Biennial R3 2020 Will Help Foster The Talent Pipeline For The Innovation Economy – Huddle

FREDERICTON – Innovation and applied research have been hot topics in the province for the past few years, and with the biennial R3 hosted by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) around the corner let’s shed light on an event that focuses directly on these issues.

R3 brings together academic researchers, graduate students, government and supporting agencies and local industries interested in R&D into one location.

The 2020 one-day forum, titled Talent Development in the Innovation Economy, was designed to shine a light on, and embrace the career pathway of researchers both in academic and industry settings. This theme recognizes the importance of talent development in the innovation economy and that having a group of highly skilled applied researchers is one of our province’s major resources. The forum has been divided into three sections; learn, compete and recognize.

In the learn portion of the forum, a series of talks, keynotes and panels will explore current issues in the career development of researchers, such as fostering industry-academia collaborations and marketing skills from a graduate degree. The headlining keynote speakers are Dr. Vincenzo Guida, a senior research fellow at Procter & Gamble, and Professor Jeff Dahn, the NSERC/Tesla Canada Industrial Research Chair.

“[Dr. Guida] manages a number of the research collaborations between Procter and Gamble and university academics. He’s going to talk about how they form those relationships, what they’re looking for, and what are the things that are important from an industry point of view when doing research with academic collaborations,” said Dr. Laura Richard, NBIF’s Director of Research.

“[Professor Dahn] will talk about how he created his collaboration with Tesla, what were the key steps, and what does it take on both sides for this relationship to be successful. So, with such directed, targeted insights from prominent leaders in the field – one from industry and one from academia – we hope that the attendees will come away with all kinds of ideas on how they can leverage those for their own research programs.”

Following the keynote speakers,  there will be 40-minute panel discussions and 20-minute talks in two streams designed for students, faculty and industry. The panels will feature highly qualified research professionals and senior consultants that will address success stories, case studies, and have quality discussions to foster collaborative action between the community, government, industry and academics with the focus on career development in applied research.

Then the compete portion of the event comes into play. Applied research students will have the opportunity to describe a research project they have conducted in layman’s terms without visual aid in just three minutes. This is a test of their verbal communication and presentation skills: describing very technical research topics to a general audience is not easy!

Pre-heats applications were announced on on December 13 and are open until mid-February. At which point all video applications submissions will be evaluated on determined criteria. Ten finalists will be chosen to pitch at the forum on April 2nd, 2020 at the Fredericton Convention Centre, with up to $3,500 in cash prizes up for grabs.

“This will be the one that will be really interesting for industry folks looking to pick up some talent. Consider this a 3-minute preview of how good that person is at communicating,” said Dr. Richard. “And those who are on stage are going to position themselves really well for some future job offers.”

The last significant portion of the forum will be the formal luncheon where 25 of the provinces Star Mentors will be honored for the exemplary job of training the next generation. NBIF will honor professors, teachers and faculty who have prioritized the development of students and junior researchers, thus populating the talent pipeline need by the innovation economy. Monetary awards will be given to 1 top mentor and 2 runner ups, [LR1] with the cachet that the award is to be used to continue their excellent work in training and mentoring of junior researchers and students.

The forum will be full, but the bonus and cherry on top to the entire day is, the event will also be a great networking opportunity for academia and industry alike.

Representatives of private industry, including those using applied innovation, will be exposed to “crème of the crop” of New Brunswick’s young research talent.

“Perhaps they’ll be looking to pick up some students for summer jobs, internships, or even permanent jobs,” Richard said, noting this as an opportunity for students looking for gigs as well.

“We’ve invited people from funding agencies and agencies that help students with various programs and training, so that they too can contribute their knowledge on what’s going on in the ecosystem and help those students grow,” Dr. Richard said.

Dr. Richard says the positive output of R3 is the network building and collaboration, a point that is already a strength in a small and friendly province like New Brunswick.

“We have the ability to work closely together and to work collaboratively, and not competitively, to accomplish big things, and this forum will serve only to further develop the strength of that network and community engagement” she said.

Tickets are available on Eventbrite, with discounts offered to students.