Partnerships: Policy and Research at the
Crossroads
A country’s standard of living is dependent on its ability to
innovate and then commercialize those innovations. As a result, we all have an interest in seeing that
innovations are more efficiently brought to the marketplace. Universities want to more swiftly commercialize
discoveries from their labs, business and industry want to capitalize on the products and services that
result from breakthrough research and VCs want to pluck the most promising investment
opportunities.
However, the need to identify solutions that will allow Canada and
global economies a more abundant flow of discoveries into the marketplace has never been more critical. There
is little doubt that ours is increasingly a knowledge economy in which intellectual property is the dominant
force, the capital that will continue to drive economic growth. Our ability to remove the barriers that
inhibit the transformation of knowledge into products and services that improve the way we live, work, and
play will greatly determine the long-term prosperity of our nation.
University-based research plays a central role in the innovation
process. Basic research that leads to fundamental discoveries provides the underpinning of more applied
technologies. Residing in universities are a significant number of innovations either mired in the depths of
bureaucracy or paralyzed by a lack of applied skills and resources, slowly struggling their way to the
commercial forefront. Worse, many never make it at all. The reality is a great deal of promising research
consistently fails to be developed and brought to market for practical use. This includes research in the
life sciences that could lead to vital new drugs and medical therapies. It includes research in computing and
engineering that could lead to useful new products and job-creating new firms.
While universities have been given the opportunity and obligation for
commercialization, we are not seeing the full potential of this federally funded research. Instead, a much
clearer result has been the ramp-up of university technology transfer offices with the expectation that the
office, in and of itself, is a sufficient resource to meet the government’s mandate to innovate and
commercialize.
Be sure to attend this symposium and hear leading international experts
from industry, government and academia address the issue of creating an environment that is conducive to
innovation and commercialization. Learn how a coordinated science and technology policy can be effective in
driving innovation and commercialization. Hear case studies on successful industry-university collaborations.
And get the latest information on best practices for international partnerships.
