Canada establishes world's first national commercialization consortium

Canada may not score high on national innovation indicators but it has taken the lead internationally in tackling the challenge with the first national consortium dedicated to boosting commercialization of publicly funded research and connecting homegrown companies with global markets. Launched October 17, the Canadian Commercialization Consortium (C3) will identify best practices and commercialization models from across the country-and around the world-that show the greatest promise for growing and sustaining emerging technology companies.

The 19-member C3 brings together commercialization experts from academia, government, industry and the investment community. It is the first national chapter to launch under the International Commercialization Alliance (ICA), a global organization spearheaded by Canadian members and based in Toronto (R$, April 18/11).

"The C3 will provide a clear and cohesive Canadian voice with the critical mass and expertise to influence commercialization policy, coordinate action, and pursue the additional resources required to accelerate progress on this front," says Bryan Watson, executive director of the National Angel Capital Organization. "It will enable us to pool our commercialization know-how and resources, put it to work in new and more effective ways, and make more entrepreneurs and early stage companies investment-ready."

good models to choose from

ICA director Mario Thomas says despite Canada's reputation as a middling innovation performer, there are many groups around the country that are getting it right. He points to promising investment and partnership models emerging within two tri-council programs, the Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR) and the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE).

For example, the Centre for the Commercialization of Research, which Thomas heads, has created the New Entrepreneur Micro-Loans program to support first-time entrepreneurs with mentorship and just enough money — up to $6,000 — to get their idea off the ground. Nearly 30 entrepreneurs have been supported in the last year.

Thomas also points to the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery, a BL-NCE that sees six large drug competitors collaborating with universities to develop pre-competitive research tools and platforms. "This isn't a model you see much internationally," he says.

Both C3 and the ICA will also wade into the murky area of metrics — a growing priority as Canada and other countries demand greater accountability and measurable results for the billions they invest in R&D. It was an issue that was also raised in the October 17 expert panel report to the federal government on R&D funding (see related articles on pages 1 and 3).

Most organizations do a better job at measuring activities and outputs as opposed to impact, which is why the ICA has made identifying evidence-based success measures one of its main objectives.

"Some organizations don't even distinguish between an outcome and an output," says Thomas. "The better we become at measuring success in a credible manner the more influence we will have on policy makers because we will have the evidence to show what we have done and how that has been useful."

C3's first priorities are to launch a website (www.theicalliance.com), hire a manager, expand its membership and meet in late November to develop a strategy and action plan. The outcomes from that meeting will feed into the next ICA forum next March in Toronto.

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