New programs may help

Precarn Inc is moving towards a multi-source funding environment and seriously examining the new Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program as it adjusts to the new reality of federal S&T funding. After two years in the S&T policy wilderness, the not-for-profit corporation —dedicated to commercializing intelligent systems and robotics technologies — is implementing a strategy that aims to work with partners on a regional and sectoral basis.

Precarn has already been successful in leveraging its road-tested project management model with a major role in International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada (ISTPCanada) (R$, April 24/07). And, it is actively seeking new opportunities where intelligent systems and robotics can bolster the competitive position of other national and provincial organizations and sectors such as health care, automotive and the environment.

"We're looking for opportunities where we can manage research programs like the Business-led NCEs or where we can provide program management services in support of someone else's program," says Precarn president and CEO Paul Johnston. "We're hoping that by the time we get into the fall, we'll have one or two more of these agreements and we're able to show that this new model works."

The new Precarn funding strategy is to implement a multi-source model as opposed to the large core funding it has relied on in the past and will sustain its basic operations until 2009. In the last Liberal Budget before the change in government, Precarn's request for $150 million over seven years to support an ambitious expansion of its business plan was left unanswered.

Instead, it received a rollover of its previous funding levels ($20 million over five years) (R$, March 9/05). Subsequent attempts to sell its new vision to the Conservative government have been unsuccessful, leading to a major strategic shift.

"The Precarn request for one-off funding — a significant amount of core funding — is off the table as far as we can tell," says Johnston. "We now have to put ourselves in a position to respond to these new initiatives. The one that is most like Precarn is the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence … We have every intention of applying."

The BL-NCE program was announced in the latest federal Budget with funding of $11 million annually to support up to five new networks (R$, March 26/07). Although the terms and conditions of the program have yet to be announced, Johnston says it appears to be a natural for Precarn, allowing it to maintain its network and continue some of the university collaboration it supported while managing the defunct Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) NCE (1989-2006).

business-led networks follow precarn model

The BL-NCE has obvious similarities to the Precarn-IRIS collaborative model, in which projects involved a technology development company, an end-user and a university and/or community college. If Precarn was to successfully apply, it would allow it to continue with its scholars program which it launched under the IRIS banner. Johnston says the scholars program topped up the salary of graduate students allowing Canada to be competitive with other jurisdictions.

"We've always seen that our contribution to students is important to staying in Canada and keeping our network together," he says. "It provides us with access to professors across the country and keeps open our window to the latest technologies."

Precarn is also interested in the Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR) program (see lead story). Johnston has contacted Precarn's network members to indicate that it is open to collaboration on proposals where intelligent systems and robotics can contribute.

"We would like to combine an institute's excellence in the research area with Precarn's ability to commercialize new technologies and perhaps have a combination that might fit within that program," he says.

Precarn is also aggressively exploring sectoral collaboration with a particular emphasis on smaller automotive parts suppliers. Last month, it announced that it would be contributing $3 million towards a pilot program in conjunction with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (R$, May 15/07). Johnston says that if the pilot is successful, the Ontario government has indicated it is willing to discuss an expansion of its activities.

"We had a number of discussions with (the Ontario government) when it had the $500-million automotive fund. Now it has the $650-million green automotive initiative and the bio-auto council," he says. "The government is taking a wait-and-see attitude and letting the pilot run to see if it will work ... If we can prove the pilot, I think the Ontario government will be on board."

funding sources come full circle

In a very real sense, the multi-source funding universe of today brings Precarn full circle. When it was launched in the late 1980s, it was funded through the federal Strategic Technologies Program and by the provincial governments of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. When budget pressures prompted the provinces to pull their money off the table, Precarn relied more heavily on core funding from Industry Canada – a relationship that will come to an end in two years' time.

"Now the model is going back to, where is the funding? Who can we help? Our funding will come from a variety of different sources," says Johnston. "It could be regional or it could be sectoral such as health care, environmental technologies and automotive. In most cases there are areas that involve intelligent systems and robotics and those technologies can help productivity and competitiveness."

Johnston acknowledges that the multi-source funding model poses more challenges than core funding, but adds the rationale from the government's perspective makes sense.

"From our point-of-view it's less efficient in the sense that you're constantly in the business of searching out new programs, new sources and new concepts and then marketing and selling those ... But that seems to be the new reality," he says. "From the government's point-of-view it might be considered more effective because they're focusing their money. In the S&T Strategy, they talk about the need to focus better which a number of people have been calling for for a long time ... It makes perfect sense."

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