U of T-led proposal to examine Canada's ICT sector receives $2.9 million in SSHRC funding

An ambitious proposal from the Univ of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs to examine Canada's digital economy performance from a global perspective has received a $2.9-million award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Creating Digital Opportunity: Canada's ICT Industry in Global Perspective (CDO) was successful in SSHRC's latest Partnership Grants program and has commitments for an additional $2.2 million from its partners, providing the six-year initiative with $5.1 million.

CDO's principal investigator, Dr David Wolfe, has assembled investigators from 16 universities and 12 partners from companies, cities and other organizations to examine the challenges and opportunities being created by the rapid pace of innovation of digital technologies and the shifting global leadership in the field.

A major collaborator in CDO is the Canadian International Council (also housed at the Munk school), which agreed to support research into Canada's global status in the digital economy and be a lead partner. After pitching the concept to SSHRC, Wolfe met with key players in Canada's digital economy, lining up an impressive list of partners including three private sector players (see chart).

CDO will focus on the local context for global networks, analyze Canada's position in global production and innovation networks and probe the role of digital infrastructure in building intelligent communities. But perhaps the biggest component of the project will an examination of the adoption of digital technologies by non-digital sectors such as mining, agriculture and advanced manufacturing.

In a document prepared for its SSHRC application, Wolfe notes that digital technologies are "rapidly transforming manufacturing industries such as steel and autos" with the integration of digital technology and mechanical processes promising even more revolutionary changes, among them the much-discussed "Internet of Everything".

"The largest number of researchers will be looking at the application of ICT across other sectors of the economy ... Canada continues to be a relatively slow adopter of ICT, especially when compared to the US," says Wolfe, a professor of political science at the Univ of Toronto Mississauga and co-director of the Munk school's recently established Innovation Policy Lab. "We'll be holding academic conferences, releasing publications and using our partners to do the research as we go. This is very different from previous MCRIs (SSHRC's Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program)."

The project will examine how Canada can better integrate itself into global production and global innovation networks, many of which are anchored in intelligent cities with cutting-edge digital infrastructure — an area where Canada's lead has been deteriorating.

At the company level, Canada has grapple with the growing problem of losing promising digital technology firms to deep pocketed foreign companies.

"Does it matter if we keep these companies in Canadian hands? It's a critical issue and while it's not explicitly part of our program, it's been impacting my thinking lately."

CDO will hold a preliminary meeting next week and a full-fledged session with all participants in May/15.

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