A conflict-of-interest case in Oregon is gaining attention across the United States and Canada for the precedent it may set regarding how much physicians should disclose to patients about their financial ties to medical companies. Two physicians in Salem, Dr. Matthew Fedor and Dr. Kyong Turk, were charged under Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act. The doctors implanted […]
policy
Canada’s CIDA reform could aid innovation work
Innovation and technology development could be boosted by the controversial merger of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with the country’s foreign affairs department, according to the head of a group that represents Canadian NGOs. But CIDA should be careful not to neglect development at the expense of foreign affairs and trade interests through the new arrangement, says Julia Sánchez, […]
Last-minute reprieve for Canada’s research lakes
Government strikes temporary deal with independent institute to keep freshwater experimental site open. Canada’s world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) has been saved from imminent closure after the federal government signed a makeshift 11th-hour deal with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to take over the running of the facility. Effective from 1 September to […]
End funding for liberation therapy, say New Brunswick MDs
The New Brunswick Medical Society has asked the provincial government to stop giving money to patients with multiple sclerosis who want to obtain liberation therapy outside Canada. Dr. Robert Desjardins, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS), says the therapy, which involves using angioplasty to open constricted veins in the neck and chest, has not […]
Canada puts commercialization ahead of blue-sky research
Federal budget boosts clean-energy research and university infrastructure. Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty yesterday released the country’s 2013 budget, calling it “a plan for jobs, growth and long-term prosperity”, words that will please some of the budget’s main beneficiaries: those working in applied research. But for those who argue that investments in basic research are […]
Canadian Space Agency chief quits unexpectedly
While Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been captivating the Internet with his live updates and photos from the International Space Station, his colleagues back on Earth are having a tough time. On Tuesday the president of the Canadian Space Agency, former astronaut Steve MacLean, announced he would be leaving the agency on 1 February. Read more in Nature.
Brace for impact
With public finances tight, governments around the world are demanding a return on their investment in science. Researchers should get used to it. When the financial crisis hit in 2008 it became clear that the good times of the previous decade were not going to last. Researchers, who had gotten used to 10 years of […]
BIS axes annual survey of industry R&D
Last one shows UK corporate spending holds up in recession. The government will no longer produce its annual R&D Scoreboard, which analyses R&D spending among the top 1,000 UK and top 1,000 global corporate investors in R&D. The latest edition, which analyses corporate R&D spending in 2009, will be the last. “While this useful tool […]
Open Sesame
A synchrotron under construction in the Middle East brings hope for both science and peace. “It’s like a parallel universe,” says Eliezer Rabinovici, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, of the complex of buildings in the Jordanian desert near Amman. Rabinovici is a string theorist, so he knows […]
Is industry walking away from academia?
Recession-hit companies scale back university liaison offices. Universities could find it more difficult to find industry research partners as hi-tech companies look to scale back or close their academic liaison departments in the wake of the financial crisis. The defence technology company QinetiQ, spun out of the government’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 2001, […]