After five years, a pilot program to help grad students and postdocs build entrepreneurial skills and consider creating startups has grown into a national network making an impact.

Lab2Market connects researchers with experienced mentors, industry partners and investors to accelerate commercialization.

The federal government in January this year announced $32 million over five years for Lab2Market, with Dalhousie University being the network’s administrative headquarters.

Being on the ground already with network members and partners in place meant Lab2Market was able to move quickly to activate the national network it had been building, said John MacRitchie (photo at right), assistant vice-president, zone learning and strategic initiatives, at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“We’ve been able to bring on some of the other partner institutions as delivery partners over the last year,” he said.

The network “was already kind of shovel-ready, so to speak, so we were able to scale it quite quickly,” said Jeff Larsen (photo at left), assistant vice-president, innovation and entrepreneurship, at Dalhousie University.

“We were able within months to distribute funds and get people delivering the programs and making an impact,” he said.

Lab2Market now has seven hubs comprised of 18 delivery partners – universities and colleges delivering the network’s programs – across Canada.

Since its inception in 2020, Lab2Market has seen 78 cohorts consisting of 1,674 teams participate. Each cohort averages 10 to 20 teams, depending on what program phase they’re in.

Those teams have created 172 startups and raised $47.9 million in private and public investment for their fledgling companies.

All 15 of Canada’s largest research universities in U15 Canada are now members of the Lab2Market network. The network includes more than 50 universities, colleges and institutions.

Last month, Lab2Market announced that Sherbrooke, Que.-based QV Studio has been appointed the quantum lead for the Lab2Market network.

As quantum lead, QV Studio through Lab2Market will provide graduate students and researchers across the country the tools, mentorship and entrepreneurial training needed to transform cutting-edge quantum research into real-world startups.

“Canada’s leadership in quantum science and technology depends on our ability to support researchers in validating markets, launching companies, and building the next generation of deep tech entrepreneurs,” said Sarah Jenna (photo at right), managing director of QV Studio.

"Welcoming quantum leadership into the Lab2Market network marks an exciting step forward in our mission to support Canada’s research talent,” said Meghann Coleman (photo at left), executive director of Lab2Market.

“We’re proud to support the growth of quantum-ready talent in Canada, ensuring our country has the skilled workforce required to further establish its leadership in quantum technologies and in

 turn, drive economic growth,” she said.

MacRitchie pointed out that quantum is an area where Canada has research strength globally. “It is definitely an area within Canada that’s seen as a priority.”

Canada can’t afford to wait for the perfect quantum computer to be ready or the cryptography solutions to be developed, he added.

As people are working on quantum computers and cryptography, a lot of other quantum technologies are being developed that potentially have applications in other areas, such as quantum materials and quantum sensors.

“As those things are being developed, we need to be getting out there looking for the opportunity to commercialize some of these results, not waiting for the perfect solution or the big solutions to get into the game,” MacRitchie said. “If we’re going to build industries in that area, we need to start now.”

This will enable Canadian researchers to learn how those quantum technologies can be applied and in what areas, as well as understand where the market is going, where the opportunities are, and where they’re going to fit in to different value chains, he said.

QV Studio has a relationship with Université de Sherbrooke, which has a strong presence in the quantum area, MacRitchie said. QV Studio was set up to support commercialization and investment in those technologies.

Addressing the biggest gap in getting to commercialization

Lab2Market continues to work with Mitacs, one of the original partners in the pilot network, and its student interns.

Coleman said more than $1 million was paid in student and postdoc stipends (including interns with Mitacs and other interns) for 18 Lab2Market cohorts between April 1 and September 30 this year.

Lab2Market also will pilot the “Discover” phase of their program this winter at the University of Guelph, an online exploratory program that helps students doing agrifood research discover if entrepreneurship is right for them.

Lab2 Market also will be doing a Discover cohort with the Canadian Black Scientist Network.

In the artificial intelligence area, Lab2Market is currently piloting a program in Atlantic Canada called AI2Market, aimed at  helping postsecondary students and researchers translate their AI-powered ideas into commercially viable ventures. AI2Market is a collaboration between Lab2Market, Dal Innovates, and ShiftKey Labs.

Larsen said Lab2Market also is incorporating some AI tools into its regular programming.

The AI tools act as a tutor and guide to support the process of innovation entrepreneurship, he said. They’re not a replacement for doing customer discovery, but they help researchers draft better hypotheses, how to test them through simulated interviews, and how to get real-time feedback.

As for the future of Lab2Market, MacRitchie and Larsen both said the biggest opportunity is to expand and grow its “Build” phase of programming.

Lab2Market did a Build program pilot with NSERC’s I2I phase one program, and NSERC was very happy with the results, MacRitchie said.

The Build phase focuses on taking a prototype technology out of the laboratory to a bigger “benchtop” or scaling it up a bit.

The Build phase works well in parallel with Lab2Market’s “Launch” phase program, which is focused on whether there’s a business model for the research being done, MacRitchie said.

Larsen said expanding and growing the Build phase “is a natural extension and arguably the biggest gap” in getting to commercialization.

Government funding available in Canada for this build, or “production-to-practice” stage, is miniscule compared with the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, he noted.

SBIR provides about $4 billion in funding annually, allocated through grants and contracts through a portion of research and development budgets of 11 federal agencies.

Companies may receive up to US$300,000 for concept development and feasibility studies, and US$500,000 to US$1.5 million or more for prototype development and demonstration of technical merit.

Growing Lab2Market’s Build program also would provide more and higher-quality startups for business incubators and accelerators, such as Communitech, MaRS Discovery, and the Creative Destruction Labs, Larsen said. “This is still a gap that we think we can help with.”

Others also see that gap that Lab2Market has identified.

Startups need to a better job of transitioning from being research labs to actual deep tech businesses that focus on value creation and commercialization, Alexandra Daoud, vice-chair of Quantum Industry Canada, said during a recent Canadian Science Policy Centre webinar.

 “We see spinoffs from research labs that continue to operate very much the same way they did when [they were] in the lab,” she said.

There needs to be better guidance or some sort of system to help startups make the transition from lab to commercial business, Daoud suggested.

Said MacRitchie: “Lab2Market’s goal is to try to create really rich, high-quality opportunities coming out of [the startups] we’re producing, which hopefully will attract that support for that next stage of their development.”

See also: “Pilot program for young entrepreneurial academic researchers expands across Canada”

“Network for entrepreneurial grads students and post-docs keeps growing, launches new startup program”

Editor’s note: The federal government in January this year announced $95.3 million over five years through its Lab to Market grants to support four networks of postsecondary institutions and organizations from private, public, not-for-profit and health services sectors. The four networks are:

• Dalhousie University – Lab2Market: Canada’s National Network for Innovation, Commercialization, and Entrepreneurship Skills Training of Students, Researchers, and Highly Qualified Persons (about $32 million).
• Red River College Polytechnic – College-University Lab to Market Network for Entrepreneurship & Research Commercialization (about $24 million in funding).
• Simon Fraser University – National Invention to Innovation (i2I) Network (about $23 million).
• University of Guelph – Sustainable Food Systems for Canada Innovation Platform (about $16 million. 

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