The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research To Canada

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The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research to Canada Page 1© David A. Wolfe and Ammon SalterINTRODUCTION:The recognition of the value of investing in basic scientific research has grown steadily sincethe end of World War II. In part, it reflected the requirements of the Cold War and the spacerace; but, it was also a response to the apparent economic benefits that flowed from theincreased public investment in scientific research. Particularly influential in fostering thisbelief were the civilian spinoffs from several large national science projects in the US — thegeneration of electricity from nuclear power that developed out of breakthroughs achievedduring the Manhattan project and the commercialization of the integrated circuit that wasfacilitated by demands of the US space program in the 1960s. The scale of science projectswas considerably smaller in Canada, but the critical role played by the Chalk River nuclearfacility in early atomic research, and the successful transfer of nuclear technology to peacetimeusage by Atomic Energy Canada, contributed to the same perception in this country.It is difficult to quantify the direct social and economic benefits derived from scientificresearch, but the emergence and rapid growth of a whole range of new products and entireindustries derived from Nobel–prize winning breakthroughs in fields such as magneticresonance imaging, superconductivity, lasers, antibiotics and transistor action, supports theidea that they exist. Canada has not enjoyed the same proportion of Nobel prizes as the US orUK, but prominent scientists, such as Frederick Banting, Gerhard Herzberg and John Polanyi,have received the prestigious award. Although the time from scientific discovery to thecommercialization of research results is often quite long, many examples can be found ofinnovative Canadian products and start–up companies that grew out of scientific researchconducted by their founders — either as part of their graduate education or their academiccareer (Voyer and Ryan 1994). These instances further contribute to the popular belief thatpublic investment in basic science generates sustained economic and social benefits. But atwhat cost? How should these benefits be measured or evaluated? Does the eventual outcomejustify the overall level of investment in scientific research? Once we leave the realm ofassumptions and popular perceptions, and enter that of economic research and scientificevidence, the arguments become more difficult to judge, if only because the problems ofmeasurement and proof are extremely difficult to gauge.As the Cold War fades rapidly in our collective memory, and public budgets are subjected togrowing constraints, the ready acceptance of the popular rationale for investing in scientificresearch is losing its appeal. Some authors suggest that the end of the Cold War heralds amore critical stance by public authorities towards funding the large science projects associatedwith it. This new stance is symbolized by the decision of the US Congress to cancel funding1
The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research to Canada Page 2© David A. Wolfe and Ammon Salterfor the Superconducting Super Collider in October, 1993 (Sarewitz, 1996) and is paralleled bythe decision of the Government of Canada not to proceed with the KAON project to upgradethe TRIUMF particle accelerator at the University of British Columbia in the 1994 federalbudget. If the strategic rationale for supporting public investment in scientific research islosing its appeal as a factor influencing public policy, it becomes all the more important toassess the broader benefits that flow from continued public support for basic scientificresearch.It is ironic that these fiscal constraints on public funding for scientific research have emerged atexactly the same time as a number of public commentators point to the expanding role ofknowledge as a source of value in the information–intensive economy. Since the late 1960s,the phrase ‘post-industrial’ or ‘information’ society has been used to characterize this neworder. Central to it is the generation of knowledge and the processing of information as asource of innovation and growth in capitalist economies. Peter Drucker provides a ratherdramatic statement of this view, “the real, controlling resource and the absolutely decisive‘factor of production’ is now neither capital nor land nor labour. It is knowledge.”(1993, p.6).This theme has been taken up in a number of recent policy documents. In the policy paper, ANew Framework for Economic Policy, released in November, 1994 as part of the Agenda forJobs and Growth, the Department of Finance stated: “In the advanced countries, information isreplacing energy and raw materials as the key resource in the creation of economic value. Amicrochip, a new drug, or a piece of software has almost no material value. These productsare the pure embodiment of information, here in the form of highly specialized knowledge”(Government of Canada 1994a). It was repeated in the federal government’s strategy paper,Science and Technology for the New Century, released in March, 1996, “Today, knowledgeand information — their applications and technologies — are at the root of the economic andsocietal shift now underway” (Government of Canada 1996, p. 3).The same theme is prominent in current work of the Organisation for Economic Co–operationand Development, which now labels the emerging economic order as ‘the knowledge–basedeconomy’. The OECD recently proclaimed that the adoption of the label, ‘theknowledge–based economy’ reflects a growing recognition of the role played by knowledgeand technology in economic growth. As such, the OECD economies are becoming moredependent on the production, distribution and use of knowledge than ever before, both in thehigh–technology manufacturing industries and in the rapidly growing, knowledge–intensive2
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The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research To Canada

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