Company creation not limited to natural sciences and engineering

Viewpoint

By Dr Ted Hewitt

Researchers in areas that have in the past not been considered as prime territory for commercialization are increasingly churning out business successes. In the process, they're opening eyes — and new revenue streams.

Innovative ideas derived from university research have led to the creation of dozens of companies in Canada over the past five years. In fact, Canada has one of the highest rates of start-up creation from public research in the OECD. Gone, however, are the days when virtually all new technologies and processes underlying start-up formation are derived from natural science, engineering and the life sciences.

Increasingly, start-up growth is being driven by work in humanities- and social sciences-based disciplines. These successes are providing tangible societal benefits, creating jobs and having a positive (if as yet modest) impact on Canada's bottom line.

Like other university communities in Canada, London ON is rapidly becoming a hub for these new types of enterprises. These new ventures range from an interactive safety-training program for pilots that is currently being adapted for elderly automobile drivers, to the TCM Employee Commitment Survey, which has helped businesses become more productive since its initial release more than 10 years ago.

Many others are finding ways to capitalize on new developments in digital technology and the Internet.

Researchers in the University of Western Ontario's faculty of education, for example, have developed a pair of online teaching tools that are currently being commercialized. The web-based educational program, The Virtual Historian, helps grade school history students ‘play with history' online, while encouraging them to think critically and to develop their own understandings of broad historical themes. A new start-up company created to market the software has already sold 11 commercial licenses to school boards across the country.

Much in the same vein, Rich Online Mathematics Tasks provides K-8 teachers with an interactive database of mathematical problem-solving activities and will soon be licensed exclusively to a publishing company, or directly to schools and school boards.

Adding their own novel touches, researchers at Western are also capitalizing on the explosion of interest in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Developed by a modern languages and literatures professor, Clvtvre.com is a new social networking site that allows users to share cultural experiences, references and geospatial data in real-time. The researcher currently holds a $2.5-million Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant and will be establishing a start-up company to market the site later this year.

Another new social networking site has been developed for K-12 teachers interested in cross-collaboration projects. Called Teachers Connecting, the new start-up company is led by a Western student who has also successfully monetized a podcast for teachers who rely heavily on new classroom technologies.

Such successes are typical of others now reported right across Canada. While commercialization is but one way in which the benefits of research in the humanities and social sciences are transferred to communities, more and more researchers are clearly beginning to look seriously at the business implications of their work.

And thanks to them and their colleagues from across the disciplinary spectrum, we as Canadians only stand to benefit further in the years ahead.

Dr Ted Hewitt is VP Research & International Relations at the University of Western Ontario.