Research has had an enormous impact on Ontario
Between 1997 and 2008, The Ontario Innovation Trust,
alongside the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and
institutional partners, invested over $2 billion
dollars in research infrastructure in the province of
Ontario. This investment was made in all regions of
our province in areas of research ranging from the
arts to the life sciences.
Over the last decade, the Ontario Innovation Trust,
along with the Canada Foundation for Innovation,
invested in infrastructure in all regions of the
province in areas of research ranging from the arts
to the life sciences.
View chart (PDF)
View chart (PDF)
The province of Ontario increased its funding for
research (across all departments) from a total of
$1,101 million in the five years between 1994 and
1999 to a total of $2,250 million in the five years
between 2001 and 2006.
Source: Government of Ontario
Source: Government of Ontario
Research activity across Ontario universities has
increased dramatically over the past 10 years.
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View chart (PDF)
China has increased its spending on research and
development from $20 billion to $90 billion between
2002 and 2007. Over the same period, Canada increased
its spending from $23 billion to $27 billion and
Ontario increased it from $10.4 billion to $12.5
billion.
Source: Nature Publishing, Statistics Canada
Source: Nature Publishing, Statistics Canada
In 2007, the biotechnology industry raised billions
of venture capital dollars - with $4,000M spent in
Boston and $150M spent in Toronto.
View chart (PDF)
View chart (PDF)
Countries such as Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Israel
and Singapore have far outpaced Canada in embracing a
knowledge-based economy - and in doing so, have
generated tremendous job and wealth creation in the
high tech sectors (information/computer technologies,
pharmaceutical technologies and biotechnologies).
Canada dropped from first place to
fourth place between 1998 and 2007
based on the United Nations' assessment of the best
countries in which to live. In its most recent
analysis, the Conference Board of Canada gave Canada
a score of "D" in innovation, ranking it 13 out of 17
countries.
According to Thomson ISI, The University of Toronto
ranks among the top three or four
universities in terms of research activity (both the
quality and the quantity). Only two universities in
the world (Harvard University and the University of
Tokyo) received higher publication scores than the
University of Toronto.
There has not been a Nobel Prize won in the life
sciences area in Ontario since Banting, Best and
McLeod won for insulin in 1923. Since that time, 30
Nobel Prizes have been won by scientists from Boston,
and a total of 85 Nobel Prizes have been won by
American scientists.
The Government of Ontario has invested more than $3.2
billion in research over the past 10 years
(1997-2007).
View chart (PDF)
View chart (PDF)
Together, Ontario Innovation Trust and Canada
Foundation for Innovation invested more than $150M in
high performance computing in the following
institutions or consortiums: $17,915,975 at the
University of Toronto; $65,526,892 at HPCFL, a
Queen's University led consortium; and $67,331,697 at
SHARCNET, a Western University led consortium.
Q Is there is a sentence that describes what Ontario
must do to prosper in the future?
A Become much more innovative.
In 2007, the biotechnology industry raised billions of
venture capital dollars - with $4,000M spent in Boston
and $150M spent in Toronto.
View chart (PDF)
View chart (PDF)
