It's time to reverse the innovation equation

By Nobina Robinson

As the federal government considers measures to boost Canada's listless innovation performance in its 2012 federal Budget, it would do well to consider the plight of Sidney Crosby. The NHL superstar's ongoing struggles to recover from one or more concussions form the backdrop to an innovative small business startup located not far from Parliament Hill. At Impakt Protective, they have found a way to monitor hits to the head instantly and, thereby, potentially reduce substantially the number of concussions in hockey as well as in other contact sports.

Many are likely unaware that this commercial success story is founded on a partnership between a group of dedicated computer engineering and science students at Ottawa's Algonquin College and an entrepreneurial former bomb disposal expert.

The lesson in this partnership is largely ignored in national discussions on R&D and innovation. Instead, policies and funding programs for research tend to emphasize the benefits of pure research at the expense of the job-creating, practical industry-driven applied research being conducted by Canada's colleges and polytechnics.

Is it policy inertia or aversion to innovation in policy and program design that causes bureaucrats in Ottawa to underestimate the growing phenomena of industry-college collaboration in R&D? When we speak of academic-industrial collaboration, do we truly include college-business partnership?

But the lesson is clear. Canada's colleges and polytechnics are comprised of students and business-responsive faculties that are helping solve industry-identified problems in real time. With more public support and minimal investments, these institutions could do even more to close Canada's widening innovation gap with our international competitors. The government should enable colleges to play to their unique research strength that is built-in to their teaching mission involving students in applied research.

Although Canada has one of the world's most generous R&D tax credit programs, SR&ED is failing to produce the desired results. In terms of business R&D expenditures we rank consistently below the OECD average over a three-decade span. As for academic input, senior policy makers and opinion leaders continue to define the knowledge economy primarily around the need for more people with advanced degrees (Masters and PhDs) and the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs.

In 2010/11, the federal government gave universities $3 billion for research. In contrast, Canada's research-intensive colleges had to share one small, $30-million research granting council program. Colleges and their industry partners got one penny for every research dollar that went to universities. Could this imbalance explain the Canada's weak commercialization and innovation mediocrity?

We need a more comprehensive vision of the talent needed for innovation, one that harnesses the vast skills range of all Canadian learners — college students, existing workers, skilled newcomers and apprentices, in addition to university graduates. The reality is that companies commercialize and people innovate. In Canada, we have reversed the blueprint, believing academia commercializes and companies innovate.

That sensor being produced by Impakt Protective is embedded in helmets and wirelessly transmits impact levels to coaches and others, assessing players immediately on impact and getting them out of the game before further damage can occur. Algonquin students designed, prototyped, and optimized the wireless sub-system for the sensor. Impakt CEO Danny Crossman says he will now hire only college students, he is so impressed with their practical education and training.

That sort of applied R&D and late-stage commercialization are what differentiate polytechnics and colleges from universities. Graduates have learned to apply their knowledge as they complete their academic credentials. Whether they are building energy neutral "net-zero" homes in Calgary, testing and delivering a real-time disease surveillance system technology in Toronto, or developing new technology for smart-grid monitoring in Burnaby, these enterprising students work to solve company commercialization challenges. They are our 21st Century innovators, and must be recognized as such.

The federal government has begun to recognize the positive contributions of polytechnics and colleges for wealth creation for Canadian companies with recent budget announcements that have created the current program for industry-college collaboration. The forthcoming 2012 Budget can do more to address the innovation gap.

Specifically, the Budget should demonstrate that the national government recognizes the current innovation crisis and is showing leadership in addressing it. At no additional cost, we could open eligibility for all undergraduate industrial research awards to college undergraduates ending the programs' university-only restriction (did you know that there are over140 Bachelors level degrees offered by Canadian colleges and polytechnics?). And without increasing the size of the federal research pie, the Budget could distribute it more equitably to the outcome-oriented programs such as the NSERC College Community Innovation Program, now operating at full capacity just as demand from industry partners is rising.

Realigning existing R&D direct support programs for firms to include a new commercialization voucher program would enable companies to choose more colleges and polytechnics as applied research service providers to assist with their near to market commercialization needs. Giving firms the choice of where and how to conduct their R&D would be an innovation in itself in a system that currently force fits firms to work with universities alone.

To show leadership, Ottawa must clearly link skills development and innovation through its policies, programs and funding. What we need are "highly qualified and skilled people," not just doctoral graduates. "Best and brightest" can no longer be limited to the knowledge elite. Innovation is a team sport and we can't afford to leave talented, trained professionals on the bench, including trades people, technologists, technicians, business specialists — all college and polytechnic graduates. Like all good team sports we need the best players in each position to play to their strengths and help Canada compete.

Nobina Robinson is CEO of Polytechnics Canada, a national alliance of research-intensive colleges, polytechnics and institutes of technology. She served as a member of the recent federal Expert Review Panel on Research and Development.