The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research To Canada

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The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research to Canada Page 45© David A. Wolfe and Ammon SalterSource: Statistics Canada, Table 2, Estimation of Research and Development Expenditures inthe Higher Education Sector, 1994-1995, Service Bulletin Science Statistics, ST 96-07October, 1996.However, these data can be compared directly with those for other OECD countries. Thecomparison does not place Canada in a favourable light. As can be seen from Table 11,Canada ranks well down the list of OECD countries in terms of per capita spending forresearch and development in the higher education sector and well behind the technologicalleaders, Japan, the United States and Germany.Table 11. R&D Expenditures in the Higher Education for the OECD CountriesCountry Herd Population HERD Per Capita Year(Million current PPP $) (millions)Australia 1,362 17.838 76.35 1994Austria 799 7.992 99.98 1993Belgium 898 10.084 89.05 1993Canada 2,289 29.606 77.32 1995Denmark 408 5.189 78.63 1993Finland 388 5.108 75.96 1995France 4,383 58.141 75.39 1995Germany 7,257 81.662 88.87 1995Greece 222 10.379 21.39 1993Iceland 21 .267 78.65 1995Ireland 166 3.580 46.37 1995Italy 2,866 57.283 50.03 1996Japan 16,967 125.250 135.47 1995Netherlands 1,692 15.383 109.99 1994New Zealand 154 3.480 44.25 1993Norway 438 4.360 100.46 1995Portugal 254 9.921 25.60 1995Spain 1,411 39.210 35.99 1995Sweden 1,181 8.719 135.45 1993Switzerland 1,108 7.037 157.45 1994United Kingdom 4,022 58.613 68.62 1995United States 27,300 263.057 103.78 1995Source: OECD, STIU Database, May 1997.One might argue that the decline in the absolute level of funding for basic research and therelative standing of Canada in relation to other countries reflects on the quantity and quality of45
The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research to Canada Page 46© David A. Wolfe and Ammon Salterthe research produced in this case. But exactly the opposite is true! Using bibliometricmeasures of the number of scientific papers produced in different countries and the number oftimes that the papers of one country are cited by researchers in other countries provides arough gauge for judging the quality of the scientific output in individual countries. Thesemeasures should be treated with some caution as bibliometrics remains an imperfect science atbest, and these results can only be taken as a rough indication of the quality of the scientificoutput. With this qualification in mind, Peter Macklem, the head of one of the federal Centresof Networks of Excellence suggests that four metrics can be used to evaluate the quality of ourscientific output in relation to that of other countries: the productivity of Canadian research canbe measured by the number of scientific publications per capita; the scientific impact of thatresearch can be judged by the average number of times a publication is cited by other scientistsmultiplied by the number of publications per capita; the scientific efficiency of our researcheffort can be judged in terms of the number of publications per dollar spent on research; andfinally, effectiveness is the number of citations per dollar spent on R&D. According to hisestimates, Canada ranks first in research productivity, efficiency and effectiveness among theG-7 countries and is second only to the US in impact (1995). These estimates are confirmed ina recent publication of Science magazine in the UK (May 1997). It appears that Canada isreceiving more than fair value for our investment in basic scientific research!CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A NEW APPROACHThe evidence presented in this report confirms the idea that talk of a knowledge–basedeconomy is more than just a convenient turn of phrase. Government–funded basic research isa critical source of investment for developing a society's learning capabilities. Governmentfunding expands the technological opportunities available for firms to draw upon as they goabout developing new products and processes. It supports the training of students, who uponentering industry, transfer their skills and knowledge about science and technology into theprivate sector. Given the localized nature of the innovation process, government support forbasic research fosters the creation of dynamic agglomerations of firms around centres of highereducation and it sustains the growth of untraded interdependencies among these parts of theinnovation system.The empirical evidence as to the directly measurably benefits of this investment has provendifficult for economists and students of science and technology to construct. Econometricapproaches often fail to account for the heterogeneity of the innovation process. Recentsurveys have highlighted the variety of actors and relations in the innovation system, but donot offer detailed analysis of particular technologies. Case studies point to the complexity of46
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The Socio-Economic Importance of Scientific Research To Canada

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