Innovation Canada: A Call to Action

Innovation Canada: A Call to ActionOver time, IRIC would become the commonservice platform for all appropriate businessinnovation support programs of the federalgovernment. Eventually, and with increasedindustry participation and contribution tothese programs, IRIC would play a lead role indeveloping new initiatives that directly assistfirms with their business innovation needs,including joint initiatives with the provinces andterritories, where warranted. The key distinctionbetween programs administered by IRIC andthose administered by NSERC and other existinggranting councils is that the former wouldfocus on demand-driven support — typically inresponse to initiatives from, or directly relatedto, businesses — while the latter wouldcontinue to focus on supply-push support —for example, funding for commercially orientedprojects initiated within academic institutions.In this regard, there is also a need to distinguishbetween (i) the support by NSERC and CIHR ofsolution-driven research and (ii) their support ofbasic discovery research, ensuring that bothreceive adequate funding and are evaluatedusing appropriate and relevant metrics. 2Given IRIC’s central role for federal initiativessupporting business innovation, it should beinvolved in a substantive and strategic way withthe risk capital and procurement programmingset out in Chapter 7. That said, the legal andfinancial responsibility for delivery and financialmanagement should remain with the BusinessDevelopment Bank of Canada and Public Worksand Government Services Canada, respectively.The IRIC should also assume responsibility forthe technical assessment of all proposalssubmitted to regional development agency(RDA) programs that support businessinnovation. 3In fulfilling its role, the IRIC would need toadopt an overall portfolio view of its suite ofprograms, consolidate similar programs, identifygaps, set clear outcomes for each program andmonitor programs to ensure they are meetingobjectives. The IRIC would ensure that intendedprogram outcomes are relevant and responsiveto program users. Moreover, a commitment tofederal–provincial collaboration would be aconstant feature of all of the IRIC’s operations.While ongoing costs for the IRIC would be partlyoffset through the transfer of existing employeesfrom other organizations, its creation would taketime and entail up-front incremental cost, arisingfrom both the transfer of the range of programsand the set-up of the new organization itself.Creation of this new organization and thetransfer of existing programs to the IRICframework should be staged to minimizestakeholder and program disruption.Industrial Research Assistance Program andCommercialization VouchersAs noted, the Panel’s consultations revealedthat IRAP is widely regarded as an effective,well-run initiative that facilitates R&D andcommercialization activity by small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This findingis corroborated by evidence collected throughthe Council of Canadian Academies’ 20062 In an opinion piece published in Nature, Dr. Indira Samarasekera, President of the University of Alberta, argues the need fora new social contract that “would involve establishing a review, approval and funding process for solution-driven researchthat sits parallel to processes for basic research, and has the nimbleness and urgency desired in the outcomes, withoutcompromising the cautions that validate and protect the quality of the work” (Samarasekera 2009, p. 161).3 The assessment of proposals to support innovation should be based on broad criteria of commercial success, taking intoaccount the overall competitive landscape both nationally and globally. This requires expertise and specific skills that aredifficult to maintain across a variety of small programs and delivery organizations. Consolidating assessment of theinnovativeness and commercial potential of business innovation projects in the IRIC, as a “back office” function providedfor the RDAs, would allow IRIC to develop common definitions, standards and assessment processes across Canada toensure consistently high standards. The IRIC should also facilitate the sharing of best practices among RDAs and work withthem on partnering more effectively with provincial governments.5-12