Federal Science and Technology Expenditures and Personnel

Federal Science Expenditures and Personnel, Activities in the Social Sciences and Natural Sciences is an annual survey of all federal government departments and agencies that perform or fund science and technology activities. Actual data for 2023/2024, preliminary data for 2024/2025 and intentions for 2025/2026 were collected from September to December 2024, based on the federal government's fiscal year running from April 1 to March 31.

Science and technology activities comprise two types of scientific activities: research and development (R&D), and related scientific activities (RSA). They can be defined as all systematic activities that are directly related to the generation, advancement, dissemination and application of scientific and technical knowledge in all fields of science and technology.

Research and development comprise creative and systematic work done to increase the stock of knowledge—including knowledge of humankind, culture and society—and to devise new applications of available knowledge. R&D activities must satisfy all five of the following core criteria:

1. They are aimed at new findings (novel).

2. They are based on original, not obvious, concepts and hypotheses (creative).

3. They are uncertain about the final outcome (uncertainty).

4. They are planned and budgeted (systematic).

5. They lead to results that could be possibly reproduced (transferable or reproducible).

Related scientific activities are all systematic activities directly related to the generation, advancement, dissemination and application of scientific and technological knowledge. RSA generally include general purpose data collection, which excludes the collection of data as part of an R&D project; information services (the collection, coding, analysis, evaluation, recording, classification, translation and dissemination of scientific and technological information); special surveys and studies (systematic investigations carried out to provide information needed for planning or policy formulation); and education supports (grants to support the postsecondary education of students in the natural or social sciences and technology).

Natural sciences and engineering consist of all disciplines concerned with understanding, exploring, developing or using the natural world. Included are engineering, technology, mathematics, computer and information sciences, physical sciences, medical and health sciences, agricultural sciences, veterinary sciences, and forestry.

Social sciences, humanities and the arts consist of disciplines concerned with the study of human actions and conditions and the social, economic and institutional mechanisms that affect humans. Included are the arts, economics and business, education, history and archeology, law, languages and linguistics, media and communications, philosophy, ethics and religion, psychology and cognitive sciences, social and economic geography, and sociology.

The performer is equivalent to the sector in which the scientific activity is conducted. The basic distinction is between intramural and extramural performance.

Intramural (in-house) activities include all current expenditures incurred for scientific activities carried out by in-house personnel of units assigned to the program.

Extramural (outsourced) activities include all expenditures incurred by the federal government's agencies and departments for scientific activities carried out by the five following performers: business enterprises, higher education, Canadian non-profit institutions, provincial and municipal governments and foreign performers.

Full-time equivalent is the personnel expressed as a ratio of working hours actually spent on scientific activities during a specific reference period divided by the total number of hours conventionally worked in the same period by an individual or a group. For example, an employee who is engaged in scientific activities for half a year has a full-time equivalence of 0.5.

Scientific and professional personnel (also called researchers) are professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge. They conduct research and improve or develop concepts, models and methods. Managers and administrators who plan and manage the scientific and technical aspects of a researcher's work, as well as graduate students, are also included.

Technical personnel perform scientific and technical tasks involving the application of concepts and operational methods in one or more fields of the natural sciences and engineering, or of the social sciences, humanities and the arts, normally under the supervision of researchers.

Other personnel (also called support staff) includes skilled and unskilled workers, as well as administrative, secretarial and clerical staff directly associated with research and development projects.

The National Capital Region comprises Ottawa, Ontario, and the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec.

More information on the concepts and definitions of the survey (4212) is available under this release's "Related information" tab.

To better understand the concepts outlined in this survey, please consult the Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development, The Measurement of Scientific, Technological and Innovation Activities, OECD Publishing, Paris.