CECR program adds 11 centres with $163 million over five years

A cornerstone of S&T Strategy

Medical research dominated the first competition of the federal government's flagship commercialization program, capturing seven of the 11 centres chosen in the inaugural round of the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program. Centres focusing on various aspects of health and life sciences R&D — prostate, immunology and cancer, personalized medicine, drug development and epidemic organ failure — are augmented by centres seeking to leverage expertise in bio-based products, isotope exploitation and commercialization of convergent technologies ( see chart on page 2).

The 11 centres received a total of $163.3 million over five years. A second competition is planned either later this year or in 2009. The CECR program has a funding commitment of at least four years at approximately $30 million annually. The awards represent a devolution of federal S&T spending to the regions — an acknowledgement that innovation is largely a local and regional phenomenon.

"What the federal government has done with this program is excellent. The feds set a policy framework then step back and let it happen at the local and regional level," says Mark Romoff, president and CEO of the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) program which backed a successful Centre proposal. "Nearly all of the CECRs are provincial in one way or another. They're certainly outside of the federal system."

"This funding will accelerate an enormous number of initiatives that have been going on for a number of years," says William Hewson, managing director, Industrial Liaison at The Research Park in Sarnia. which leads the new Bioindustrial Innovation Centre "We're thrilled to have the trust and the investment to move ahead with this concept."

The announcement of the winners on February 14th capped a whirlwind process that began just eight months ago that attracted 110 hopefuls and 25 that were invited to submit full proposals. Each Centre will be provided with a one-time $14.95-million grant (with the exception of the Montreal-based Centre of Excellence in Personalized Medicine which receives $13.8 million) before March 31st.

Matching operational funding

The funding is to cover eligible operational activities and is awarded on a 50-50 matching basis, except for some research-related activities for which the program will provide up to 75%. In some cases, the commitment for matching funding far exceeds minimum requirements. The Ottawa-based Centre for the Commercialization of Research (CCR)— led by the OCE — is aiming for a 4:1 ratio which, if achieved, would pump $75 million into its operations.

"The funding will be tracked on an annual basis, just like we do for the regular NCE program," says Jean-Claude Gavrel, associate VP of the NCE Program Directorate. "In some instances, the successful organizations will be the hosts and the funds will go to specific satellite-type projects. For governance, there will be a separate board with a specific mandate to manage them."

Gavrel says the dominance of health-related centres roughly reflects the proportion of health proposals submitted to the program.

Selection of the centres was made through a two-stage process. A 10-member, private sector advisory forwarded its recommendations to the NCE Steering committee, comprised of the presidents of the three granting councils, the president of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Industry Canada DM Richard Dicerni.

In a February 11th speech in Montreal, Industry minister Jim Prentice outlined the federal government's desire to establish a new industrial policy that more effectively linked "pure research to applied research, product development, to commercialization and marketing". In his address, Prentice characterized the CECR program as one to foster partnerships with other levels of government and the private sector. "Together we will create a critical mass of capacity in strategic areas of scientific opportunity and competitive advantage," he said.

The government describes the CECR program as a cornerstone of its new S&T Strategy, which has a strong slant towards the commercialization of promising research. All of the centres have declared extensive commercialization objectives and each is required to establish a separate board of directors to oversee operations and ensure that the objective of commercialization is realized.

TRIUMF director Dr Nigel Lockyer says the model has some resemblance to the current US practice of engaging external management for government laboratories, such as the Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is jointly managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, a joint partnership between Battelle and The Research Foundation of State University of New York.

"It's the same logic the Canadian government is using for CECR," says Lockyer. "The board of directors we assembled for AAPS (Advanced Applied Physics Solutions Inc, a TRIUMF subsidiary that secured CECR funding) gave us a level of credibility that was very important for this initiative. They can identify opportunities for commercialization."

The 11 new Centres technically join seven Centres that were previously selected by the federal government and announced in the last Budget (R$, March 26 & May 31/07). Initially viewed as a response to the critical need for operational funding at Canada's major science facilities, the program is now seen as a targeted commercialization tool. Even so, TRIUMF was successful in tapping into CECR funding which it plans to augment with private sector and other sources of funding. The Canadian Light Source synchrotron facility also applied to the CECR program but was unsuccessful.

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