News That Matters To You

By Mark Lowey
Canada requires an integrated national clean electricity grid, more supercomputing power and greater venture capital investment to achieve sustainable sovereign AI, say industry and academic leaders. To ensure the country has control and choice in AI and quantum, Canada also needs to take a different approach to the two technologies than U.S.-based hyperscalers and Big Tech, they said during a Canadian Science Policy Centre webinar.

By Mark Lowey
Canada is losing hundreds of its Canadian-educated top-tier startup founders to the U.S. because the country treats entrepreneurism as a charity rather than a high-stakes investment, as the U.S. does, says tech investor Jesse Rodgers. Economic and policy professional Charles Lammam says Canada has built a system that actively discourages business formation through regulatory burdens, reduced competition and uncompetitive taxation.

By Mark Lowey
Canadian startup founders are often forced to sell their growing companies to foreign buyers due to systemic barriers in domestic capital, procurement and talent retention, says a report by the Council of Canadian Innovators, The Impact Group and other partners. This loss of intellectual property and strategic leadership hinders Canada's ability to build global anchor companies, and more support is needed for domestic scaling companies.

By Andrew Maxwell
Canada must shift its research focus from curiosity-driven discovery to impact-oriented adoption to solve its persistent productivity crisis, says Andrew Maxwell at York University. By integrating social science insights and adopting research funding models focused on application and diffusion along with research, Canada can transform its research landscape into a responsive engine for long-term economic competitiveness.

By Jeffrey Crelinsten
Jeffrey Crelinsten explores how the inevitable laws of economic behavior, discovered by Burke Brown, suggest that policymakers should focus on playing to national strengths rather than fighting income inequality with uniform support. By embracing individual and industrial advantages, Canada can build global enterprises that foster prosperity for all.

By Mark Lowey
Calgary-based Avatar Innovations bridges the gap between rigid, safety-critical corporate structure and creative agility by training energy industry professionals in both leadership and technology development. The corporate venture studio empowers mid-career professionals to build and deploy workable solutions, from decarbonization in the oil and gas industry to improving electrical grid reliability, while retaining equity in their own innovations.

By Andrew Maxwell
Canada’s persistent productivity lag stems from a cultural preference for research over diffusion and adoption of new technologies, argues Andrew Maxwell of York University. To drive meaningful economic growth, the nation must shift from an invention-focused mindset to a systemic approach that prioritizes continuous improvement, rewards experimentation, develops management capability, and understands the social science of innovation.

By Mark Lowey
Canada has world-class AI research and talent but struggles to translate these advantages into domestic commercial success due to low corporate adoption of AI and procurement hurdles, experts told a Mitacs webinar presented by the Canadian Science Policy Centre. Bridging the gap between research, innovation and industry application, and buying from Canadian AI companies, are essential to retain talent and build a competitive national ecosystem.

By Mark Lowey
Canada’s health care system currently stifles domestic innovation by prioritizing lowest-bidder procurement over economic value to the entire system, experts told Research Money's 25th annual conference. They argue that shifting to a value-based model that rewards both clinical and economic outcomes is essential to fix this fragmented and risk-averse system and retain homegrown medical technology startups.