Ontario streamlines commercialization programs with client-focused network

Details to follow in coming weeks

The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) is set to execute a dramatic re-alignment of its programs under a new moniker that will increase the profile and influence of the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and the MaRS Discovery District. The Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE) will feature a new advisory board, an increased emphasis on client focus and a reduction in core programs from 12 to four.

The transformation of the current Ontario Commercialization Network (OCN) into ONE was announced by John Wilkinson as his last address as minister of MRI before moving over to the Revenue ministry. The task of implementation falls to his successor, John Milloy, who also holds the position of minister of Training Colleges and Universities.

The announcement was accompanied by a frank assessment of the province's strengths and weaknesses in moving promising technologies and discoveries into the marketplace, summarized in the slogan: From Good to Great.

"It isn't enough to out the pieces in place to support innovators in Ontario. We've also got to make sure the pieces work together in a strategic, coordinated way. We've got to break down silos," said Wilkinson, who noted that the weakest link in the province's innovation system is commercialization. "If we were starting from scratch today, we wouldn't create a bunch of different, overlapping programs. We would build all kinds of different partnerships with 20 or so organizations with different governance, different metrics and different funding mechanisms. We wouldn't build a network with little built-in incentive for all the partners to work together. And, most important, we wouldn't put politicians and civil servants at the centre."

Last fall, MRI completed a review of OCN and commissioned a report by a steering committee headed by former MRI DM Dr Alastair Glass. That report found that the OCN was fragmented and too heavily weighted towards academic research.

The Glass report called for the creation of an advisory board and secretariat within MRI to be replaced by an arm's length agency for developing independent policy, program and funding decisions (R$, March 30/09). While the province has endorsed the report's concept of a so-called mesh network with multiple entry points, the province has yet to indicate whether it will follow through with an arm's length agency.

follows Alberta moves

Ontario's actions closely follow similar moves by the province of Alberta, which earlier this year announced a significant realignment and reduction of its research and innovation organizations. The Alberta strategy called for four new board-governed organizations at semi arm's length from government as well as a revived Alberta Science and Research Authority (ASRA) to simplify access to and navigation of the innovation system (R$, March 30/09).

Unlike the Alberta realignment, which covered all aspects of the province's innovation system, the Ontario overhaul only pertains to MRI's commercialization activities. Programs that remain unchanged include the Ontario Research Fund, Biopharmaceutical Investment Program, Emerging Technologies Fund, Ontario Venture Capital Fund and Premier's Innovation Awards.

In Ontario, ONE will be designed as a single, coordinated network overseen by an advisory board comprised of representatives from the business, investment and research communities. Existing programs will be streamlined and consolidated – centrally structured but with multiple points of entry.

The four programs areas include": industry-academic collaboration lead by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE); support for Ontario-based firms seeking to bring new technologies to market with MaRS Discovery District acting as a provincial a business accelerator, focused on the development of entrepreneurs required to run a new generation of tech ventures.; strengthened regional organizations across the province to deliver core programs; and, strategic funding delivered through MRI such as the Innovation Demonstration Fund.

"This is a great time to do this. The time is now, especially with the economic crisis. It has to be through innovation that we confront our economic challenges," says OCE president and CEO Mark Romoff. "(ONE) will ensure than the OCN works together to achieve Ontario's innovation agenda. That plays to the heart of our (OCE's) mandate."

(Romoff announced on July 7 that he was stepping down as head of the OCE, effective September 25th).

OCE and MaRS are key regional innovation networks within the current OCN along with regional organizations such as the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation and Waterloo's Communitech. Romoff says the strong collaboration between OCE and MaRS combined with their success in a recent competition of the federal Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program give the organizations national as well as provincial clout.

"We also collaborate with other federal entities and ONE is an evolution of our mandate," says Romoff. "We're being recognized and being asked to be a principal player in this space ...We will focus on our good track record of commercializing technology and make it a gold standard. We also have the benefit of a new CECR to strengthen our program delivery and better engage clients."

Another critical recommendation of the Glass report is the call for reward incentives based on a consistent set of metrics. Organizations that can demonstrate strong results will receive increased funding to establish a competitive environment within the innovation system.

"One of the first things we would ask the advisory board to do is define the right metrics for success," said Wilkinson. "The right metrics will help us to create a far more responsive, more effective, more collaborative, more adaptable network (to) ensure we can identify, reward and communicate success."

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