Reform the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Program to reduce red tape and the need for consultants, better align eligible expenses to today’s innovation and R&D and make the program more generous for those companies who take the biggest risks, promoting productivity, new inventions, and the creation of good jobs.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Add 1,000 Canada Research Chairs to help attract and retain top talent at Canadian universities and support graduate research, with a focus on improving gender and racial equity among Canadian faculty, promoting inter-disciplinary research, and reinforcing Canada’s world leading capabilities in life sciences and bio-medical research.

Establish a $75 million a year fund for colleges and universities to help commercialize leading research, including identifying and securing patent rights for research done within their institutions and connecting researchers with people and businesses to help put these innovations into action and grow our economy.

Drawing on Canada’s contribution to mRNA science and vaccines, introduce a new $100 million a year fund to pursue moonshot research into high-impact illnesses where a vaccine may be possible.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Strengthen equity targets for federally funded scientific research delivered through the granting councils to include a specific target for the representation of Black Canadians.

Provide funding of $30 million over 5 years to help promising graduate students, support the mentorship and development of younger researchers, and increase opportunities for Black Canadians in Canadian post-secondary institutions.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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We will streamline and accelerate the SR&ED program. This important program is a badly broken administrative nightmare that fuels an ecosystem of consultants and advisory firms instead of focusing on research and development. Overall, 25% of SR&ED funding goes to consultants rather than innovators. To fix it, we will:

• Move administration from CRA to ISED and have the program administered by the same group that administers the IRAP program;

• Allow ISED to issue a certificate of allowable deductions which would then be accepted by CRA, saving significant compliance paperwork and allowing innovators to focus on innovating instead of filling out forms; and

• Making it easier for software development to qualify for SR&ED.

We will then launch a review of all innovation programs at ISED and across the government to ensure they are as simple as possible, to remove duplication, and to ensure that all innovation spending benefits Canada by:

• Requiring that recipients demonstrate that intellectual property, production, ownership, and profits are likely to stay in Canada;

• Prohibit foreign state-owned entities or those with ties to foreign militaries from receiving funding;

• Requiring that all intellectual property developed with the support of the Canadian government be held by a Canadian entity and that recipients agree to pay back the subsidy if they sell the IP to a foreign buyer;

• Ending the payment of Canadian tax dollars to large foreign tech companies; and

• Putting any money saved by no longer subsidizing foreign multinationals into increasing SR&ED generosity for Canadian small business.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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• Invest in scientific research and implement the full funding recommendations from Canada’s Fundamental Science Review.

• Increase R&D spending to 2.5% of GDP, bringing Canada in line with the OECD average.

• Increase funding for the granting councils from $22.4 billion 3 to $30 billion, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). Ensure all grants by the federal granting councils consider Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) outcomes of the research it supports.

• Restore and augment Climate Change and Atmospheric Research (CCAR) funding to NSERC and ensure ongoing funding for the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, which the Liberals failed to restore after the funding ran out.

• Establish a dedicated innovation agency that focuses on developing joint projects across universities, private industry, and national labs.

• Support NSERC’s Framework on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in scientific research across all federal grant funding programs, and commit to strengthening Canadian scientific and engineering communities to include the full participation of equity-seeking groups, including women, visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, people with diverse gender identities and people with disabilities.

• Create a dedicated, long-term funding program for water infrastructure, building on the success of the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund that operated between 2016 and 2018

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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