Analysis

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Federal departments and agencies anticipate spending $11.7 billion (current dollars) in 2010/2011 on science and technology (S&T), a small increase from the $11.3 billion in planned spending the year before, but a 10.4% increase over the $10.6 billion spent in 2008/2009, where actual, or final, data are available. (Table 1-1)

1. Data for 2010/2011 are forecasts of expenditure by departments and thus are provisional and subject to change. Data for 2009/2010 are planned spending for the fiscal period that was almost closed at the time of data collection; these data are provisional, but change only rarely. Data for 2008/2009 are actual expenditures incurred by the reporting departments and agencies, and, as such, are not subject to change.

Of the $11.7 billion, $5.9 billion is anticipated to be spent within the departments and agencies (Table 2-1) and $5.8 billion has been directed to other sectors such as higher education, the business sector, private non-profit organizations and foreign and other entities, to support their S&T activities. (Table 3-1)

Measured in constant dollars, to account for the impacts of inflation, actual federal government S&T spending increased by 38.5% over the ten-year period from 1998/1999 to 2008/2009. (Table 1-1)

Federal S&T expenditures are composed of two elements: research and development (R&D) and related scientific activities (RSA). Research and development is defined as “creative work, undertaken in a systematic manner to increase the stock of knowledge”. ¹  Related scientific activities include activities such as scientific data collection, information services, special services and studies and education support, as well as administration of extramural RSA activities, all of which support R&D activities.

The majority, $7.4 billion or 64%, of federal S&T spending is anticipated to be dedicated to R&D activities, while RSA accounts for the remainder; $4.3 billion. (Table 1-5)

S&T expenditures are available for two science types, “natural science and engineering” and “social sciences and humanities”. About three-quarters of all federal government S&T spending has been directed to natural sciences and engineering and one quarter to social sciences and humanities throughout the period from 2006/2007 to 2010/2011. (Table 1-6)

Intramural performance of science and technology (S&T) activities

In 2010/2011, over half (54%) of the $5.9 billion in S&T activities to be performed by federal government departments and agencies, is expected to be directed to RSA, with the remainder being spent on R&D. (Table 2-1)

Extramural funding of science and technology (S&T) activities

The federal government funds S&T activities through grants, contributions and contracts. Grants or contributions are not intended to secure a particular deliverable, but rather to promote the undertaking of the activity being supported. Contracts, by contrast, are connected to a particular deliverable sought by a department. The distribution of this funding through these channels has been stable from year to year.

In 2010/2011, it is expected that the federal government will channel $5.8 billion to other sectors to perform S&T activities. The vast majority (81%) of extramural dollars are anticipated to be directed to R&D activities. (Table 3-1)

The higher education sector is anticipated to receive $3.2 billion in federal extramural payments in the same year. Ninety percent of these funds will be for R&D activities and the remaining ten percent for RSA (Table 3-1). Ninety five percent of the funds for R&D activities will come from the four granting councils: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. (Table 3-3)

The second most significant recipient of federal government S&T funding is the business sector, expected to receive $1.1 billion in 2010/2011. (Table 3-1)

The business sector is anticipated to receive funds as follows: 25% through R&D contracts, 57% through grants and contributions for R&D and 18% for RSA activities. (Table 3-4)

Personnel

In 2010/2011, federal departments and agencies will have a total of 39,182 full-time equivalent employees engaged in S&T activities. Of these employees, 18,028 are expected to be classified as “scientific and professional”, 9,280 as “technical” and 11,874 as “other” engaged in support activities. (Table 4-5)

Almost seven in 10 of all federal S&T personnel are anticipated to be engaged in S&T activities related to natural sciences and engineering with the remaining allocated to social sciences and humanities. (Table 4-1)

Objectives of science and technology (S&T) and research and development (R&D) activities

Protection and improvement of human health was the socio-economic objective receiving the highest level of federal government S&T funding at $2.2 billion in 2008/2009, the most recent year for which data are available. (Table 6-1)

In terms of R&D funding, the three most significant objectives for federal funds were: protection and improvement of human health ($1.6 billion), industrial production and technology ($1 billion) and non-oriented research ($754 million). (Table 6-2)

Overall, 38% of all R&D was performed intramurally, but certain socio-economic objectives were more likely to be researched within government departments than others. Energy-related R&D, along with R&D related to agriculture were at least 70% undertaken in-house, while health-related and industrial production-related R&D were the most likely to be funded by the federal government but performed by other sectors. (Table 6-2)