Westlink lining up follow-on funding as internship program gathers steam

Westlink Innovation Network Ltd is gearing up for its second round of internships and finalizing funding agreements with its federal, provincial and academic partners, as it rolls out its full core areas of training, networking and technology bundling. The not-for-profit organization also appears to have abandoned its original strategy to expand the Westlink concept into a national program, opting instead to strike alliances with similar organizations across Canada (R$, May 28/01).

Under the new leadership of Derek Gantz, Edmonton-based Westlink anticipates that Western Economic Diversification (WD) will renew its two-year pilot program for technology transfer and commercialization interns at the same funding level or higher, with a second term slated to begin in May/03. The WD funding agreement is half way through its four-year phase and the renewal period would last three years. Negotiations are also continuing between the not-for-profit organization and the four western provinces. Funding is also provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council through its Intellectual Property Management program.

“We’re not looking at dramatic growth. We’re a member-focused organization and we don’t want to outstrip our ability to serve or members,” says Gratz, who assumed the presidency in April from Dr Jim Murray, who remains a senior advisor. “We recently added six new members who provide Westlink with a broader spectrum of commercialization and innovation (see chart) and we are looking to add similar organizations in the future.”

The Westlink internship program has gained considerable attention for its hands-on approach to implementing its mission of accelerating the rate of successful commercialization discoveries made by its member organizations. The pilot program accepted 19 candidates (out of a field of 200 applicants) who proceed through a highly structured two-year program comprised of three, eight-month phases.

Candidates are placed in either technology transfer offices, high technology companies or venture capital firms. They are currently in the seond phase, with the final phase slated to begin in September.

“We did a follow-up evaluation and the program got rave reviews from the interns and the organizations where they were placed. The matches have been quite successful,” says Gratz.

With its training and networking components now up to steam, Westlink is turning its attention to the third component of its mandate — technology building. The medical devices sector has been chosen for an initial two-year pilot, due to its relative strength in the four Western provinces. A strategic planning seminar is scheduled for June 19 and will include all stakeholders.

“We’ll be looking for ways to help small colleges and universities identify what they’ve got while the large universities will be looking for synergies,” says Gratz. “We want to increase linkages between the researchers and technology developers and small-and medium-sized enterprises.”

Information technology (IT) and courseware will also be the focus of technology bundling. An ecommerce software tool developed at the Univ of British Columbia called Clickbox will be employed to assist research groups to determine whether there is market interest in their software. The exercise will focus on software IT technologies developed in an academic environment and establishing linkages with companies and other institutions. Technology bundling will also be applied in the future to agricultural biotechnology.

Westlink faces a major challenge in its quest to build capacity from Western-developed technology. It’s estimated that more than 1,000 discoveries are made in Western Canada each year, creating a huge demand for tech transfer and management personnel.

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