DFAITS’s S&T division seeks to carve out enhanced role with new strategy and increased collaboration with SBDAs

Science and technology (S&T) is quietly staging a comeback at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and is being positioned to take on a more prominent departmental role in anticipation of government action on the international S&T file. After several lean years marked by dwindling resources and benign neglect, the science and technology division (STD) is actively reaching out to the broader government S&T community. With the launch of a three-year reorganization last year, it aims to enhance its role in raising the profile of Canadian S&T internationally and increasing the deal flow of Canadian firms and research organizations around the world.

The new strategy has resulted in a doubling of the STD’s modest budget which coincides with a marked jump in activity. But the architects of the strategy acknowledge that the higher level of activity is creating increased “pressures” which will ultimately have to be dealt with through addi- tional personnel and financial resources.

Some observers also question the wisdom of situating the STD within DFAIT’s Trade Commissioner Service Branch, although the STD management contends that the new strategy is effectively exploiting those ties by expanding its interaction with Canadian and foreign venture capital firms. That, in turn, is helping to provide a continuum beyond the division’s focus on R&D collaboration up to the point of commercialization and has helped to revitalize STD’s collaboration with the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) (see page 5).

The revamping of the STD comes at a time when international S&T is creeping into the upper echelons of federal S&T policy, combined with an unprecedented surge of federal investment in Canada’s S&T infrastructure and niche capabilities. Keynote speeches from the governor general and the prime minister have mentioned the importance of international S&T, establishing an environment that the STD is ideally positioned to exploit.

“We happened along in a very happy set of circumstances…We basically felt that there is a definite role for DFAIT in the realm of S&T because the DFAIT mandate is international,” says STD director Robert Lee, a former trade commissioner who was brought in to reorganize the division. “We look at this as a three-year period (of renewal) and we’re about half way through. Things are really starting to gel.”

International S&T is finally coming to the forefront of the government agenda, following the release last year of an expert panel report and $200 million in new funding for international S&T for the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The expert panel report of the Advisory Committee on Science & Technology (ACST) has recommended the creation of a new $150-million fund to facilitate greater international collaboration and cooperation, an executive committee to coordinate cross-departmental activity and a strengthened emphasis on smaller companies through IRAP. But the government is still reportedly consulting the community on the report’s recommendations, and no action is anticipated until the process is complete, proposals are cast and Cabinet provides its blessing.

“The ACST report really crystallized the issue for a lot of people and raised the profile of international S&T, and in the area of government policy it proposed an executive committee chaired jointly by DFAIT and Industry Canada deputy ministers. It’s an option that we like,” says Thierry Wiessenburger, deputy director of S&T policy and intelligence, and one of two deputy directors working under Lee.

SBDA WORKING GROUP

Wiessenburger also heads up a relatively new interdepartmental working group composed of S&T representatives from the various science-based departments and agencies (SBDAs). He says the group has helped focus the new STD program and redefine the roles of the all-important DFAIT science counsellors. He adds that it has also been instrumental in re-establishing the credibility of the division, which had been pummelled in the latter half of the 1990s. Indeed, in a review of operations conducted prior to receiving the green light to launch the new STD program, the need to restore credibility emerged as a central challenge.

“The credibility aspect was the key to the whole strategy we took. One way to do it (restore credibility), for example, is to create an advisory body (the working group) for our program that involves all partners, where between peers we collegially discuss issues,” he says. “The most important issue for us is the tasking of S&T counsellors, so we jointly defined the tasking. It’s an ongoing issue and the (SBDA) community has bought in.”

Complimenting the functions overseen by Wiessenburger is the area of R&D collaboration and technology financing, headed up by Brigitte Léger, deputy director of international R&D business development. A veteran of the international S&T scene, Léger focuses on organizing partnership activities at the technology level and helping to match Canadian firms with venture capital financing.

VC FINANCING EMPHASIZED

Léger organizes and runs S&T missions around the world, as well as attending R&D fora , trade shows and conferences, and is currently preparing to lead a delegation to one of the biggest — the Hannover Technology Fair. Canada is planning a major presence at the fair’s innovation pavilion, in conjunction with IRAP, with which it has re-established formal ties after several years of inactivity. Participating in the Hannover delegation will be high-level representatives of government, research and business.

So far, STD has successfully focused its R&D collaboration and technology financing activities on several key sectors, including information technology, e-commerce, photonics, biotechnology, the environmental sector, forestry, advanced materials and manufacturing technologies. Léger says nanotechnology may be added to the mix next year, but scarce financial and human resources restrict which technologies and countries can be targeted for active promotion.

“The work we undertake generates more work so we have to think in terms of increasing the resources. That’s quite clear,” asserts Léger. “We have to choose and our role is to build a best practices way of doing things, and when it works we can pass the responsibility to others.”

Part of the receptor capacity for the work of the STD is the network of DFAIT’s trade commissioners. Up until recently the trade commissioners have only been peripherally involved in S&T matters, but the STD has convinced its executive committee that they should become more involved.

For the most recent annual Canadian tour of S&T counsellors, several trade commissioners were also brought back to participate in the hope that the S&T message would be given greater prominence in their day-to-day work around the globe. The strategy also neatly sidesteps the fact that the STD has only five S&T counsellors and a handful of technology development officers. The near-term prospect of increasing their numbers is unlikely, at least until government decides on how to stimulate international S&T.

“We’re sensitizing many more officers now to what’s out there and they’re working in effect on our behalf. We’re just really starting to work with them,” says Lee. “It’s up to us to put them in training programs, to have a training component. They might only have 10% or 20% of their work that’s S&T related but it’s helping them to understand the bigger picture.”

Lee also points to the leverage that the STD gains from its interaction with the SBDAs, but increased networking also raises the activity level which in turn accelerates the need for more resources. Limited funds are also constraining the number of formal S&T ties Canada enters with other nations.

“We have to walk before we can run so let’s see what we can do without more agreements. We have to take a very measured approach by doing it over a period of time and relationships start to build,” he says. “Because we are taking a more active role, there’s going to be pressure on the posts so we’ve got to get more resources in the field. The ACST expert panel has recommended (a fund of) $150 million and some of that will have to go towards operating.”

Beneath the many decisions the STD will have to make as it expands its influence and roster of activities is the lack of a coherent strategy for international S&T. Recent government pronouncements on its intention to double its R&D spending require a strong role for international S&T activities. And once again, the importance of the ACST expert panel is raised, particularly the recommendation for a joint DFAIT-Industry Canada executive committee.

“The the executive committee is to establish priorities and coordinate functions and information,” says Wiessenburger. “My perception is that there is a change of paradigm, not only internationally but domestically, in managing S&T. We are still very centralized but because the federal government initiatives are putting money into the system, they are now beyond the point of simply pouring in money. I feel there is a will to set targets and priorities and that goes a long way towards a strategy, and it could apply to international.”

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