The Science and Innovation Information Program

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The purpose of this program is to develop useful indicators of science and technology activity in Canada based on a framework that ties them together into a coherent picture. To achieve the purpose, statistical indicators are being developed in five key entities:

1. Actors: are persons and institutions engaged in S&T activities. Measures include distinguishing R&D performers, identifying universities that license their technologies, and determining the field of study of graduates.
2. Activities: include the creation, transmission or use of S&T knowledge including research and development, innovation, and use of technologies.
3. Linkages: are the means by which S&T knowledge is transferred among actors. Measures include the flow of graduates to industries, the licensing of a university's technology to a company, co-authorship of scientific papers, and the source of ideas for innovation in industry.
4. Outcomes: are the medium-term consequences of activities. An outcome of an innovation in a firm may be more highly skilled jobs. An outcome of a firm adopting a new technology may be a greater market share for that firm.
5. Impacts: are the longer-term consequences of activities, linkages and outcomes. Wireless telephony is the result of many activities, linkages and outcomes. It has wide-ranging economic and social impacts such as increased connectedness.

The development of these indicators and their further elaboration is being done at Statistics Canada, in collaboration with other government departments and agencies, and a network of contractors.

Prior to the start of this work, the ongoing measurements of S&T activities were limited to the investment of money and human resources in research and development (R&D). For governments, there were also measures of related scientific activity (RSA) such as surveys and routine testing. These measures presented a limited picture of science and technology in Canada. More measures were needed to improve the picture and the science and innovation program have sought these out.

Innovation makes firms competitive and we are continuing with our efforts to understand the characteristics of innovative and non-innovative firms. The capacity to innovate resides in people and measures are being developed of the characteristics of people in those industries that lead science and technology activity. In these same industries, measures are being made of the creation and the loss of jobs as part of understanding the impact of technological change.

The federal government is a principal player in science and technology. In 2006/2007, preliminary figures showed that government spent over nine billion dollars on S&T. In the past, it has been possible to say only how much the federal government spends and where it spends it. However, since 1998 our report, Federal Scientific Activities (Cat. No. 88-204) has published socio-economic objectives indicators to show what the S&T money is spent on. As well as offering a basis for a public debate on the priorities of government spending, this information has been used to provide a context for performance reports of individual departments and agencies.

Through this vehicle, it is now possible to report on the Canadian system on science and technology and show the role of the federal government in that system.

The working papers and research papers of the former Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division are available at no cost on the Statistics Canada Internet site at http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/downpub/research.cgi?subject=193.