David Crane

Germany provides template for collaboration

By David Crane

In its first budget, the Harper government promised to "develop a strong, results-oriented agenda to promote a competitive, productive Canada for the benefit of all Canadians." It remains to be seen whether the government will come up with an innovation strategy that really makes a difference, but in looking at the options, policymakers should examine the potential for Canada from international collaboration.

A good case in point is the opportunity for Canadians to work with two exciting German research bodies, the Max Plank Society and the Fraunhofer Institute. Both are eager to expand connections with Canada — a point strongly impressed on me in a recent visit to both their headquarters in Munich.

The Max Plank Society is an umbrella institute with specialized research institutes across Germany and a growing network of international collaborations. It engages in basic research in keeping with the renowned German scientist Hans Plank's belief that "knowledge must precede application." The Fraunhofer Society operates a similar number of specialized institutes engaged in developing the applications from new knowledge for commercial application in industry.

Facing an ageing and declining population and high costs for its social programs, Germany is focusing on its ability to develop and commercialize new knowledge. Research support is one of the few areas of increased spending as the Merkel government struggles to reduce its budget deficit. The government, in a pact last year with the Lander (or provinces), agreed that key R&D agencies should be guaranteed an annual budget increase of at least 3% for the next five years as Germany strives to raise R&D to 3% of GDP by 2010, compared to 2.5% now.

The Max Plank Society has three core goals: advancing innovative research in fundamental science at the frontiers of knowledge; providing competitive research conditions for excellent researchers; and, promoting young researchers and international cooperation. It boasts some 16 Nobel laureates since 1948 and operates 78 specialized research institutes across Germany, with 12,150 staff members. It also hosts some 10,900 junior and guest scientists (about half from other countries) and operates on an annual budget of about $1.8 billion. Its institutes work closely with universities and many directors are also university professors.

The Max Plank Society focuses activities on three principal themes: chemistry, physics and technology; biology and medicine; and the humanities and social sciences. But it also places a strong emphasis on training PhD students — its institutes have about 4,000 PhD students and 1,000 dissertations a year. The Society operates international PhD schools and attracts PhD candidates from many countries, including about 15 from Canada (compared to 529 from China, 545 from Russia, 406 from the US and 367 from India).

The institutes have English as their working language and are striving to attract greater international participation. They have some 75 visiting researchers from Canada and 43 research projects with Canadian institutions, including McGill University, the National Research Council and the Université de Montréal. But they want more.

If the Max Plank Institute represents Germany's efforts to develop a strong capability in basic research, the Fraunhofer Society attends to the needs of industry and government in applied research. It operates some 58 different and highly specialized research institutes, with 12,600 employees that work with industry on "transferring knowledge from the laboratory to practical implementation." In fact, the largest part of its roughly $1.7 billion in revenues (about 60%) comes from industry.

These institutes cover a wide range of scientific and engineering areas, and work closely with industries such as such as automotive, chemicals, electronics, new materials, life sciences, urban transit, digital media, software engineering, environmental technologies, energy, factory automation, machinery, food processing, telecommunications, nanotechnology and photonics. Its institutes form alliances in key areas such as life sciences, microelectronics, surfaces technology and photonics, production technologies, materials such as ceramics, numerical simulation and traffic and transportation.

Max Plank researchers are working on projects such as fire-resistant wood, needle-fine surgery, automated blood work, new composite materials, audio technologies, and next-generation microelectronics.

In today's world, the Fraunhofer Society may be best known for its development of the highly successful MP3 technology that allows music to be compressed and sent over the Internet.

But another of its recent developments, what it calls the AutoTram, incorporates Canadian technology. Developed by a Swiss-based Doppelmayr, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, the urban transit technology has zero-emissions based on Ballard Power fuel cells and a large and expandable capacity. It also runs on rubber tires and boasts low infrastructure and operating costs.

While many of the Fraunhofer projects are driven by industry needs, it has also engaged in some deep thinking to identify 12 lead innovations where it believes Germany can excel. These include: advanced logistics networks, smart products based on greater miniaturization of electronics plus wireless systems, microenergy technologies for electronic products, smart materials that automatically adjust to vibrations or other challenges, advanced simulation systems for manufacturing, and human machine interaction such as voice- or gesture-activated computer systems.

They also include grid computing, lightweight construction systems, white biotechnology or the use of natural materials feedstocks in the chemicals industry, light sources for industrial processes, polymer-based or printed electronics, and advanced security systems.

Fraunhofer is now developing ties with universities and research institutes in other countries, including many European nations, the US, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden. But it lacks a Canadian connection, and this is something it wants to change.

What the Germans appear to understand, and what Canadians need to understand, is that innovation is increasingly a global enterprise. This is why our own policymakers should be looking at the potential benefits for Canada from international collaboration of the sort that the Germans are offering.

David Crane (crane@interlog.com) is a writer and advisor on innovation strategy. His column appears on Sundays in The Toronto Star.