ISTPCanada punches above its weight with successful first year

International S&T collaboration gaining traction

A modestly funded program designed to stimulate bilateral R&D collaboration between Canada and several other nations is opening up a huge range of possibilities that could prompt the federal government to move aggressively on its Global Innovation Strategy (GIS). After little more than one year of operation, International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada (ISTPCanada) has processed several high-quality projects with India and China and forged a wide range of partnerships within Canada, exacting a degree of influence far beyond its original funding capacity.

Since becoming operational in early 2007, ISTPCanada has concluded several agreements with Canadian organizations ranging from Western Economic Diversification (WD), the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). It also launched and concluded two competitions in conjunction with partners in India and China, leveraging $26 million with an investment of just $4 million.

With more partners expected to come on stream in the coming weeks and a formal S&T agreement with Brazil possible this fall, ISTPCanada is poised to become the most successful among recent S&T programs inherited or launched by the Conservative government.

"We have basically become more systems integrators. These are very important to us and to the organizations with which we've reached agreements. It also reflects the growing importance of international S&T cooperation," says Dr Henri Rothschild, president and CEO of ISTPCanada and its sister organization, the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (CIIRDF). "After one year and with a small operation, we've delivered on our core objective and that's something I'm quite pleased with … It's been the most productive year of my career."

ISTPCanada is the delivery arm of the International Science and Technology Partnership Program at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). It received $20 million over five years in the 2005 Liberal Budget but did not become operational until after the current government was up and running. Modelled on CIIRDF, projects with India and China have been launched but interaction with Brazil is on hold until a formal S&T agreement is concluded between the two nations.

After a false start in 2003, negotiations with Brazil were rekindled last year but they have yet to be concluded. (R$, August 13/07). That is expected to change with a formal visit to Canada by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this fall.

"That would provide an opportunity to make an announcement. It's a natural and I'm not aware of any outstanding issues," says Rothschild, adding that ISTPCanada will not be involved until the government-to-government negotiations are concluded.

helped to revive ccsip

In addition to undertaking the Canadian side of project selections for China and India, ISTPCanada is also a recent participant in ongoing discussions to establish bilateral R&D projects between Canada and California. It is responsible for reviving the Canada-California Strategic Innovation Partnership (CCSIP) which was in danger of losing momentum earlier this year (R$, February 8/08). It is now serving as CCSIP's delivery arm — a role that will become more concrete following CCSIP's third summit to be held October 27 in Montreal.

"One of our objectives at the beginning of this year was to brand ourselves as a delivery agent of bilateral science cooperation. Denis Thérien (VP research at McGill Univ and co-chair of the CCSIP steering committee) wisely concluded that we should propose to deliver CCSIP," says Rothschild. "I went to California and met with Bob Dynes (the recently departed president of the Univ of California) and proposed a course of action. Because CCSIP is informal, it was a question of whether everyone who had an interest in moving CCSIP along was in agreement with what we were proposing."

"We want to play a small role in helping Canada design the best, most productive way in which it can connect to the world ... (It's) something whose time has come. It's not a question of whether but when."

—Dr Henri Rothschild

As ISTPCanada evolves and expands its facilitation role, the need for assisting companies find appropriate counterparts for collaboration in India and China has also grown. A three-year agreement with IRAP is already in place and a considerable amount of IRAP funds have been earmarked for bilateral, private sector projects. It's what Rothschild terms a positive sum game, with ISTPCanada providing "IRAP-able" deals and IRAP contributing additional resources. A similar arrangement has also been struck with WD and the OCE program, and others are expected in the coming months.

To enhance its ability to find foreign firms to partner with Canadian companies, ISTPCanada has established a matchmaking service with its Indian counterpart, GITA — the Global Innovation and Technology Alliance. The two organizations are developing a database that allows companies seeking collaboration to search for firms with similar technological capabilities and products.

"We're breaking new ground. We're going to have a joint portal between ourselves and GITA in India so that companies can actively look at databases and do their own tracking. It's a very similar algorithm to computer dating," says Rothschild., adding that GITA is "superbly organized" to provide the service from the Indian side. "We're going to get more and more sophisticated. It's important for Canadian companies to know that there are 10 or 300 phenotypes, province by province, in India."

Rothschild says the aim is to create 200 to 400 matches in the first 12 months. If the portal works, a similar initiative will be launched with China.

ISTPCanada completed the first round of competitions for India and China earlier this year. Rothschild says that, while the experience of negotiating with each were quite different, each country was driven by the desire to make it work. The process also revealed a far greater pool of Canadian expertise than previously estimated.

"The biggest pleasant surprise is the incredible reservoir of potential for collaboration. I've never been more blown away in my career," says Rothschild, adding that the Chinese competition generated about five times as many expressions of interest than anticipated. "A great deal of the lead applicants in Canada were people with origins in China. Where we are unique is the number of those well integrated into the senior reaches of our innovation establishment It's a huge advantage for us."

GIS to boost bilateral R&D

ISTPCanada's initial success could give added impetus to DFAIT's Global Innovation Strategy (GIS), which has been in development for some time. The recently released Canada's International Market Access Report — 2008 features GIS prominently, outlining its objectives and listing nations with which agreements have been signed. In addition to those covered by ISTPCanada, they include the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, the EU, Switzerland, the Nordic nations and Korea.

The report say GIS will accelerate commercialization by providing international access to knowledge, technology, talent and capital. It will focus on R&D-intensive, early-stage firms and building innovation teams and coordinating global actions "to connect Canadian researchers and businesses with international players and market opportunities".

Greater access to S&T and innovation will be achieved by "supporting international R&D partnerships and ensuring that Canadian knowledge producers are aware of and can benefit from leading technology opportunities around the world".

GIS will also help innovative firms commercialize new products, products and services in global markets and work with Canadian venture capital and private equity interests to partner with foreign sources of risk capital to increase investment in Canadian innovation.

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