Les petits exécutants de R-D au Québec. Rapport d'enquête

There are few qualitative data on industrial R&D. Although there are long chronological series on the amounts enterprises allot to intramural R&D activities, little is known about their motivation for conducting those activities and the attendant commercial benefits. This is the reason for the particular interest in Statistic Canada’s Survey on Small R&D Performers, 2008. This survey sheds some very relevant light on the R&D behaviour of enterprises that devote, whether regularly or not, relatively modest sums to performing R&D, i.e. $10,000 to $250,000 annually.

A joint partner in this survey with other government departments and agencies, the Institut de la statistique du Québec has produced detailed findings from this survey for Québec, by size of R&D expenditures and by “small research and development performer” sector. Those findings are the subject of this report. The descriptive analysis comprises four sections:

• The profile of small research and development performers in Québec;
• The how and why of R&D;
• R&D fundind;
• R&D benefits.

Attached to the report are tables with results produced for each survey question along with measures of reliability for the various estimates.