Reading list – R&D spending in Canada

"Canada’s corporate spending on research and development increased for the second year in a row,"  says Research Infosource Inc. The press release that goes with this announcement says that, "Canada’s top corporate R&D companies invested $12 billion in R&D activities in fiscal 2005, up 4.9%, a healthy gain over the modest rise of 3% in the previous year."

 

No change in the top seven spenders. Nortel Network stays at the top, despite an 11.8 per cent drop in its spending. As the announcement warns, Nortel is so big that its numbers "can often mask underlying R&D spending trends". Take the company out of the picture and the R&D spending by the top 100 looks much more healthy, an increase 9.7 per cent, about double the headline figure.