Cuts to NCE program won't hinder its long-term sustainability, says former head

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program has come a long way to become the key federal instrument for networked research and commercialization it is today. From its roots as a constellation of research networking centres to a multi-faceted initiative overseeing four distinct programs, its breadth has blossomed to include 44 networks and centres, an internship program and manager of the soon-to-be-announced Canada-India Research Centre of Excellence.

That rapid growth, however, is about to lurch into reverse as the granting councils pass on reductions ordered up under the government's review of departmental spending to the NCE budget (see page 5). While the size of the cut to the NCE program has not been officially announced, it is reportedly as high as 28%, resulting in fewer networks in the traditional NCE and the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) programs.

There will be fewer opportunities for new networks as funding for existing networks expires. The CECR program will likely shrink from the current 22 networks to a steady state of 10 as funded CECRs come up for renewal.

"The program is funded through granting council flow-through funding … The challenge to the councils is to preserve their funding and cutting flow-through is tempting," says Jean-Claude Gavrel, former associate VP of the NCE program who stepped down earlier this month after 12 years. "The next phase of the program will have its challenges. The prime minister says we're still in a time of global uncertainty so we must be ready to cut a little bit."

Not all program budgets within the NCE program are shrinking. The latest federal Budget doubled the investment in the Industrial Research and Development Internship (IRDI) program with $14 million over two years. The IRDI will be managed by a consortium led by the MITACS NCE. The Budget also made the Business-Led NCE (BL-NCE) program permanent with an annual budget of $12 million.

"The NCE program is heading in the right direction within the Canadian innovation ecosystem," says Gavrel. "I evolved it further in the innovation direction — which is commercialization, including knowledge translation for those networks where that's a better indication of impact. It's become an outlet for industry to take the lead."

Austerity measures aside, the expansion and re-alignment of the NCE program is a prime example of a government research funding organization adapting to the times and positioning itself within an innovation ecosystem where impacts are increasingly central to its core mission.

Since his arrival in 2000, Gavrel has helped to engineer several reforms that have vastly improved the program's flexibility and made it an attractive vehicle for new investments. Those investments were announced in the 2007 Budget, which announced the creation of the CECR and BL-NCE programs as well as the IRDI program (R$, July 3/07).

Gavrel describes the creation of the BL-NCE as "one of my proudest moments" . He supported its creation when the concept first emerged in 2003 and subsequently unveiled with the release of the 2007 S&T Strategy. He says the program has achieved "phenomenal leverage" which prompted the government's decision earlier this year to make the program permanent. The decision to add the CECR program to the NCE portfolio was a different matter altogether.

"When it came out we were totally taken by surprise. We didn't know it would come to the NCE program. It was originally mentioned as a CFI (Canada Foundation for Innovation) program," says Gavrel. "We were delighted. The government took a gamble on us and it paid off. It provided an adrenaline rush that you cherish forever."

Among the key changes made to the traditional NCE program were:

* changing the funding model from two seven-year terms to three five-year terms and eliminating the mid-term review;

* nurturing the MITACS NCE to become the largest provider of industrial internship funding in Canada; and,

* introducing the notion of legacy to encourage NCEs to plan beyond the NCE funding horizon through spin-offs or continued networking.

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