Scientific research and development services
This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in conducting original investigation, undertaken on a systematic basis to gain new knowledge (research), and in the application of research findings or other scientific knowledge for the creation of new or significantly improved products or processes (experimental development). The industries within this industry group are defined on the basis of the domain of research; that is, on the scientific expertise of the establishment. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A
- Establishments · CanadaA
- 3,088
- Under 10 employeesA
- 61%
- Establishments · USA
- 22,180
- Employment · USA
- 950,883
- Payroll · USA
- $142.6B
Size and shape
How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.
Canadian establishments by number of employeesA
Of 3,088 Canadian establishments with employees, 61% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.
Where they areA
Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.
Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.
How businesses here compete
The structural profile of subsector 541, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.
Professional licensing is the barrier and the principal's time is the ceiling. Firms are built from a book of clients, and an aging partner group makes acquisition and succession the common entry.
- Who sets the price
- The firm, by reputation, against hourly-rate comparison.
- The software it runs on
- Practice management, time and billing, and a specialist tool per profession — the densest vertical-software territory in the economy.
Market screens and studies
Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.
No operating-business record sits in this industry — the record filed here is a software market, shown in the next section.
Software serving this industry
The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.
And what every business buys · 25 generic categories
Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.
Companies in this industry · 8
Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.
| Company | Filed under | Revenue | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedidataPrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 1/8 |
| BenchlingPrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 2/8 |
| CastorPrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 3/8 |
| CRIO ONLINEPrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 4/8 |
| KaleidoscopePrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 5/8 |
| MedablePrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 6/8 |
| Oracle Health SciencesPrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 7/8 |
| Reify HealthPrivate | Scientific research and development services5417 | — | 8/8 |
Who works here
The occupations employed in Professional, scientific and technical services, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.
Concentrated in this sectorA
These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.
And the jobs every business has
Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.
Inside this industry
2 rows sit directly beneath 5417, and 4 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.
| Code | Industry | Establishments · CA | What is known |
|---|---|---|---|
| 54171 | Research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences | 2,696 | screened at 5417 |
| 54172 | Research and development in the social sciences and humanities | 392 | screened at 5417 |