NSERC emphasis on industry engagement producing dramatic gains: report

A progress report on efforts by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to boost industry engagement shows that real gains are being achieved in making its suite of research partnerships programs more relevant to companies seeking to leverage university- and college-based research and skills for productivity gains and competitive advantage.

Launched in 2009, NSERC's Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation (SPI) has boosted the number of distinct companies it interacts with from 1,400 to 2,400, a 60% gain that makes its target of 3,000 after five years well within reach. Under the recently launched Engage program alone, 1,700 new projects have been launched including 800 companies that worked with NSERC for the first time.

The SPI isn't merely concerned with boosting the numbers of companies that participate in projects. It also strives to develop sustainable relationships between companies, researchers and students. As a result, the Collaborative R&D program has experienced 10% year-over-year growth despite being launched during a period of economic uncertainty. That has led to 87% of recent PhD graduates interning with a company securing fulltime employment – half with the companies they were interned with.

"We're thrilled with the results. We have culture-shifted at NSERC and re-structured how we deliver our programs. Our regional offices are a key part of this and they've helped us move closer to our target of 3,000 companies," says Janet Walden, NSERC's VP Research Partnerships Programs. "With our industry programs engaging students, visibility is still a challenge but the hands-on approach of the regional offices has made a huge difference in this area as well. There's been a 50% increase in fellowships."

In addition to its regional offices, NSERC has partnered with other organizations giving its industry-facing programs provincial, national and international exposure. Some of the organizations assisting NSERC include the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, the Business Development Bank of Canada and ISTP Canada, which has allowed NSERC to facilitate entry into markets such as China, India and Brazil.

Colleges are becoming an increasingly important element of NSERC's industry engagement strategy and the diversity of companies it is able to establish collaborations with. Delivered through the College and Community Innovation program, its budget has been increased accordingly from $15.5 million in FY09-10 to $34 million in FY12-13.

"Our support for applied R&D for colleges is similar to our Engage program (for universities) and we're noticing that colleges engage a different industry community," says Walden.

As part of the SPI progress report, NSERC polled companies to gauge impact of its Engage grant projects. It found that 94% described their projects as a success, 73 said the project would contribute to new business opportunities, 97% gained new knowledge or technology from the collaboration and 92% linked their projects to new product or prototype development.

Companies engaged in collaborative research projects reported that 75% had established collaborations with researchers that extended beyond the project itself while an impressive 98% said they transferred knowledge gained from the project into their businesses.

Prior to launching SPI, NSERC consulted widely with industry to determine how best to promote NSERC-supported ideas and people to the private sector. It also struck an industry committee and pulled its ideas and recommendations into the SPI with the broad purpose of realizing more value for Canadians from the government's investments in R&D. The progress report shows that the re-jigging of programs, increased promotion and streamlining of procedures and policies (including a more flexible intellectual property regime) is having a dramatic positive impact.

"When developing a strategy like this, filtering has to come through the right set of eyes. We had lots of ideas but they needed industry filtering," says Walden. "On our side, we brought the academic perspective to determine how far we could go with these programs and stay within our mandate."

R$