DOCSLIB.ORG

Canada's Innovation Ecosystem

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Canada's Innovation Ecosystem LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: CANADA’S INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM The University of Alberta’s submission to the EXPERT PANEL FOR THE REVIEW OF FEDERAL FUNDING TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT February 18, 2011 Annexes Annex 1 - Connecting the Dots between University Research and Industrial Innovation - Jorge Niosi Annex 2 - Meeting Canada’s Full Potential: Building World Class Partnerships- University of Alberta’s submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance Annex 3 - Entrepreneurial Impact: Th e Role of MIT - Edward B. Roberts and Charles Eesley - Kauff man Foundation of Entrepreneurship Annex 4 - People and Excellence: Th e Heart of Successful Commercialization - Final Report of the Expert Panel on Commercialization Annex 5 - UNESCO Science Report 2010: Current Status of Science around the World - Canada - United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organization - Paul Dufour Executive summary 7. Expand NSERC Industrial Postgraduate scholarships and Sustaining and improving Canada’s competitiveness in the the MITACS and NCE industrial internship programs to global context increasingly relies upon our ability to cre- SSHRC and CIHR to give students in all fi elds of study ate and promote new ideas. However, there are elements in the opportunity to work in business and industry over the Canada’s innovation ecosystem that are compromising our course of their programs. economic growth and productivity which, in turn, are put- ting our prospects for continued quality of life at risk. In this The innovation ecosystem submission, the University of Alberta recommends several measures to improve the current situation, including restruc- A high-performance innovation ecosystem is a web of busi- turing current federal R&D funding models and programs. ness, university and government interaction in which each Th e recommendations proposed by the University of Alberta partner provides the necessary ingredients to foster innova- are aimed at enhancing opportunities for solution-driven tion, entrepreneurship and competitiveness. Indeed, where research while protecting resources for discovery research, each sector excels in their base operations, research and com- promoting knowledge circulation within the innovation mercialization works for the benefi t of society. Th e strength ecosystem, encouraging commercialization of knowledge of universities lies in their ability to create knowledge in and increasing the movement of talent between industry and a wide spectrum of fi elds and to push the boundaries of universities. understanding towards improvements and advancements for society. Industry transforms scientifi c, business, and social The recommendations innovations into products for society. Critically, government provides the fi scal, macroeconomic and regulatory regime 1. Create a Canadian Competitiveness and Productivity that make up the infrastructure of innovation. It is the ef- Council that would draw its membership from the leader- fective integration and fi ne tuning of these activities that ship of key business sectors, government and academia will ultimately improve Canadian quality of life. However, to provide sustained vision, oversight and policy advice there are several indicators in the Canadian economy that on Canada’s competitiveness, assess the eff ectiveness of demonstrate that the Canadian innovation ecosystem is not government policy and investments in R&D and evaluate thriving in the way it must for Canada to maintain and grow the success of private sector growth. its productivity. In essence, knowledge is not moving well enough within the innovation ecosystem. 2. Shift investments from SR&ED tax breaks into a Business Research and Innovation Program that would assist in the The foundation of innovation creation of more Canadian research-intensive companies, encourage the growth of small and medium enterprises Innovation has at its core the advancement of economy, society to become globally competitive and fuel entrepreneurship and well-being. Indeed, as Kevin Lynch recently stated, “Our in business, government laboratories, universities, and the living standards tomorrow will be shaped by how well we wider post-secondary sector. establish our innovation architecture today ”1. Th e integration of scientifi c, technological, business and social innovation is 3. Create an Innovation Chairs program through the expan- key to building a sustainable knowledge-based society. A high- sion of NSERC’s IRC program to SSHRC and CIHR. performance innovation ecosystem based on the circulation Innovation Chairs would include industry-academic of knowledge between the public and private sectors, between collaboration in science, engineering, health sciences, the research lab or library and society, between campuses and arts, humanities and social sciences. companies is essential to improving our competitiveness and quality of life. 4. Distinguish NSERC funding of solution-driven research from basic discovery research, ensuring that both are Th e Canadian government has been seeking to improve the appropriately supported incorporating suitable incentives health of Canada’s innovation ecosystem through policy and and performance measures. in recent years has asked for advice on the matter from expert panels. While the Expert Panel on Commercialization chaired 5. Fund entrepreneurship programs at universities to create by Joseph Rotman, the Competition Policy Review Panel an innovation ecosystem on the MIT model. Funding chaired by Red Wilson and other similar endeavours have should be provided on a competitive basis, linked to provided valuable and sound advice, Canada lacks a body that Tri-Council funding, with clearly defi ned performance provides sustained vision, oversight and policy advice on the measures. nation’s competitiveness. Indeed, a body that could regularly assess the eff ectiveness of government policy and investments 6. Improve access to early-stage angel fi nancing and exper- in R&D while evaluating the success of private sector growth tise, review the expansion stage venture capital market would allow the Government of Canada to be more innovative in Canada and remove barriers to foreign venture capital and responsive in meeting new needs or opportunities. investment as per recommendations by the 2005 Expert Panel on Commercialization. Looking to the Future: Canada’s Innovation Ecosystem | 1 Recommendation: Create a Canadian Competitive- paper “Connecting the Dots between University Research ness and Productivity Council that would draw its and Industrial Innovation”. membership from the leadership of key business sec- tors, government and academia to provide sustained Th e U.S. federal government’s Small Business Innovation vision, oversight and policy advice on Canada’s Research Program (SBIR)6 is one example of a national pro- competitiveness, assess the eff ectiveness of govern- gram that uses direct support to create innovation opportuni- ment policy and investments in R&D and evaluate ties for SMEs. Th rough this program SMEs are encouraged the success of private sector growth. to both engage in and absorb high level basic and applied research. SBIR succeeds in achieving three major commer- Canada’s investment in higher education R&D is the high- cialization objectives: est among G-7 countries and has seen excellent returns: “In Canada, an econometric study has estimated that the $5 bil- • SBIR eff ectively links SMEs to the research community lion invested in university research in 1993 increased the gross using important aspects of the “open innovation” domestic product by over $15 billion annually, largely through model. Th e SMEs, rather than their university partners, its positive impact on business innovation”2. While direct gov- identify technical and scientifi c innovations that have ernment funding has produced a marked increase in university the greatest potential to respond to market demands. research and commercialization results with the accompanying • SBIR provides entrepreneurs and SMEs a way to bridge the funding “valley of death,” which often prevents a Publicly funded research pushes the concept from progressing from the prototype stage to boundaries of knowledge which in product development. turn seeds technological innovations. • When successful, the process leads to the development of new companies or the growth of established ones. impacts on business, the SR&ED tax credit program has been less eff ective than hoped for in stimulating business R&D Developing a Canadian version of SBIR that takes into ac- investment across a broad spectrum of industry sectors. As a count our unique innovation architecture would be instru- result, there needs to be a reassessment and re-alignment of mental in overcoming the factors slowing the growth of direct and indirect funding mechanisms for R&D in Canada our innovation ecosystem. Th e Canadian Competitiveness so that more emphasis is placed on direct rather than indirect and Productivity Council, the formation of which is recom- R&D support. mended above, could play an instrumental role in the design of such a program. Th e OECD reported that Canadian gross domestic expendi- ture on R&D per capita (GERD) has declined as a share of Recommendation: Shift investments from SR&ED GDP since 2005 to 1.8 per cent as compared to innovation tax breaks into a Business Research and Innovation leader Finland’s GERD of 3.7 per cent. Canadian business Program that would assist in the creation of more Ca- expenditures on R&D (BERD) fell to 1 per cent
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Zook 00 I-Xii R2 Rs
    Zook 01 001-022 r1 sr 12/1/09 8:08 AM Page 1 1 Desperately Seeking Growth In a world of turbulent economies and scarce resources, are you wondering where your next wave of profitable growth will come from? Perhaps your industry is changing in a way that makes you wonder whether it might be time to redefine the business model that has been so productive for so many years. Or maybe your resources are spread too thin and you are fighting competitors on too many global fronts. Perhaps you suspect that your core business still has untapped profit growth potential, but you are not sure where it is. If you can see your company in any of these situations, the find- ings of this book may surprise and interest you. The most impor- tant issue faced by all management teams is how to grow their companies profitably over the long term. Today, the odds for win- ning the long-term growth game are worse than ever. Many man- agement teams need to reconsider and even rediscover their real core. Consider how the goal posts have moved for management: • Investors are giving management teams less time than ever to prove themselves. For instance, shareholders are shifting in and out of stocks at five times the rate they did a few decades ago, demanding not merely growth, but growth each and every quarter. Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpted from Profit from the Core: A Return to Growth in Turbulent Times (February 2010). Copyright © 2010 Bain & Company, Inc.; all rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of MIT
    Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT Edward B. Roberts and Charles Eesley MIT Sloan School of Management February 2009 © 2009 by Edward B. Roberts. All rights reserved. ENTREPRENEURIAL IMPACT: THE ROLE OF MIT Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT Edward B. Roberts and Charles Eesley Edward B. Roberts is the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management, and founder/chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, which is sponsored in part by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Charles Eesley is a doctoral candidate in the Technological Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the recipient of a Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship. We thank MIT, the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, the Kauffman Foundation, and Gideon Gartner for their generous support of our research. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation or MIT. Any mistakes are the authors’. ENTREPRENEURIAL IMPACT: THE ROLE OF MIT 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary................................................................................................................................4 Economic Impact of MIT Alumni Entrepreneurs......................................................................................4 The Types of Companies MIT Graduates Create......................................................................................5 The MIT Entrepreneurial Ecosystem ........................................................................................................6
    [Show full text]
  • My Father Introduced Me an Interview with GIDEON I. GARTNER OH 377
    I played chess as a child; my father introduced me An Interview with GIDEON I. GARTNER OH 377 Conducted by Jeffrey R. Yost on 12 August 2005 Aspen, Colorado Charles Babbage Institute Center for the History of Information Processing University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Copyright, Charles Babbage Institute Gideon I. Gartner Interview 12 August 2005 Oral History 377 Abstract This interview is with entrepreneur and corporate leader Gideon Gartner, the founder of Gartner Group, Inc.—a pioneering firm in information technology assessment and advisory services. The interview briefly discusses his early life and education (which included a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a Master’s from MIT’s Sloan School of Management), before focusing on his founding and leadership of Gartner Group (later renamed Gartner, Inc.). After MIT, Gartner began a successful career at IBM, focused on research and market management, before shifting to Wall Street and joining and becoming a Partner at Oppenheimer & Company. Leaving Oppenheimer, he launched Gartner Group in 1979 (where he was President, CEO, and Chairman until the early 1990s)—a company that revolutionized IT advisory and investment services with deeply-researched, concise (one-sheet) reports (among other innovations). He also discusses his teaching at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. In the mid-1990s Gartner launched another fast-growing, important company, GiGa Information Group. This, too, focused on IT assessment and advisory services. 2 Yost: My name is Jeffrey Yost of the Charles Babbage Institute. I’m here today with Gideon Gartner in Aspen, Colorado. It’s August 12th, 2005. Gideon, could you begin with some basic biographical information, where you were born, where you grew up? Gartner: I was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and came to the United States when I was two and a half years old.
    [Show full text]
  • The Media's Watching Vault! Here's a Sampling of Our Coverage
    The media’s watching Vault! Here’s a sampling of our coverage. “Unflinching, fly-on-the-wall reports... No one gets past company propaganda to the nitty-gritty inside dope better than these guys.” — Knight-Ridder newspapers “Best way to scope out potential employers...Vault has sharp insight into corporate culture and hiring practices.” — Yahoo! Internet Life “Vault has become a de facto Internet outsourcer of the corporate grapevine.” — Fortune “For those hoping to climb the ladder of success, [Vault’s] insights are priceless.” — Money.com “Another killer app for the Internet.” — New York Times “If only the company profiles on the top sites would list the ‘real’ information... Sites such as Vault do this, featuring insights and commentary from employees and industry analysts.” — The Washington Post “A rich repository of information about the world of work.” — Houston Chronicle TOP50VAULT GUIDE TO THE TOP 50 CONSULTING CONSFIRMS FIRMS © 2002 Vault Inc. TOP50VAULT GUIDE TO THE TOP 50 CONSULTING CONSFIRMS FIRMSDOUGLAS CANTOR AND CLAY RISEN © 2002 Vault Inc. Copyright © 2002 by Vault Inc. All rights reserved. All information in this book is subject to change without notice. Vault makes no claims as to the accuracy and reliability of the information contained within and disclaims all warranties. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Vault Inc. Vault, the Vault logo, and “the insider career networkTM” are trademarks of Vault Inc. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, contact Vault Inc., P.O.
    [Show full text]