A total of $29 billion was spent on R&D in Canada in 2007. The private sector represented 48% of funding and performed 54% of the country’s research activities. The second-largest investor in R&D was the federal government, which accounted for 19% of research funding. Fifty-two percent of 2007 federal government R&D investments went to universities and 43% went to government agencies. However, the federal government performed only 8% of research activities in the country, led by the National Research Council, which performed CAD$544 million ($441 million) worth of research last year, and Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada, which performed CAD$307 million worth. In contrast, universities performed 36% of research activities in 2007, 54% of which was funded by external sources. In 2007, provincial governments accounted 5.1% of the country’s R&D investments, but performed only 1.1% of the country’s R&D. Likewise, not-for-profits contributed 2.9% to R&D funding last year and was responsible for less than 0.5% of R&D activities last year. Finally, foreign sources accounted for 9% of R&D investments in Canada last year, with 95% of such funding going to the private sector.

Source: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada