Greater collaboration and marketing required to boost impact of government laboratories

FPTT National Meeting

Most federal organizations don't have the capacity to absorb the results of knowledge mobilization and have much to learn about marketing and branding, delegates to a conference of federal technology transfer professionals were told last month. With increased emphasis on value for money, federal policy makers and business managers are anxious to adopt effective strategies and business models that allow them to realize the full potential of S&T investments while forging greater ties to industry.

With the exception of myriad small programs sprinkled throughout the federal government, departments and agencies are often hamstrung in their efforts to move discoveries, technologies and processes to the private sector for exploitation. And when the effort is made, negotiations often take years before collaboration bears fruit.

The national meeting of the Federal Partners in Technology Transfer (FPTT) is held annually to celebrate the best of those successes (see below) but it also serves to develop strategies and persuasive arguments for boosting knowledge translation and commercialization throughout government.

"I'm concerned about technology transfer and commercialization and working with business," says Jim Mintz, director of the Centre of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing. "(Government) needs to take much more of a marketing approach to how they do their work. There are some great technologies that come out of our laboratories ... but we try and keep them a secret. We're not out there. Marketing is about hustling."

Networking and collaboration are seen as two key areas where federal departments and agencies can improve. Marcel Mongeon, principal of Mongeon Consulting Inc and former executive director of McMaster Univ's Office of Research Contracts and Intellectual Property, says government researchers must attend networking events so that industry is aware of their expertise and can begin to development working relationships.

"We need to train people on the basis of collaborative research. People find each other through subject-specific networks. The Networks of Centres of Excellence that many ... people participate in, that is a Canadian specialty," says Mongeon. "Centres of excellence is the single most important policy initiative we've had in this country post World War Two ... Are you taking your researchers to networking events, are you taking them to meet industry prospects?"

Those within government are often frustrated by the lack of awareness for research collaboration and commercialization, although more and more examples of effective initiatives are sprouting up.

"Many of Canada's competitors have a plan for collaboration and partnerships but we're not quite there yet," says Dr Roman Szumski, VP life sciences at the National Research Council and former VP science and technology at MDS Inc. "People are in place that seem to be full time blockers (and) it's hard to explain (the benefits of collaboration and partnerships) to Treasury Board,"

Szumski says a key strength is multi-disciplinary R&D, which gives Canada an advantage over countries such as the US and China. If Canada can combine that strength with a more effective approach to collaboration and partnerships, a competitive advantage could emerge.

Szumski notes that there's a commitment to overcoming barriers within the S&T Integration Board, a group of associate DMs. He suggests moving quickly to projects and working around existing barriers, citing the collaborative impact of the annual Crossroads conference at the NRC's Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal.

Another effective model for overcoming barriers is the National Bioproducts Program, a joint initiative by NRC, Natural Resources Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Szumski says the collaborative model is unique internationally and is now focused on producing biofuel using marine algae as feedstock.

The NRC's Institute for Biodiagnostics in Winnipeg is behind another innovative initiative — Biomedical Commercialization Canada –— that is structured to deal with government red tape. Established as a private sector, not-for-profit business incubation organization, its goal is to assist start-ups and accelerate commercialization.

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