Popularity of Engage program helps boost academic-small company collaboration

NSERC regional offices play central role

A relatively new industry-focused program being offered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is growing like wildfire, having caught the attention of smaller firms eager to tap into the expertise and resources of the academic sector. Engage Grants — part of NSERC's suite of Industry Driven Collaborative Research and Development Programs — is on track to fund more than 1,000 companies in FY12-13 at a cost of about $26 million.

That's up significantly from FY11-12 when 719 firms received Engage grants of approximately $25,000 each, for a total cost of $18.3 million. Engage was launched in November/09 as part of NSERC's revamping of its industry partnership and assistance programs and the launch of its Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation (R$, December 9/09). Extensive consultation and analysis revealed that while NSERC had a long-standing group of programs dedicated to stimulating the university-industry interface, smaller firms (SMEs) including start-ups were under-represented when compared to the granting council's engagement with large firms.

"There was a gap in smaller R&D performers. We were not tapping into them effectively," says Janet Walden, NSERC's VP Research Partnerships Program. "There was trouble finding the right industrial partner on the research side and finding the right people (in academia) on the business side. We needed to create opportunities for people to meet."

NSERC identified four themes where the agency could do more to engage smaller firms: focus on sustained activity rather than one-off projects, streamline access, develop flexible policies and opportunities including modification of its intellectual property policy and conduct more project management and access studies.

To that end, the focus of NSERC's regional offices was refined, giving them a primary focus of building industrial relationships. For smaller firms, the Engage program became the main attraction, followed by the Applied Research and Development (ARD) Grants program for colleges and polytechnics.

NSERC's five regional offices are the main conduit for linking small Canadian-based firms with academic partners. The offices have held more than 150 connector events, often in conjunction with third party organizations such as university industrial liaison offices and industry associations, according to Barbara Muir, director of regional development with responsibility for the Engage program. These events provide opportunities for networking, building initial relationships and encounters, leveraging the Engage program to build up firms until they're ready to participate in larger projects supported by Collaborative R&D grants.

CRD projects are larger and more complex than Engage projects, requiring firms to match or exceed the NSERC contribution including half in cash. Project proposals are also peer reviewed.

building sustained relationships

"Engage grants are about establishing relationships between researchers that have never worked with industry before on projects that are focused and have a specific duration of six months. For SMEs, it's the fast turnaround. The average turnaround for Engage grants is 32 days," says Walden. "Companies can apply at any time and there's low risk for companies — no cash upfront and the IP belongs to the company. This speeds the process up because it's really about solving industry problems."

Of the firms receiving Engage support, 88% are classified as small- and medium-sized enterprises. Small firms account for 71% while 41% have 10 employees or less.

Companies are required to provide in-kind contributions (mostly personnel time) which accounts for approximately 50% of project funding. The low-risk, high-yield nature of Engage grants has generated considerable enthusiasm. Ottawa-based Robustion Technologies Inc, which works with small companies to assist in early-stage growth, has received excellent feedback on the Engage program.

"Engage is a really great way for companies to work with universities in a way that meets the company's direct needs," says Robustion co-founder Joanne Johnson. "The traditional challenge of companies working with universities is it's on the university's timeline and the universities own the IP. Engage is an effective way for companies to become aware of what universities can do for them. In Canada, industry is less integrated with academics than in other countries."

The success of the Engage program led to the more recent ARD grant program for colleges and polytechnics. To date, 107 awards worth $2.4 million have been made with 36 colleges participating.

For the time being, NSERC is more than happy to watch the increase in uptake for the Engage program, encouraged by the "extremely positive feedback on both sides", according to Walden. NSERC's financial resources are constrained, however, particularly with the austerity measures introduced in the last Budget. "There will be a point where we will have to put a cap or limit on the program but we're not at that stage. Is there a saturation point? We haven't seen that yet" she says.

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