Industry committee  Thank you very much for the question. As my colleague Janet Walden has said, this commitment to discovery research is a very important one. It's always been very difficult to make a distinction between discovery and applied research. For example, in astronomy they have some of

Industry committee  It contributes to that, yes. We don't have the good ideas; the researchers do. When they come to us with a great idea, Janet likes to be able to say yes, based on the proposal.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. Mr. Chair, I'm afraid I'm not able to answer any questions about ACOA; the department is not part of Industry Canada.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. It's difficult for me to answer the general question about business development programs across the department, as my area is science, technology, and innovation. I can say, for example, on the updated science, technology, and innovation s

Industry committee  I couldn't tell you off the top of my head.

Industry committee  Thank you for your question. Actually, the expenses for the first research excellence fund will start in the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The budget announced the launch of the fund. We are currently working on the standards and conditions. It will officially start and the expenses wi

Industry committee  Actually, it was a budget announcement. So they are new funds. The total budget for the program must be $50 million a year, in accordance with the announcement in 2013.

Industry committee  That's right. These are new funds for the program announced in 2013.

Industry committee  To be honest, I'm not aware of the content of the report that was published today. So it is really difficult for us to answer the question. We can study it, but it's really difficult for us to answer this question right now.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for that question. Yes, this is a very significant new initiative, providing $1.5 billion over the next 10 years to address the desire of Canadian universities and colleges to really move to the next level in terms of international competitiveness. The bud

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, committee members. It's our pleasure to be here today to answer any questions you may have on science, technology, and innovation issues relating to the supplementary estimates (C), which you are currently examining. I thought I mig

Industry committee  I wouldn't be able to answer that right now. We'd have to get back to the committee, Mr. Chair.

Industry committee  Mr. Chair, a lot of the variability in the budget at the National Research Council is the budget of the industrial research and assistance program, IRAP. That was doubled by the government several years ago. The major increase you've seen in the overall budget is not on the inter

Industry committee  I might need the “this just in” service on that. I'm trying to go on memory and numbers have never been my strongest part of memory. The service is really meant to be value-added. The great strength of the National Research Council and IRAP is that the people who are there are p

Industry committee  We can certainly provide the number. I don't want to guess.