NSERC moving to strengthen ties to industry with new Strategic Partnerships Initiative

The rush towards realignment has spread to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) with a revamping of its industry partnership and assistance programs that aim for a greater emphasis on commercial and social outcomes. Released with considerable fanfare via multiple announcements across the country, the Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation (SPI) will initially be deployed with existing resources with full implementation dependent upon additional funding.

NSERC currently spends approximately $310 million a year on a variety of R&D partnership initiatives with industry, including those forged through programs such as the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) and the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE). While that funding has facilitated more than 1,500 partnerships, it accounts for just a fraction of the 20,000 companies that are active in R&D.

"We're going the next step and stepping up our game. We want to make an impact," says NSERC president Dr Suzanne Fortier. "We will launch with the resources we have. This is extremely important."

Beyond the hackneyed terminology employed to frame and promote the new strategy (building bridges, removing speed bumps and building highrises), the SPI contains a suite of specific actions flowing from four strategic themes: building sustainable relationships, streamlining access, connecting people and skills and focusing on national priorities.

Some of the proposed initiatives will be launched immediately, including support for market studies, project management expenses and the re-orientation of NSERC's five regional offices towards commercialization centres by focusing primarily on industry-academic partnerships. The five-year goal is to double academic-industry partnerships from their current level of approximately 1,500 to 3,000.

"We will not take out of the Discovery Grants part of NSERC. We will use funds within the partnerships area more effectively," says Fortier, adding that NSERC will be seeking additional funding in the next federal Budget. "The Strategy is not a dramatic departure (from current practices). It's building on and moving to the next level and becoming more user friendly."

Among the proposed initiatives requiring additional funding are several larger programs. One of the more intriguing is the proposal to establish technology access centres (TAC) similar to the 31 College Centres for Technology Transfer associated with Quebec's network of CEGEPs. The TAC would be business-oriented and designed to facilitate timely collaboration between SMEs and universities, colleges and polytechnics.

"CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC share a common vision to develop a more agile, dynamic, and responsive approach to funding research to exploit Canada's strengths to their full potential, to raise the bar of excellence, and to ensure the international competitiveness of Canadian research, creativity and innovation … Further investment will help advance solutions to some of Canada's most challenging economic, health, environmental and societal problems, and will bring together academics, business owners, communities, and other stakeholders to seize exceptional strategic opportunities for regional, national and international partnerships"—

Tri-Council pre-Budget submission to Standing Committee on Finance

"Industry can go there to forge R&D partnerships. They are used by SMEs (in Quebec) and they find them extremely useful," says Fortier, adding that the expertise resident in these cost-recovery centres could be instrumental in helping small firms grow to become medium-size enterprises. The SPI also proposes further collaboration with the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program and the Business Development Bank of Canada along the lines of the recently established $15-million nanotechnology research initiative (R$, April 30/08). The nano initiative was first announced in the 2007 federal S&T Strategy with the intention of expanding the model if it proved successful.

The SPI is also considering the implementation of large-scale collaborative research initiatives in the same vein as the $145-million Automotive Partnerships Canada initiative (R$, September 22/09). Fortier says large-scale initiatives would be considered "exceptional opportunities" that require rapid response.

"With these initiatives you come when you're ready and there's a two-month response time," says Fortier. "Many universities say these opportunities exist but they can't make the deal because they don't have enough to put on the table. If we want to be a key player at the world level, we must move faster."

While SPI is not a dramatic departure from current NSERC practices, it is fully in sync with overall federal strategy.

"The strategy is a very good plan of action and we are very much aligned at the highest level," she says.

R$