I can't tell you how much money I need. Research can take all the money you throw at it. I think if you gauge it by the work that was done in 1984, I can't remember the exact budget in the energy division, but one of our large institutes will take $25 million to $30 million to start. We have an institute where the budget dedicated to fuel cells is $9 million to $10 million. In addition to that, we spend money on a horizontal program, so we spend about $14 million.
It depends on the area. I think fuel cells involve very technology-intensive development in materials, and so on. Industries probably spend $200 million to $250 million a year in research in that area, so in that small part you can see the contribution.
In other areas—maybe similar investment. IRAP, for example, is really helping SMEs. They say they are not getting attention. I think there is attention paid to SMEs. In 90 places in Canada they can find an IRAP rep and talk to them about development around funding research. The IRAP budget for contributions is now $80 million to $100 million. I can't give you an exact number because we really have to look at what we're going to do.
In wind energy, what do we have as a niche in Canada to be able to build it in Canada—other than what's built in Denmark, for example?
In solar energy, do we put more money in nanotechnology and energy—more in NINT? NINT is working on it now. Do we need to focus on it and give it more money to work on solar particularly? Would that accelerate it?
It's a difficult thing, but by putting more people on it and having Canadians focus together on some area we can accelerate research. That's what we're trying to do with national programs. We hope to get most researchers in Canada who work in one area to work collectively toward the same objective so we can beat other countries to it. That's one thing you can do, because there is funding in academia. We fund universities better than any other G-8 or G-7 country.
So the work is going very well, but can we put it all together? Then we can say what gaps we have and what money we can put in to accelerate it.