NRC launches online consultation to refine future investment strategies

Builds on work by expanded foresight group

The National Research Council (NRC) is launching an unprecedented online consultation this week to help the agency shape its investment strategy in emerging technologies. The Game Changing Technologies Initiative is the latest step in a process that started six months ago. It is led by NRC Foresight, a bolstered technology foresight group that's a key driver of the NRC's transformation to a research technology organization (RTO).

NRC Foresight occupies a particularly powerful position in the refreshed organization. With McDougall as its champion, the group is headed by Pam Bjornson, DG of knowledge management, acting executive VP and former DG of the NRC's Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI).

To date, it has identified nine "game-changing opportunities" (see chart next page) including advanced manufacturing (AM). The group's advocacy for AM received the endorsement of the prime minister last November, thrusting Canada into an red-hot field where the US, Japan and others are investing heavily (R$, November 12/14). In Canada, CMC Microsystems is also betting on AM, which is featured prominently in its current strategic plan (R$, August 27/13).

The online crowd sourcing exercise runs from February 9 to 20 to solicit expert feedback on the work of NRC Foresight and identify "key players with whom strategic partnerships are critical for success".

NRC Foresight successfully advocated for a major new component in the agency's technology portfolio with the Factory of the Future (FOTF) program that encompasses the technologies that comprise advanced manufacturing (AM) (R$, November 27/14). While details on the program remain scarce, the initiative was given further policy affirmation with the inclusion of AM in the refreshed Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (R$, December 10/14).

"Manufacturing is important to Canada and is quickly evolving around the world. We don't want to chase the cost reduction agenda but lead the innovation agenda and be on the leading edge with a value proposition," says NRC president John McDougall. "This is about more integrated manufacturing — whole and sub-systems and tiers of suppliers. We'd like to drive this up to Tier I and Tier II and not just Tier III. Intelligence has to be built-in and the Factory of the Future is designed to do this."

McDougall won't divulge the precise budget of the FOTF program but says it's "several tens of millions of dollars" to cover major capital expenditures. Existing facilities in London and Montreal will be expanded and a new facility will be constructed in Winnipeg. (Custom-made buildings which once housed the NRC's Winnipeg-based Institute of Biodiagnostics remain on the market but have yet to attract a buyer.)

"We're doing design work on the program that needs to be completed. We know what industry requires and the things they need to build into their roadmaps 10 and 20 years from now," he says. "We've been discussing it with a lot of people including NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). An advanced manufacturing summit is also being planned for North America. We're talking about it."

With its expanded foresight group, NRC is positioning itself as a primary source for what many consider an essential element of technology and economic planning.

"We're using and sharing the capacity of the foresight group with others in government. We hope to be the go-to place for foresight," says McDougall.

Jack Smith, a former senior corporate strategist at NRC and a Univ of Ottawa adjunct professor of technology, says McDougall is responsible for reinvigorating the unit at NRC and is well versed in technology foresight and its role in developing technology roadmaps.

"If you're going to be in the technology business you need to know what's on the horizon," says Smith, principal with Technology Foresight Collaborative Insights Canada Inc. "When I was at NRC we tried the same thing but this is more aggressive. It needs to be more connected to NRC's operational groups."

Smith says the NRC allowed its foresight activities to languish following his departure from the agency in 2007 to lead the foresight initiative at the Office of the National Science Advisor until that body was shut down in 2007 (R$, January 21/08).

"I am cautiously optimistic that NRC is now back on track to play a leadership role in S&T foresight," says Smith. "Foresight is most effective when pointed toward helping to set longer term agendas and influence government strategies for R&D and regulatory preparedness ... The Game Changers initiative, as a crowd sourced action, is at least going in the right direction."

While NRC develops processes for establishing future strategic direction, it's also busy on a number of fronts as a newly minted RTO with a significant research base, engaging industry with its new suite of programs.

With a steady budget ($934 million in FY14-15) and a slowly growing staff (3,687 as of January 15), the organization is boosting its profile and industry engagement across a wide spectrum of industry sectors.

"We've done a good job with industry engagement and articulating. Now we need to focus on performance management as we're behind a bit — 12 to 15 months behind in terms of the overall roll-out," says McDougall. "The security issue last year was a serious problem. We needed to monitor confidence in the community and we addressed it aggressively."

Last year NRC experienced a serious cyber attack that forced the agency to enhance its information technology infrastructure, disrupting its transformation as it worked to determine the scope of the breach and guard against future attacks.

But McDougall says other key factors in the delay were finding the right people within industry who "had the pocketbook to play". The NRC culture itself has been another issue.

"I came in believing we could meet the time target but the changes were a bigger cultural change for people than I thought. (Staff) are being put in an environment where partners are required so there's been a lot of teaching of people," he says. "It's a different model so there's been lots of teaching and training but at the same time people need to stay creative to keep on the leading edge."

Internationally, NRC has been making considerable headway in extracting benefits from its associate member status in Eureka, a decentralized, Europe-wide intergovernmental network for market-driven industrial R&D. McDougall says Canada is number one in Eureka with 29 projects worth €30 million. NRC is now looking at opportunities with Eurostar II which it joined last June.

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