It takes a village to commercialize Canadian innovation – iPolitics

Canada is widely recognized for its research strengths. Our universities punch above their weight, when it comes to research. But we have not always been so good at converting our intellectual property into revenue and jobs that have a significant impact on our economy and create real value for Canadians.

Happily, that is rapidly changing. Canada’s unicorns — companies with billion-dollar revenues — are multiplying, thanks to high-flying stars such as Shopify, Wealthsimple, and Applyboard. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are among North America’s fastest-growing startup ecosystems and technology talent hubs. Meanwhile, more and more opportunities are arising to apply our technology strengths in key sectors of the economy, such as finance, infrastructure, agri-food, resource development, manufacturing, and health care.

COVID-19 is speeding up this innovation. The pandemic has revealed an urgent need for critical products such as test kits, personal protective equipment, and ventilators. It has broken supply chains around the world, forcing incumbent companies and startups to work together more closely to meet immediate demand for new products.

Canada’s manufacturers and tech companies have been quick to react to the pandemic. Their response has shown just how innovative they can be. The pandemic has also shown how powerful collaborative partnerships are in developing and commercializing unique, made-in-Canada solutions.

Canada’s Innovation Superclusters forge collaboration between incumbent businesses and our smaller startup and scale-up tech firms. They were able to jump into action quickly when the pandemic hit.

For example, Next Generation Manufacturing Canada,(NGen), the advanced-manufacturing supercluster, quickly brought together a consortium of companies to help fill Canada’s shortage of ventilators. It invested in a project led by Victoria’s Starfish Medical to revamp an existing ventilator design that had been developed in Winnipeg, Using materials and components from Canadian suppliers, manufacturers began production within six months. Based on the work of Starfish and more than 10 other manufacturing partners across Canada, the new ventilator received Health Canada approval in late September, and is now available for hospitals to use for intensive care.

The ventilator project was one of 63 industry-led collaborations NGen has approved over the past year, valued collectively at $352 million. This is the point of the supercluster program: to reverse the old innovation narrative by bringing small, medium, and large companies together with academic institutions and non-profit organizations to accelerate adoption of transformative tech and to create real value for Canadians. These projects are led by industry. NGen’s investments are leveraging well over the same amount in innovation spending by industry.

Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz, who also chairs NGen, says manufacturing is the ultimate integrator of technology. She’s been outspoken about the importance of cross-sector partnerships, both for her own company and for others. But the collaboration imperative may have been the most important revelation of 2020 for Canada’s entire innovation sector, a bright spot in what has otherwise been an extraordinarily challenging year.

If startups are going to pave the road to recovery, they need to commercialize better. But that doesn’t happen just by inventing smarter algorithms and tech products, or finding the financial support to break into new markets. It’s the result of working with existing companies to apply new technologies in innovative solutions that meet the challenges facing industry.

It isn’t always simple. Big companies often need tailored tech solutions — solutions that might not come straight out of the box a startup has poured time into creating. And companies at different stages often work in different ways, at different paces.

But partnerships with incumbents and other growing tech firms can help smaller companies develop their products, put them into production, and scale up faster, and with less risk, than doing it all on their own.

Whether it’s startups that want to commercialize their intellectual property, or established businesses looking for innovative solutions, companies need to raze the old silos and forge partnerships across tech sectors and industry borders. Few companies can afford to take all the risks involved in high-speed innovation. Few companies have all the skills or expertise it takes to succeed. And supply chains are changing right before our eyes — from static, proprietary logistics lines to collaborative, reconfigurable, knowledge-based value networks.

These are important lessons for Canada’s tech startups and incumbent businesses alike — and for governments at all levels. It takes collaboration to commercialize technology in applications that can drive economic and social benefits for Canadians. Our governments need to keep doing all they can to incentivize that collaboration, to encourage tech adoption, and to help growing tech firms and incumbent businesses alike build more resilient and advanced innovation networks.

Nobody does it alone. It will take a village — a fully fledged partnership approach — to realize the full benefits of what Canada’s innovation engine has to offer.

Perrin Beatty is the president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Jayson Myers is the CEO of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

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