Federal Science eLibrary

Part Two: Building the Federal STM Knowledge Infrastructure

Support for Federal S&T Research

The Federal Government is committed to "(renewing its) science and technology capacity to respond to emerging public policy, stewardship and economic challenges and opportunities" ¹³. It will accomplish this by focusing "on how to strengthen our science and research capacity and on how to ensure that this knowledge contributes to building an innovative economy that benefits all Canadians." ¹⁴

Investing In Excellence, 1996 - 2001; A Report on Federal Science and Technology- 2001 indicates that between 1995 and 2000, the federal government's budgetary main estimates decreased overall from $156 billion to under $139 billion (constant 1992 dollars). Nevertheless, the proportion of the budget allocated to S&T activities increased from 3.5% to 4.3%. While federal intramural expenditures on R&D have increased over the past decade, expenditures by universities and businesses have increased even more rapidly, driven by government policy, federal funding and a rapidly growing economy.

Despite strong commitment to the need for an information system and the repeated assertions that "knowledge matters" ¹⁵, there is no recognition of the critical role that library services play in supporting STM research. Federal libraries, as discussed in section 5.0 of this report, have seen their budgets remain constant, effectively reducing their buying power.

Many challenges are facing the federal decision makers and the competition for the limited government resources is strong. However many of the current challenges facing policy makers require input from the scientific research component of government which in turn requires access to the most current information/knowledge to be effective.

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Notes

13.Achieving Excellence: Investing in People, Knowledge and Opportunity, p.52

14. Ibid, p. iv

15. Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians