Harper government allocates $62 million for research and innovation

The Harper government announced the renewal of CANARIE’s mandate and funding on Thursday, pouring more than $60 million into funding research and innovation.

 Economic Action Plan 2012 allocated $62 million to CANARIE, Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network, and renewed its mandate for three years.

“The Harper Government’s investment in CANARIE will help keep our economy strong and support leading-edge research from Canadian researchers, educators and students,” said Minister of State Gary Goodyear in the announcement. “We recognize CANARIE as an important component of Canada’s digital infrastructure for research and education.”

CANARIE is a not-for-profit corporation that manages an ultra-high-speed network supporting leading-edge research and education (R&E). CANARIE connects twelve provincial and territorial R&E networks to each other and to international networks while meeting the ever-increasing need for network capacity.

CANARIE also connects one million researchers, educators and students at more than 1,100 Canadian institutions, including universities, colleges, research institutes, hospitals and federal laboratories. Beyond providing connectivity to researchers, CANARIE has started to offer Canadian small and medium-sized companies opportunities to test their innovative new services through a test bed pilot program. The test bed network allows companies to accelerate innovation and commercialization, giving them a first-to-market advantage.