key is to have sustained federal investment over a period of time that lets you create the critical mas

Industry committee  Yes. I'm Roman Szumski from the National Research Council, previously an executive with a health and life sciences company called MDS Inc., which included a $1 billion venture capital under management under MDS Capital Corp. I want to agree with one of the comments Harry made wi