The 2011 Jenkins Report suggested that federal funding be rebalanced to support more direct forms of funding (like the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program, or NRC-IRAP), rather than indirect forms of funding (like the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program, or SR&ED). The 2012 federal budget responded to this recommendation by allocating an additional $110 million to IRAP from the reductions made to the SR&ED program.
These changes worry organizations like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Companies are concerned that IRAP creates an unlevel playing field by allowing government to choose which companies get funding, and which do not get funding. According to Corinne Pohlmann, CFIB’s vice-president of national affairs, “the government chooses the winners, rather than having all the businesses investing in innovation benefit.”
According to the Ottawa Business Journal, to combat the perception that it will be favouring some firms over others, NRC plans on using the additional funding to allocate smaller amounts to more companies, rather than larger amounts to bigger ones.
