Statistics Canada’s 2023 Survey on Research Activities and Commercialization of Intellectual Property in Higher Education came out this week. A few items stand out: - About 10% of the partnerships and contracts were with the college sector, vastly exceeding the college share (about 3%) of Federal research funding. - The college sector provided support to more SMEs than universities (9K vs 6.5K) The college sector dominated the delivery of prototypes & minimum viable products, and was over-represented in providing SMEs with networking and introduction support. - Universities dominated many of the other types of support provided, including the filing of IP disclosures (90%), but more than 50% of the licenses went to foreign organizations. Perhaps it’s a good thing that only 2.5% of the contracts and partnerships led to an IP disclosure. So, who you gonna call? #Canada #Innovation #SMEs #Colleges #Universities
Brett Sharp
2w
A small clarification: the StatsCan release states “Just over half (51.4%) of all licenses were granted by postsecondary institutions to foreign organizations.” That’s not the same as saying that more than half of patents are licensed abroad — many licenses cover things like biological materials, research tools, and software, often on a non-exclusive basis. In fact, the AUTM Survey for 2023 shows that about two-thirds of all licenses issued by Canadian institutions were non-exclusive, and only around 23% were exclusive patent licenses. It’s also worth noting the very next line of the report: “An opposite pattern was observed for options, with 84.5% of options being awarded by postsecondary institutions to Canadian organizations.” Since options are almost always tied to exclusive (often patent) licenses, this suggests that the bulk of exclusive patent rights are actually staying with Canadian organizations, while non-exclusive licenses (to tools, materials, etc.) are more widely distributed internationally.
“Past performance is not indicative of future results. Any projections, forecasts, or forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially.” 😀 Seriously, I am doing some research on this and the outcomes of NSERC funding...bottom line, as enhancing productivity is not YET an NSERC objective - any other outcome would be surprising.
So roughly 40% more SMEs reached for 1/33 th of the funding. That is approximately 50x efficiency for the invested dollar in reaching SMEs through innovation. The heart of Canada's businesses are SMEs and innovation is our Achilles' heel. Unfortunately, Bert, I don't know who to call anymore!
NSERC has an excellent Technology Access Centres (TAC) program that funds Canadian Colleges to provide access and applied technology consulting services their local and regional SME's. To obtain NSERC TAC funding, College applicants are rigorously reviewed by two expert peer review committees and typically focus on providing applied technical expertise relevant to the SME clusters most economically relevant to their adjacent jurisdictions.
Mark Olson
3w
In Alberta our colleges, Olds College of Agriculture & Technology and Red Deer Polytechnic in particular, punch well above their weight. OC and RDP provide entrepreneurs practical support. Our Universities push solutions they are desperately trying to find problems for. Time to allocate the funding where the value is being provided.
Robert Luke
3w
Thanks Bert for the astute commentary as always. This report is really interesting - for the reasons above, and for the focus on SMEs - the vast majority of our industrial ecosystem.
Mark Olson
2w
Yet who is leading Canada's "AI Strategy Task Force"?: Academia and advisory: 13 Entrepreneur: 7 Administration: 3 Large enterprise: 2 Capital: 1 Yet, somehow, this is supposed to deliver better results than in past. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/olsonmn_ai-aiincanada-cdninnovation-activity-7377701686787809280-w1Np
All good, Canadian innovation is helping Canadian companies and the Canadian economy. If only we could assess the latest data in 2025 ASAP. At #eVision, we are implementing #Synto AI engines to help enhance funding allocations for the most meritorious projects.
Thanks for this, Bert!
Strategic advice for research and innovation policy
3whttps://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/daily-quotidien/250929/dq250929a-eng.pdf