Innovation: The key to Québec's prosperity

Québec is Canada's most dynamic province when it comes to research and innovation.

• Québec had total domestic expenditures on research and development (GERD) of $7.9 billion in 2008, or 26.4% of all R&D expenditures in Canada, even though Québec accounts for only 23.3% of the country's population.
• Just over 75,000 people worked in the R&D sector in 2008, including 43,300 researchers (29.1% of the Canadian research community).
• Québec was ranked first in the country in 2008 in terms of industrial R&D activity, which, at 1.52% of GDP, outstripped the Canadian average of 0.99%.
• Some 8,900 Québec companies were involved in R&D in 2007, representing 38% of Canadian companies—just behind Ontario despite a smaller population.
• The Québec academic community is made up of 13,420 researchers working in 18 institutions.
• Québec is home to three of the seven most R&D-oriented Canadian universities, namely Université de Montréal, McGill University and Université Laval.

Human capital

In 2008, 31% of all R&D professionals in Canada were based in Québec, which is proportionately higher than the province's population share (23.3%).

In 2007, Montréal came in second place in North America in terms of university students per capita, behind Minneapolis.

A competitive business, tax and financial environment

Between 2007 and 2010, the Québec government invested $5.5 billion through research and innovation tax credits to support the development of high-tech industries, direct assistance and research infrastructure.

In 2010, Québec's venture capital investments accounted for 34.2% of the Canada-wide total. Québec also saw the country's highest number of transactions, with funding going out to 49% of all businesses.

Québec public policy supporting key sectors

Several government policies have been implemented to support the development of promising sectors, the emergence of new leading sectors and the consolidation and restructuring of sectors in transition.

Fields of expertise

Québec's three main areas of research are:

• life sciences;
• information and communications technology;
• aerospace.

Québec's research and innovation strategy 2010-2013

A budget of over $1 billion has been set aside to support an updated version of Québec's research and innovation strategy.

This strategy has four main thrusts: promoting more competitive and internationally recognized research; encouraging the scientific community to be more creative and enterprising; fostering more productive ties between researchers and businesses; and supporting major development projects.

In order to maximize the marketing potential of academic research, Québec relies on an extensive research promotion and knowledge transfer system.

New economic opportunities for Québec

Various government initiatives help ensure that Québec businesses and organizations enjoy easy access to new markets and a trained workforce, including:

• the negotiation of an agreement between France and Québec on the mutual recognition of the competencies of skilled workers;
• the negotiation of a trade and economic agreement between Québec and Ontario;
• the promotion of an economic partnership agreement between Canada and the European Union.

International partnerships

In keeping with the general trend towards globalization in research and innovation, the number of Québec scientific papers written in conjunction with foreign partners has grown steadily since the 1990s.

By 2009, 45.1% of scientific publications by Québec researchers had been co-written with foreign scholars, nearly half of which involved a U.S. partner.

Québec is well integrated into the world's leading research networks. Thanks to bilateral agreements with partners in various countries or programs initiated by the European Commission, Québec researchers have better access to international research networks. In addition, graduate and postgraduate students are taking part in more and more international practicums.

• Recherche and Innovation section