ISTPCanada moving quickly to develop new opportunities for Canadian tech firms

Opportunity seen in water, marine technologies

International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada (ISTPCanada) is strengthening its bilateral and multilateral partnerships as it enters a new phase of activity aimed at aggressively leveraging international research connections to benefit Canadian industry. Armed with a fortified board of directors, stable base funding and a renewed sense of purpose, the arm's-length agency is building capacity to exploit opportunities in the areas of water, nanotechnology and brain research while forging new funding agreements with the provinces that add considerable financial muscle and program depth.

Earlier this year, ISTPCanada beefed up its board with eight new members, expanding its roster from nine to 17 directors. At the same time, it launched a series of three targeted roundtables — two focused on water and one on marine and ocean technologies — taking leadership in areas that hold considerable potential for Canadian tech firms seeking new partners and markets for their technologies. Add to that ISTPCanada's ongoing collaborative programs with Israel, India, China and Brazil, and the stage is being set for an unprecedented level of activity.

For Dr Henri Rothschild, veteran of Canadian science policy and programming, the organization's level of accomplishment and prospects for growth demonstrate that technology partnership is becoming an an increasingly important contributor to Canada's future growth and prosperity.

"It's definitely a new phase. In my entire career I don't think I've learned as much as what I've learned here at ISTPCanada," says Rothschild, the organization's president and CEO. "There's a huge demand. In the case of Israel alone we could do a program five times the size."

new opportunities

New opportunities are also opening up that ISTPCanada intends to exploit, including brain research in conjunction with Ontario and Israel, collaboration with the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre. Agreements are also in place or pending with the federal granting councils and the National Research Council.

To support activity beyond that supported by its base budget from the department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), ISTPCanada has turned towards the provinces and other key stakeholders. Ontario has provided $6 million over three years to be split among collaborative ventures with India and Israel while Alberta is contributing an equal amount spread across all partnership countries. Yet feedback from industry — while generally positive — often points to funding limitations and the small number of countries with which ISTPCanada has bilateral collaborative agreements.

"Industrial consultations have referred to the sub-optimal size of the program. I don't think — in light of the growing importance of this subject — that it is sustainable for Canada to have a global technology program encapsulated within such a small pocket. It's going to have to grow," says Rothschild. "Our own corporate development is to have it grow through the addition of complementary governments and government departments. We have agreements with the National Research Council and NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) and we will have a similar agreement we hope with CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research). By Christmas, I hope to have an agreement either signed or nearly signed with every province in this country. That's what industry is really saying — you need to have a program that's credible."

Running funded programs with collaborating nations accounts for approximately 80% of ISTPCanada's funding. The first three years of its operation yielded projects with good commercial prospects and market opportunities for participating companies. Relationships have been established with key partners and organizations, resulting in programs that Rothschild says are "working reasonably well".

The remaining 20% of ISTPCanada's budget is devoted to partnership development activities, which Rothschild says hold the key to how Canada participates technologically in the global economy of the future.

"Even though these kinds of activities don't consume more than 20% of our program budget, to me they are — in terms of our value proposition — at least as important as our project funding. That's my personal view," he says. "The primary aim of these activities in both the reactive and proactive mode is to recognize that the ground is shifting on research funding and how you structure research collaboration. We tend to forget because we're living in the eye of the storm ... And just as there's been this tremendous change over the past 30 years, change in the next 30 years will be even more dramatic."

roundtables

The three roundtables focused on specific technology opportunities, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders that can contribute to providing Canadian firms with competitive advantage through collaboration. In Toronto, Canada, Israel and India explored the issue of water pollution and purification, combining Israeli science and Canadian technology with India's growing need for fresh water. Up to 80% of Israel's fresh water is recirculated.

In Edmonton, the multilateral event focused on using nano- and other emerging technologies to develop sustainable water solutions, primarily through the use of new purification processes.

In St John's NF, the roundtable on ocean and marine technologies brought together a host of organizations to develop a consolidated approach to new technologies driven by commercial prospects. As a result, Canada will head up a global consortium to drive further collaboration.

Other potential ventures on the ISTPCanada radar include the potential for a venture fund that builds on and leverages the diligence, streaming and assessment of both ISTPCanada and the Canada-Israel Research and Development Foundation.

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