Precarn increasing research partnerships as impact of intelligent systems grows

Precarn Inc is looking to expand its funding base as intelligent systems and robotics expand their influence and become enabling technologies for a wide variety of sectors. Currently half way through a five-year, $20-million grant from Industry Canada, the Ottawa-based, not-for-profit national consortium is hoping that a higher profile and an extensive outreach program will bring in new funding collaborators while it ramps up discussions with the federal government to provide stable funding.

Founded in 1987, Precarn and its affiliated Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) – the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) – has grown from being primarily a funder and manager of larger projects in the area of natural resources to an integrated consortium focused largely on SMEs in several sectors. With extensive collaboration with other federal departments and agencies and several provinces, its reach now extends into manufacturing, health, the environment, transportation and aerospace.

“We want to go beyond the larger Precarn network, our alliance network and SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises),” says Dr Anthony Eyton, Precarn’s president and CEO. “In the future I see a consolidated network of university researchers and companies developing enabling technologies. But the scope to do more is currently limited by a lack of money and particularly people.”

In the 2000 Budget, Precarn’s allocation of federal funding was nearly doubled to $20 million. At that time, it began to establish funding and collaborative links with organizations such as CANARIE Inc, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Climate Change Secretariat and several federal departments and regional agencies. The result was an additional $15 million in funding over five years, augmented with funding received by IRIS. Collectively, the two organizations have 40 active projects that span the R&D spectrum, from university laboratories to beta testing for commercial applications.

“We create one broad network of university researchers and company partners that makes us unique in two ways,” says Eyton. “First is our collaborative model. We always have at a minimum a technology developer company, a beta test bed user and a university researcher … And our network spans basic university research to commercial products allowing for the development of intelligent systems from the lab to prototype to application.”

With a revamped fee structure now in place, Precarn is firing on all cylinders with a strategic technology focus on enabling, embedded intelligent systems. Firms now pay much less to join the Precarn consortium and are only required to pay more when they are participating in a research project. With the change to essentially a user pay model, membership in Precarn has increased from approximately 30 core members to more than 60. When membership in the IRIS NCE is added in, the total exceeds 100, many of which are small firms.

The number of Canadian companies involved in creating intelligent systems has also ballooned from about 35 when Precarn was first established to more than 300 today. That number expected to double by 2006.

Precarn has an annual burn rate of $7-8 million supporting $20 million in projects a year. And it’s also making inroads at the provincial level. A regional alliance program launched under former Precarn head Harry Swain has resulted in MOU’s with the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Alberta Research Council, Saskatchewan Research Council, BC Advanced Systems Institute, Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal and Centre for Marine Communications. Those partnerships have provided access to a greater number of SMEs than previously possible.

Conventional Precarn projects are funded up to a maximum if $1 million representing up to 40% of the value of a project. For projects under the alliance program, participating companies must contribute at least 25% of the total cost, with Precarn contributing a maximum of 37.5%, or up to $200,000 per project. That amount must be matched by the appropriate alliance partner.

Precarn now has more projects on the go with more partners than at any other time in its history. But research activity will soon slow significantly as it moves into the latter stages of its five-year budget cycle. Completed projects will not be replaced by new initiatives until the federal government decides to renew funding, resulting in a boom-and-bust funding pattern that disrupts partnerships and the movement of technologies into the marketplace. Discussions are ongoing with Industry Canada to find a solution, with the possibility of bridge funding until a permanent funding source can be secured.

“Industry Canada is aware of our situation and our characterization of camel-hump funding. It’s a total waste of energy because we lose momentum and members,” says Eyton. “We are currently well funded but we will have to be increasingly cautious with future requests for proposals.”

In the meantime, Precarn is seeking alternate funding on a number of fronts. It is in discussions with other government organizations and departments to determine how it can contribute to their mandates. Those potential partners are diverse in nature, and if successful will join established partnerships with CANARIE, CSA and others. The largest collaborating partners are CANARIE, which has committed $10 million over five years and the CSA, which is contributing $1.7 million — far less than the $5 million originally discussed.

“The CSA ran into budgetary problems of its own and had to hatchet back,” says Eyton. “If its funding pressures are less stringent in the future, we anticipate there will be more money from the CSA in the next fiscal year or two.”

Eyton is well aware that partnerships with many relevant research organizations have yet to be tapped. A case in point is the Val D’or Experimental Mine, part of Natural Resources Canada’s CANMET Mining and Mineral Sciences Laboratories branch. The Val D’or facility is conducting research on mining mechanization and automation. These are areas in which Precarn is active, yet no collaboration exists.

“There’s a disconnect between research organizations,” he says. “We are very active in the mining sector but we have to get better known.”

A new and aggressive communications strategy has been launched which is aimed at raising the Precarn profile. It is also intended to alert the government to Precarn’s contribution to economic development and Canada’s competitiveness.

“We need to raise our profile so the government will see us as an ongoing, valuable partner,” says Eyton. “Canada wants to move from 15th to 5th in R&D spending and we want to be part of the innovation to 2010 and beyond.”

R$