Creating commercialization postdocs: bridging the gap between invention and commercial application

By Elicia Maine

Elicia Maine is Associate Vice-President, Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation, Simon Fraser University, and W.J. VanDusen Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Beedie School of Business at SFU.

Science-based innovations – those founded on engineering, scientific and medical discoveries – are critical to tackling global challenges.

Canada’s brightest minds are generating research excellence in a broad range of disciplines; however, the nation’s lost potential within the research-to-innovation pipeline is well-documented. The recent Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System identified significant gaps in Canadian research supports, and recommended providing entrepreneurial training for researchers, to nurture a more entrepreneurial mindset in the research community.

The need to leverage world-leading Canadian research in STEM fields such as chemistry, advanced materials, physics, biology and chemical engineering to address issues such as climate change, water and food security, and health care equity has never been greater. Supporting and enabling our STEM researchers to address significant global issues requires sustained training, mentoring and financial support, particularly in the early stages of their careers. 

Canada’s most highly trained early-stage scientists – our postdoctoral fellows – are currently underserved and underutilized. Approximately 80 percent of postdoctoral researchers do not go on to secure tenure-track academic positions, yet they are inadequately prepared for other careers. With customized science entrepreneurship training, this valuable but largely untapped resource can make a hugely positive impact on Canada’s science innovation ecosystem.  

Mitacs recently commissioned a study on commercialization postdoctoral fellowships – in partnership with the Invention to Innovation (i2I) national network – to investigate existing models of postdoctoral programs tailored to commercialization of STEM research.

This study was led by i2I’s Acting National Academic Lead Prof. Jon Thomas (University of the Fraser Valley) with the research team comprising: Dr. Finlay MacNab, PhD (Simon Fraser University – SFU), Bruna Guarino-Moraes (Queen’s University), Dr. Tom Goldsmith, PhD (Mitacs), Prof. James McLellan (Queen’s University), National Academic Lead Dr. Sarah Lubik, PhD (SFU), and Prof. Elicia Maine (SFU).

Following an in-depth literature review of science commercialization from university settings around the world focused on the translational role of postdoctoral fellows, six commercialization-focused STEM postdoctoral training programs from the U.K., the U.S. and Canada were identified and selected for further investigation. They included ICURe (U.K.), Cornell Runway Startups Program (U.S.) and Cyclotron Road (U.S.). 

Fifty interviews were conducted with stakeholders in those science innovation ecosystems, resulting in specific recommendations for policymakers. These recommendations include providing science innovation training, along with the funding and facilities access to support de-risking, scale-up experiments and strategic patenting. Most importantly, postdoctoral researchers need time to dedicate to translational and commercialization activities, in the early months and years after a nascent research discovery is made. 

The study supports a newly proposed made-for-Canada commercialization postdoc program that will help put the collective investments in postdoctoral education and university research to good use – a program that utilizes and builds upon the well-established and award-winning i2I program to mobilize research that benefits Canadians. 

Providing STEM researchers with science innovation and entrepreneurship training

The federal government’s recent increase to postdoctoral student stipends is a welcome investment to attract, retain and nurture the talent within Canada’s innovation pipeline. However, there is still a pressing need to support postdoctoral researchers in bridging the gap between great research inventions and their commercial applications. 

Many universities and colleges offer entrepreneurship training, but it is far less common to offer science innovation and science entrepreneurship training.  Such customized pedagogy is critical to usefully guide STEM researchers in the earliest stages of shaping commercialization strategy for fundamental research.

An exemplar of this category is the Invention to Innovation (i2I) program launched at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in 2015, which has helped seed the Canadian innovation ecosystem with scientist innovators and a portfolio of science innovation opportunities, while also helping to create some of Canada’s leading emerging technology companies.

In 2019, i2I became a part of Mitacs-supported training and was offered to researchers at more than two dozen universities across Canada, with regional cohorts led by SFU, Queen’s University, Polytechnique Montréal, Université Laval, Memorial University, and Dalhousie University. In 2024, new regional cohorts are underway, led by the University of Waterloo and the University of Alberta.

The regional academic leads are all trusted boundary spanners, bridging STEM research labs with innovation management research and pedagogy. 

Practitioners and graduates of i2I have experienced firsthand the transformational potential of entrepreneurship training for STEM researchers.

The new Invention to Innovation (i2I) commercialization postdoc program would utilize established Mitacs i2I programming. The Mitacs i2I commercialization postdoc fellowship program would consist of two years post-doctoral work, innovation skills training, in-kind support and access to university or government research facilities and industry-specific entrepreneurial and scientific mentoring.  

The Mitacs-i2I study revealed that the traditionally recognized venture pathway is not the only option available to STEM researchers. Instead, there can be three, often interweaving pathways on which commercialization postdocs can create societal and economic impact from fundamental research: translational scientist, venture founder, and industry innovation champion.

Illustration of the three pathways (Thomas et al, 2024)

Along the translational scientist pathway, i2I alumnus Dr. Rahul Singh, PhD, wanted to use his research expertise in microbiology and genomics to make a meaningful impact outside of the lab and academia. Through i2I, he learned how research can be commercialized and turned into innovative solutions to solve problems. Today, Singh is the Director of the B.C. Centre for Agritech Innovation, helping small and medium enterprises adopt innovative agritech to advance their businesses and address challenges due to the changing climate.

Along the science-based venture founder pathway, i2I alumnus Dr. Anh Tranly, PhD has co-founded the clean energy venture CO₂L Technologies, based in Kingston, Ont., which has developed cutting-edge electrochemical CO₂ reduction technologies that efficiently capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources and convert them into valuable products.

Along the industry innovation champion pathway, Dr. Matthew Dahabieh, PhD, is using the combination of his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology and his i2I training in business and entrepreneurship as Senior Vice-President & Head of Green Chemistry Solutions at Vancouver-based Terramera, one of Canada’s most promising cleantech and ag-bio ventures. 

The study projects that the commercialization postdoc program will generate significant measurable economic benefits in excess of program costs, in the form of investments in new and growing ventures, industry innovation investment and job creation within Canada. 

The program will nurture the untapped talents of Canada’s remarkable postdoctoral fellows and reap rewards for all Canadians. Properly supported and guided, commercialization postdocs can be Canada’s bridge between STEM research and growth through innovation.

Elicia Maine is presenting this research at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024) on August 12, 2024 in Chicago. The paper “Addressing Grand Challenges Through the Entrepreneurial Capabilities of Commercialization Postdocs,” has been judged by reviewers to be one of the best accepted papers in the 2024 AOM program. 

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