The federal government's commitment to turning research and development into new businesses and higher productivity is welcome news for McMaster University.

In Monday's economic statement, Minister of Finance, Ralph Goodale committed $2.1 billion in additional funding to help create new partnerships between government, universities and business to create more commercial spin-offs.

“Ottawa understands that focusing public investment in Research and Development in universities is critical to our national economy and has the greatest potential for delivering the most significant pay backs,” says McMaster President Peter George. “The McMaster Innovation Park will be a premier location for commercializing research. The federal government has already recognized its potential by its decision to relocate the CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory to Hamilton and the MIP.”

McMaster University purchased the 37-acre Innovation Park site in January 2005. In July, Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MP and Leader of the House of Commons, Tony Valeri, announced the relocation of CANMET-MTL to the Park.

McMaster is also pleased hat the federal government is committed to helping students who need financial assistance to attend university. George says, “Not having enough money to pay for university should never stand in the way of a qualified student. Increased student financial aid is the most effective way to make sure that no student is turned away because of financial need.”

In the economic update, Goodale committed almost $6.5 billion in funding towards postsecondary institutions, student assistance, and university-based research over the next five years.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) applauded the federal investments in postsecondary education and university research.

“These investments will help in extremely important ways to provide universities and students with the resources needed to keep Canada competitive in today's global knowledge-economy,” said Bonnie Patterson, chair of AUCC's board of directors and president of Trent University.

Highlights of the economic statement:

• $2.2 billion over the next five years designed to make postsecondary education more affordable for students from low- and middle-income families
• $110 million per year to extend the Canada Access Grant to cover up to four years of undergraduate study for eligible students beginning in 2006-07
• $210 million over the next five years to improve assistance for graduate students, including a 50 percent increase in the number of Canada Graduate Scholarships
• $150 million over five years to improve access to international education opportunities for Canadian students to study abroad, for qualified international students to study in Canada and for institutions to participate in international networks to promote the two-way flow of students
• $1 billion to the provinces and territories in a trust fund to invest in Canada's postsecondary infrastructure and to help modernize and improve facilities
• $1.2 billion in additional funding over the next five years for the Indirect Cost program which will bring payments to institutions to a minimum of 40 percent of the direct costs of that are funded by federal research granting agencies
• An $85 million increase to the granting agencies' research budgets: $35 million each for CIHR and NSERC, and $15 million for SSHRC
• $500 million in 2005-06 to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to sustain its activities over the next five years
• $21 million over the next five years to enable master's students in engineering and the natural and health sciences to acquire research experience in the private sector as well as $18 million to SSHRC over the next five years to help master's graduates in engineering and the natural and health sciences to pursue MBA studies at Canadian institutions
• $160 million over the next five years to support the creation of large-scale integrated facilities that bring together university and private sector researchers and accelerate the commercialization of university-based discoveries
• A restatement of the government's commitment from the International Policy Statement to devote at least five per cent of federal research and development spending to the research priorities of the developing world