Flurry of activity on commercialization front and prospect of new fund in run-up to Budget

The federal government’s March 23rd Budget is expected to unveil a long-awaited commercialization fund that it hopes will contribute to a new era of innovation and enhanced productivity. Recent activity in preparation for the new fund has been intense, with senior officials from the Prime Minister’s Office holding meetings dedicated to commercialization with various stakeholders.

Details are hard to come as the fund begins to take shape, but this much is known. The government investment will be substantial and leverage additional money from other sources. The concept is to make it big enough gain attention internationally. The fund will exploit existing critical mass by focusing on Canada’s clusters of expertise — good news for information and communication technologies, life sciences and aerospace.

It is still not clear whether the government will create a new vehicle to deliver its commercialization assistance or utilize an existing program. There’s growing speculation that Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) could be the mechanism of choice, necessitating a radical overhaul and re-positioning that would have the side benefit of addressing concerns over its dominant focus on aerospace and meager return on investment. Criticism of TPC within the research community has come primarily from companies in the health sciences sector, which are pushing for a separate vehicle to address their particular commercialization challenges. As reported earlier, a major initiative called Health Innovation Canada is currently circulating (R$, December 11/03).

There’s also a possibility that the government will delay the introduction of a dedicated fund and opt instead to increase capitalization of the Business Development Bank of Canada, earmarking the new funding for early-stage investments.

It’s unlikely that the Budget will embrace or fund Innovation Canada (I-Can), a multi-faceted commercialization initiative spearheaded by the Alberta Research Council. The I-Can proposal would feature a national network of research infrastructure to be used on a contract basis and a market-driven mechanism for small business that would be aligned with the Industrial Research Assistance Program. Its backers are apparently not requesting funding for a full rollout in the current Budget, although it continues to seek seed funding to further develop the concept.

The Advisory Council on Science and Technology (ACST) has also been active in providing last minute advice, following the submission of its latest report on research and commercialization last December. ACST deputy chair Dr Jacquelyn Thayer-Scott recently travelled throughout Ottawa, meeting with departmental DMs and ADMs, as well as incoming national science advisor Dr Arthur Carty, Joe Fontana, parliamentary secretary for science and small business and Industry minister Lucienne Robillard.

PRE-BUDGET ACTIVITY FOR THE ACST

This week, the ACST is staging a roundtable discussion on the issue of venture capital (VC) financing to seek input from business leaders. The roundtable will seek to assess the challenges and opportunities of early-stage commercialization from the perspective of the VC industry, universities and government. That follows the ACST’s work in early March to schedule a whirlwind series of meetings between senior government and research officials and Dr Rich Adams, Battelle’s senior VP for International Partnerships. Adams was already in Toronto meeting with the officials from Ontario Centres of Excellence program and others. The ACST became involved when approached by Dr Ilse Treurnicht, president/CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures Inc, who suggested an Ottawa leg of Adams’ visit.

The ACST has also issued a questionnaire this month to companies that figure prominently in private sector R&D spending. The questionnaire contains eight questions to gather views on commercialization-related challenges and solutions at the university-industry interface. Questions focus on issues such as intellectual property ownership, the lack of pre-seed and seed-stage capital, the supply of skilled workers, mechanisms for technology development and commercialization models such as Battelle Corp and the Fraunhofer Institutes.

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