SSHRC Social Innovation announcement

Last Friday George Brown College was very pleased to host the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, and the announcement of the results of the second round of the SSHRC Social Innovation awards. GBC received 7 awards in this round, bringing to 11 our total of these new funds. Our researchers are engaged in a wide variety of innovative projects with community partners, from literacy to nutrition. See below for the list of our recipients. Congratulations to all, and to everyone across Canada who have received funding from this new and necessary program that supports college faculty.

Round 2:

Community Guide to Cancer Nutrition

Faculty: Amy Symington

Generating Success for Farm to School Programs

Faculty: Gary Hoyer

Job Talks: Innovative Study and Website for Recruitment in the Skilled Trades

Faculty: Jonathan Callegher

Adaptive Clothing for persons living with hemi-paresis

Faculty: Milan Shahani

The Early Childhood Cognitive Sensitivity Training Study

Faculty: Zeenat Janmohamed

Improving Health Numeracy in Health Science Students and Professionals Through an Online Instrument

Faculty: Taras Gula

Literacy Uplift

Faculty: Przemyslaw Pawluk

Round 1:

Partnership for Applied Research to Support the Development and Evaluation of the Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities Network (PSDNet) faculty: Charles Anyinam

Co-designing On-line Tools for Engagement and Holistic Crisis Planning with Diverse Youth Groups in the Region of Peel

faculty: Elise Hodson

From Margins to Center through Education: Integrating Victims of Torture and Political Oppression
Faculty : Jaswant Kaur Bajwa

Toys or Tools? Using Tablet Computers for Open-Ended Literacy Learning faculty: Monica McGlynn-Stewart

Polytechnics Canada and Conspicuous Contribution to Public Policy

The Annual Polytechnics Canada conference convened at Humber College last week, once again offering excellent discussion and contributions to Canadian public policy. "Learning that works" was the theme that saw very good keynote presentations ranging from insight from the Swiss education model to the changes being undertaken in Ontario. On the latter, MTCU Deputy Minister Sheldon Levy provided insights on innovating education, drawing on his work leading the Digital Media Zone Ryerson University.

Michael Horn, Co-Founder and Distinguished Fellow from Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation provided excellent insights into the disruption of education, showing how personalization of education and micro-credentials are setting up a sea change in the way education is proffered and taken. The rise of micro-credentials is something I've been interested in for some time, something I've outlined in a Globe and Mail op-ed in 2012 called Education should take a lesson from the open-source movement.

Another keynote by Jeff Selingo, Columnist for the Washington Post gave the crowd some additional insights into the employer context, specifically around the skills needed to thrive in the innovation economy. Career navigation is important to the current and ensuing generations, and providing skills such as curiosity, grit, creativity and contextual thinking are hallmarks of innovation literacy. GBC Research supports skills development with validation in micro-credentials via our innovation skills badges.

Navigation requires skills, which become the sextant for the innovation economy, enabling students to measure the angles between where they are and where they wish to go. Once again, Polytechnics Canada convenes a conference that demonstrates thought leadership through conspicuous contribution to public policy. 

Re$earch Money conference kicks off today

The 15th Annual Re$earch Money Conference kicks off today in Ottawa. This year's theme is Reversing the Trend: Taking Canada's Innovation Game to the Next Level, and the agenda features industry perspectives on innovation - sorely needed in the innovation policy space. Also of note is discussion on innovation talent and open innovation.

A highlight this year is a panel on the Technology Access Centre Network, as I outlined back in November. Ken Doyle, Executive Director of the TACCAT Network, has convened an excellent panel of industry clients from a handful of the TACs. The panel, to be moderated by Bettina Hamelin, VP Partnerships at NSERC, features the following:

• John Zimmerman, General Manager Ocean Rodeo (Victoria, BC) 
• H. Chaim Birnboim, MD, MSc , Founder and Chief Scientific Officer deltaDNA (Ottawa, ON) 
• Brian Robertson, Executive Consultant/Board Member Legend3D (Toronto, ON) 
• John Helliker, Director, Strategic Partnerships & Screen Industries Research and Training Centre, Sheridan College (Oakville, ON)

Re$earch Money is one of the better conveners of discussion on R&D and innovation policy. For those unable to attend in person the Conference is being live streamed - check this link for details.

Open Access and the Difference Makers

Minister of State for Science and Technology the Honourable Ed Holder today addressed the Economic Club on the federal government's Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy. The biggest news of the day was the announcement of the new Open Access Publishing policy for federally funded research. This is a Big Deal. What it means is that Canadians will have access to all published data of publicly funded research. The Tri-Council agencies have been working on this for some time and this is very good for the Canadian research community and the general public. Breaking down barriers between research and the public is a good thing to do. As a member of the SSHRC Programs and Quality Committee I am very pleased to see this reach fruition; SSHRC has been a strong supporter of this initiative. Congratulations are in order for all concerned.

Minister Holder gave a good overview of the government's new ST&I Strategy, outlining the investments in basic and applied research, from universities to colleges and industry-academic partnerships. He also spoke about the need to encourage more STEM education - I know Canada has a deficit here (as it does in industry investment in R&D, but that's coincidence not correlation or causation). Calling young people in STEM fields "the difference makers" Minister Holder outlined how youth today growing into STEM disciplines and careers are very much part of the foundation for the country's future. Making a difference is what counts, and entrepreneurship - a key tenet of the Strategy - is also a foundation of making a difference. On that note, check out StartGBC - our new gateway to entrepreneurship at George Brown College.

The GBC Green Building Centre: Open For Business Innovation

The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development agency of Southern Ontario (FEDDEV) and Member of Parliament for Etobicoke-Lakeshore Bernard Trottier were at our Casa Loma campus today to officially open the Green Building Centre. Many of our industry partners were on hand to celebrate the opening. The Green Building Centre is GBC's newest applied research facility that is supporting the growing Canadian green and smart building market. Prior to the ribbon cutting, The Minister, MP Trottier and industry guests toured the various labs developed with funding from FEDDEV:

• Building Information Modeling
• Advanced Prototyping
• Building Materials
• Building Sciences
• Building Automation

The Green Building Centre also features a Building Accelerator and Entrepreneurship Space for industry partners to work with our students and faculty on applied research projects.

Minister Goodyear, who in a former post was the Minister of State for Science and Technology, has presided over the development of the college applied research capacity in Canada. In his speech Minister Goodyear talked about the strengths of Canada's excellent basic science R&D capacity (as recently outlined by the Council of Canadian Academies), but the need to also focus on developing our business R&D capacity. Facilities like the Green Building Centre are helping companies to invest in R&D and to develop new products and services. This applied research helps to translate the results of basic science into innovation, which means jobs and wealth in the economy. Already the Green Building Centre  has resulted in 59 new jobs, and helped our partner firms commercialize new products in the green building industry.

When companies work with colleges and polytechnics on applied research, not only are new products taken to market, but the next generation of skilled, innovation-literate graduates gain valuable industry experience. This experience complements the technical skills gained through our programs. The multiplier effect of funding such as that from FEDDEV is helping George Brown College to help industry to innovate in important areas of the economy. (In addition to Green Building, we are very active through our Food Innovation Research Studio and in health technology). Today's opening marks the official launch of the Green Building Centre, where we are open for business innovation.

IRAP supports demand driven innovation: Business Innovation Access Program launched

The honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology was at Sheridan College today announcing the launch of the NRC Business Innovation Access Program (BIAP). BIAP, also known as innovation vouchers, were promised in Budget 2013. As Minister Rickford stated in his address to the crowd, the program features "hassle-free vouchers, valued up to $50,000 per project, to access business and technical services carried out by Canadian researchers and students." The vouchers are a direct result of the Jenkins Panel which recommended vouchers as a way to support firms to get access to talent, facilities and networks in Canada's postsecondary education institutions.

This is a smart update to the innovation toolkit - it puts the funding in the hands of firms and creates demand driven innovation - this is the "pull" model of R&D that Canada's polytechnics and colleges excel at, but which universities also do well. Linking these systems in Canada to provide business innovation support fosters an open innovation approach to encouraging firms to invest in the development of new products and services.

With BIAP firms can tap into business and technical services provided by innovation intermediaries such as colleges, polytechnics and universities. The program assumes there will be good industry awareness, so communication of the opportunity will be key. Also assumed is the effective working of the NRC concierge service, which was also recently launched. These programs reinforce innovation as a social activity, and their success is contingent on all actors in the innovation ecosystem - firms, intermediaries, economic development agencies and other governmental supports (NRC, OCE et al) - working together.

There is good precedent - not just for vouchers (as they have been successfully delivered in other parts of the country)  - but also for the innovation ecosystem approach. We are working toward an effective integration of the various players all in support of fostering greater productivity, here of firms to tap in to R&D capacity, but also more broadly of basic research conducted in our world leading labs. The Concierge service, much like the P3RD system, are oriented toward fostering greater transparency of who can provide services, where and how, and developing public-private partnerships to support R&D.

At a round table discussion about academic-industry partnerships after the announcement, Minister Rickford spoke about the importance of measuring outcomes, and of those providing services to use common forms and formats for reporting on how the BIAP service works.  Such outcomes should include both inputs and outputs, but also throughput: what firms find BIAP and how were they referred or otherwise located the service; how did they locate a PSE service provide; what kinds of services were required; how well were these matched to regional opportunities/service providers; what was the time required to launch a project; what the the time of the conduct of the project; did BIAP accelerate innovation for the firm; and what were the outcomes in terms of new products and services in the market.

There is a strong consonance here with the emergence of a collective capacity not just to foster greater productivity of R&D in firms and academia, but also of learning how best to benchmark performance against these kinds of goals. Canada has not really tackled these issues yet, but the discussion is at least focusing examining what we do and how we do it, in terms of innovation, and how can we leverage complementary systems to national advantage. And for BIAP at least, this means looking downstream at what firms are doing in the economy, and how those of us whose mandate it is to help can best support them.

For now, spread the word. Firms seeking innovation support should contact their local IRAP office.

Government of Canada announces new Canada First Research Excellence Fund

The Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology was at UofT today to announce the new Canada First Research Excellence Fund, as outlines in last week's Budget 2014. The fund is open to all post-secondary institutions, and will go a long way to leveraging and amplifying the government's S&T investments made over the years. The CFRE Fund represents a key vehicle for the country's leading basic and applied research organizations to leverage this work into greater productivity - better productivity of our basic research, linked to applied research and to industry and economic development, for improved productivity in the economy as a whole.

There was good discussion by the Minister and other speakers about the importance not only of investing in the entire spectrum of research - from basic to applied - but also of linking this to education and talent. Following successive expert panels and reports, we are finally arriving at a place where all players in the research to innovation ecosystem recognize the need for complementarity, as well as decisions about investments and priorities. In short, this was good news for all involved in the research continuum.

The CFRE Fund will be administered by SSHRC, and SSHRC President Chad Gaffield spoke at the event, outlining the importance of the funding to the research enterprise in Canada. SSHRC puts the business in innovation, reflecting a people-centred innovation approach that SSHRC's President Gaffield has promoted for some time now.

SSHRC's prominence in Budget 2014 includes the College Social Innovation Fund, an approach that Polytechnics Canada has advocated for. Polytechnics Canada CEO Nobina Robinson, in a recent Globe and Mail op-ed, calls these movements a "turn from a purely knowledge-based economy to a know-how economy." That's a good thought for this day as we look to all actors in the Canadian R&D space to collaborate to compete together as a nation. Minister Rickford reminded the crowd that, as we look to the current Olympics, we recall the government's investments in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the drive to "own the podium." The current funding, and the S&T (and now I) strategy, reflect Canada's capacity to own the Research and Innovation podium.

Skills, Education and the Innovation Economy

The Conference Board of Canada is convening Skills and Post-Secondary Education Summit 2013: Developing the Talent We Need for a Competitive Nation yesterday and today. The agenda yesterday featured some excellent discussions, particularly international examples of education as linked explicitly to the needs of the economy. Finland, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Australia were featured, and some strong themes emerged. These include educational instrumentality - these countries have not been afraid to be explicit in directing the aims of education to the needs of the economy, nor in streaming students at a young age into particular programs. This includes the tactical acquisition of specific skills as well as strategic social skills for citizenship.

The approach by these countries is an approach that contrasts to the Canadian system - or rather systems - in which we have a strong college and polytechnic sector explicitly linked to the needs of the economy, and a university sector that is not so much (other than professional faculties). This is changing, and I am glad to see the universities start to pay attention to the need to define and articulate what skills students emerge with from any program. BUt our somewhat libertarian view in Canada is defined by a bias toward a degree as being the sole ticket to social and economic prosperity, and we seem disinclined to tell anyone that there are other, often better options, commensurate with skill and aptitude.

We err when we focus specifically on a university degree as the main driver of skills, a point made in some of the media at the summit. Of course a university degree is a good thing - as is a college or polytechnic degree, apprenticeship ticket, diploma, or graduate certificate. When we focus only on degrees we ignore the reality that these are not always connected to the economy - nor should they always be. But a focus on degrees, as evident in some of the program material, is at odds with the concomitant focus on the skilled trades, as well as the gamut of credentials that are directly plugged into the needs of the economy. In short, we have a supply side system, when what we need is a demand driven model. If this sounds familiar, it is: this is exactly the issue the Council of Canadian Academies report "Paradox Lost" states we have with our approach to R&D.

What we in Canada need is a more balanced approach to demand driven economy (for both education and research), as well as an explicit recognition (as in Australia among others) that socio-economic balance is lost when a country is weighted too far on supply.  For our part, we would do well to speak about the credentials needed for a given occupation, rather than simply focus on bland statements like a degree being the pathway to success. I've made this point before, and it bears repeating, for we do ourselves a disservice when we pander to simple ideology around the supply of credentials when this is dislocated from demand and the means of production in the economy.

Australia has a demand driven model including a national accreditation and quality framework that shows how credential work together. The Swiss model, like the German and the Finnish models, is highly prescriptive and instrumental, but is also defined by a "high degree of permeability," meaning that even when students are streamed at a young age into particular programs, there is the ability for mobility throughout credentials, occupations and life spans.

Of particular note is Finland, with its "human-centric, equal opportunity" model that is focused on practice-based and open innovation. The Finns seem to have figured out that practice-based innovation accounts for 96% of economic growth, with science and technology innovation the other 4%, according to the EU. They strive for a balance between knowing, acting and being - all of these EU countries focus on a balance between professional skills and citizenship and life skills. Education and research are closely coupled with industry, have well defined occupation specific skills sets, link well with industry sector councils, connect to international contexts, and are oriented toward strong citizenship and civic participation.

Last month the online journal Technology Innovation Management Review published an article I wrote on Measuring Innovation Skills Acquired by College and Polytechnic Students through Applied Research. The piece is based on the work many of us in the applied research sector are engaged in, and articulates a way to measure outcomes related to our support of business innovation through applied research. The focus here is on skills, and linking these explicitly to the activities of applied research, with potential downstream effects in firms that are supported by college and polytechnic applied research, but also those that employ graduates with innovation literacy. Our team is working on this as part of a larger project; watch this space for more in the months to come.

The future of Canadian innovation

It's been quite a summer for Canadian innovation. By this I mean the incipient dissolution of Blackberry, which seems to be headed for a rather uncertain fate. A recent Globe article, If BlackBerry is sold, Canada faces an innovation vacuum, underscores the importance of Blackberry to the Canadian innovation landscape. It also reinforces a point I've made repeatedly - as others have - about Canada's lagging industry R&D spending being one of the main drags on the innovation economy.

A couple of months ago I got a new phone and I chose the Blackberry Z10. By all accounts it's a good product - a tad derivative in its form factor perhaps, but all told a pretty solid and reliable phone. The problem is, as many have pointed out, it is too late. As some tell it, Blackberry missed the concept of user experience and the ecosystem of apps that Apple and Android have encouraged. Regardless, if Blackberry isn't revived it doesn't augur well for Canadian technology companies. Or does it? Perhaps this will reinforce the value of failure and spur others on to greater heights.

The federal government and here in Ontario the provincial government have launched industry innovation vouchers as a way to get industry engaged in R&D. College, polytechnics, even universities now are open for business innovation. This is a good thing. We need to explicitly link the talent, facilities and networks latent in our world leading public R&D institutions to the needs of industry. Some will decry this as the corporatization of education, of meddling with the sanctity of science, of an impending zombie apocalypse. Do not listen to these people, for they fear the future and live in the past. We need good science, unfettered by practical concerns. We also need good science, inextricably linked to practical concerns.

It's time to get past our either|or libertarianism and realize that we do not just have rights on the present, but we have responsibility for the future. I'm optimistic about this future - with or without Blackberry.

Ground breaking: the Green Building Centre

George Brown College was very pleased to host the Honourable Peter van Loan to beak ground on the new building that will be a core part of the Green Building Centre. Minister van Loan spoke on behalf of the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology and Minister of the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Donation (FEDDEV). The Green Building Centre is funded in part through a $6.6M contribution from FEDDEV.

The Green Building Centre will offer industry access to talented and skilled students and faculty, state of the art facilities, and market and networks, all geared to helping industry to innovate and get new products and services to market. As noted earlier, we will conduct applied research in partnership with local businesses while training students in advanced construction systems, green energy and computer-enabled, efficient buildings. In particular, this centre will focus on construction practices that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.

The Green Building Centre exemplifies the value of Budget 2013 measures to foster industry applied research with colleges and polytechnics, invest in skills training, and promote investment in new technology.

This is an exciting day for the college, our industry partners, and faculty and students. While the new building will open in one year, the Green Building Centre is open for business innovation.

Conspicuous contribution and the policy and practice of enabling innovation

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce released their Emerging Stronger 2013 report recently, and it has some notable elements for enabling the innovation economy. These include closing skills gaps, notably in apprenticeship training, and ensuring there are strong links between education and industry (a core mandate for colleges), including for applied R&D. On the R&D side, here is an interesting take on tech transfer that links well to the notion of open source development communities and giving back more than you take. This is the value espoused by Tim O'Reilly; read about it here. Conspicuous contribution will be the norm going forward, and as we reorient the Canadian innovation system to a "collaborate to compete together" model, we will see more of this kind of thinking permeate the policy and practice of enabling both invention and innovation. This is an open, participatory, and people-centred innovation, and it is coming soon to an organization near you.

On the topic of better linking education to the needs of industry  I was interviewed for a MacLean's piece recently that discusses "the missing link": the disconnect between student expectations and finding a job. Unfortunately, the writer told only half the story here in terms of quoting me as saying that the university system does not teach about jobs, whereas the college system does. And there is a good reason for this. Universities have always prided themselves as being outside the purview of the reality of explicit job training (with the exception of professional programs). The college system on the other hand is an instrument of the state created to ensure there is an adequate work force. Both are necessary; neither alone is sufficient.

P3RD: New online service connects industry innovators with applied research service providers

A new web service designed to give firms an easy way to find innovation service providers in Canada launches today at the ACCT Canada conference INNOVATION 2012 – Connecting R & D and Commercialization.

Public+Private Partnerships for R&D: Putting the S&T in Start Up: p3rd.ca

On the crowded highway of research, development and innovation, Public+Private Partnerships for R&D (P3RD) gives industry a unique avenue for accessing capital, talent, facilities and markets supported through industry-academic applied research programs.

We focus on speed to market and connecting innovators to R&D resources.

P3RD is your entry into Canada's applied research ecosystem. Available at p3rd.ca, it is a free online resource for industry to find an innovation support provider in community & clinical organizations, and government & academic institutes in Canada. We encourage P3RD: Public+Private Partnerships for Research and Development. We enable industry to find an innovation support provider, learn about projects and capacity, and find out more about industry-academic partnership opportunities across Canada.

It’s easy to use: Firms can indicate where they are located (using either a postal code or city name), indicate what kind of innovation service they are looking for, and what industry they are from. They are then taken to the map which displays providers, partners and past projects.

The map shows innovation support providers who are open for business innovation.

The P3RD  application allows small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to better understand how to get involved with innovation providers: Canada’s polytechnics, colleges and universities, government research labs, and other innovation intermediaries.

Polytechnic Applied Research: Open for Business Innovation

Research Infosource last month published their annual Top 100 R&D spenders supplement in the National Post. My editorial for this issue is below. College research was also featured in this piece.

Canada’s polytechnics and colleges offer industry-facing applied research solutions that fill gaps in the country’s R&D pipelines. Our focus on applied research, innovation and commercialization supports industry innovation needs in ways that are complementary to established, discovery-based research institutions. This is a strength, and a necessary facet of a healthy R&D continuum.

Since 2008, the institutions that comprise Polytechnics Canada (BCIT, SAIT Polytechnic, NAIT, Conestoga, Sheridan, Humber, Seneca, George Brown and Algonquin Colleges) have worked with 3,759 Canadian companies, 95% of which are small and mid-sized enterprises, conducted 2,481 applied research projects solving industry-identified problems, involved 22,515 college students and 1,978 college staff or faculty in applied research activity, and developed 948 prototypes for their industry research partners. Colleges across the country are involved in similar activity, as Canada initiates investment in college applied research as a vital lever in the R&D toolkit.

The breadth of industry partnerships that polytechnic and college applied research enables was noted in the recent Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel Report on “The State of Science and Technology in Canada, 2012.” The report shows that as a country we excel in many fields of research, and punch above our weight in terms of publications and international research influence. However, we fall short of unlocking the potential commercial value of the outcomes of basic research. In addition, Canadian businesses perform much less R&D as compared with our international counterparts. Our collective historical identity as "hewers of wood and drawers of water” has meant that ideas are just another basic resource that we draw from the land and export without adding value. Our competitors are exploiting our research to their commercial advantage.

Polytechnics and colleges focus on speed to market and engaging our students in industry innovation. We offer industry and universities alike four key advantages: 

• Access to talent – our faculty who are industry professionals, and our students. By engaging our students in applied research we train the highly qualified and skilled people needed for the innovation economy, who gain crucial innovation skills as part of their applied education. 
• Access to state-of-the-art facilities – our industry-focused teaching facilities double as applied research labs for companies or scientists who do not have equipment or need help making a prototype or product. 
• Access to markets and networks – we leverage our close ties to industry to help our research partners develop products and sales. 
• Access to capital – government funding provides matching capital for companies to engage in innovation partnerships, creating economies of scale for firms with ideas but lacking in-house R&D capacity. 

The 2007 federal Science and Technology Strategy gave impetus to college applied research capacity through the creation of the College and Community Innovation Program. Yet, the CCIP is the only federal program for polytechnic and college applied research. It is underfunded as compared to demand: we currently turn companies away both for lack of funding and capacity, limiting our ability to be “open for business innovation.”

Firms in Canada are not yet making effective use of the postsecondary research facilities we have, but this is changing. Polytechnic and college applied research can play a more robust role in strengthening national and regional capacity to innovate. We work with research centres and industry partners to enhance competitiveness in the sectors we serve. Our applied research centres offer services to industry that are not currently widely available in Canada – the applied research, commercialization-focused “last mile” services that industry needs in order to test market assumptions.

Canada needs to encourage industry-academic partnerships and have each party play to their strengths, be this basic research, applied research, or industry focused innovation. We need a better balance between the input and output sides of the innovation equation. Broadening the potential outputs for R&D by supporting applied research will foster increased productivity, enable Canada to realign R&D expenditure imbalances, and correct our long-standing poor record on industrial innovation.

There is work to be done by the polytechnic and college sectors in continuing to build the applied research capacity while finding better ways to measure outcomes. This requires us to focus on outputs and on collaborative data gathering to show the return on the (modest) CCIP investment. We would do well to encourage greater linkages among university, polytechnic and college research institutions, and greater industry-academic partnerships overall, building a true innovation system that plays to the strengths of all its parts. By working together, we can increase Canada’s global competitiveness.

Skills and education instrumentality

The recent Globe and Mail Our Time to Lead series on education offered many compelling stories on the need to transform education. For my own part, I remain mystified why some in the post secondary education world tend to avoid any talk of outcomes, namely jobs. As I pointed out in the online interactive video I did for the series, why is that career centres on Canada's university campuses are an after thought? Why do we leave it to the imagination of students to think about their future careers, when we could be encouraging people to apply what they learn to important social and economic issues. I allude to this in my op-ed on what I call open source learning. Today's Globe has an article by Gwyn Morgan in which he talks about the fact that Divisions between haves and have-nots begin with having skills – or not. His point is similar - we ignore outcomes for education at our social and economic peril. Our future productivity and competitiveness depend on having a highly educated and skilled work force. Those who sit in the ivory tower and eschew the very real fact that finding one's way in the world means finding meaningful work are perpetuating our downward slide into even poorer productivity. It's time we challenged these nostrums and exposed them for what they are: dangerous assumptions that ignore present - and future - realities.

To this point, our recent study Toronto Next: Return on Innovation clearly shows that employers want people who can apply their skills to work. This is a central aspect of innovation literacy.

Toronto Next: Return on Innovation

George Brown College President Anne Sado yesterday spoke at the Empire Club, detailing the results of our study of Toronto Next: Return on Innovation. The report shines a light on our well documented poor innovation record, and reinforces that we are not seeing enough private sector investment in innovation.
This is a serious and significant problem for the short and long-term competitiveness of our local economy. Based on the report, business is not seeing the value of investments in new technologies and equipment, skills training and R&D partnership in sparking their innovation: Half of GTA businesses and organizations perceive little to no return on investment in new technologies, innovative skills training, product development or fostering R&D partnerships with academic institutions.

Businesses are saying that it’s not their responsibility to innovate. Surprisingly, 50% of respondents think it is the role of government to drive innovation and productivity. While it is certainly true that government investments in polytechnic and college applied research are helping businesses to innovate, we need more firms to step up and take the lead. George Brown College is doing our part - the study itself is a key way that we understand the employment landscape our graduates are entering. 

Tellingly, over half of employers surveyed feel that a dependence on ‘old economy’ industries or a lack of private sector funding are causing Canada’s low levels of innovation. I've written before how ideas are just another raw resource Canada extracts without adding value. We need to do a better job of connecting students and graduates to the world of work, a topic raised in the Globe and Mail's recent Our Time o Lead feature on education. My contributions to this effort included encouraging a focus on outcomes based education. In particular  I don't understand why in universities career centres are an afterthought. We need to do a better job of encouraging all levels of education to focus on outcomes. Colleges celebrate their connection to employment - it is George Brown College's strategic direction to understand employment. 

To this end, our survey shows that a shortage of innovative employees to hire is the largest barrier to employers investing in innovation, along with concerns about long-term ROI. Thus our focus on applied learning and research, through which we instill innovation literacy, helps us close the gap between what we teach, what students learn, and what employers need. 

As Anne Sado said yesterday, George Brown College has a bias for action and we are open for business innovation. The results of this survey notwithstanding, the GTA does not have an innovation problem. It has an innovation opportunity.

Why we need colleges, polytechnics and universities

Charles Pascal has an excellent article in the Globe's Our Time to Lead feature on Re:Education, called Students lose in Ontario’s postsecondary patchwork, in which he aptly describes the need for a range of education options that work as a system. He refers primarily to Ontario, but it could easily apply to Canada as a whole, as I pointed out in my recent op-ed on open source learning. This is further reinforced by the weekend's article What Canada needs: A national strategy for students. The exemplary thinking here on important issues facing Canada come as we stare down the need to up our game in the innovation economy. It is time for Canada to get on par with our OECD counterparts and take seriously the connections between social and economic prosperity and instrumentality in education  It is time to rethink how teaching and research function to instill innovation skills in our graduates  And it is time to embrace what Pascal calls the "galloping elitism" that makes us eschew the necessary technical and vocational skills and undergraduate teaching as we privilege the a priori in a global race for talent and R&D impact. The  Globe series - and Pascal's read of the Ontario education system - should be required reading for all involved in education, teaching and research. 

Anne Sado, President of George Brown College, speaks on Toronto Next: Return on Innovation, Empire Club, 29 October 2012

Anne Sado, the President of George Brown College, will speak at the Empire Club, 29 October 2012, on Toronto Next: Return on Innovation. Here is a summary of Anne's presentation:

Innovation has achieved a rare conceptual status; virtually every business and entrepreneur aspires to achieve it yet its definition is open to a range of interpretations. Governments, businesses, think tanks and academic institutions across Canada place it at the heart of their strategies, but tangible commercial returns remain elusive. Anne Sado, President of George Brown College, will be releasing results of the college's comprehensive research report, Toronto Next: Return on Innovation, to reveal what is constraining our innovation potential and more importantly, the strategies to effectively convert R&D to profit.

Speed to Market: How Colleges Help SMEs Turn Innovations into Income

Infonaut CEO Niall Wallace and I spoke at the Toronto Board of Trade on 30 May 2012 giving a breakfast talk on From Concept to Commercialization: How SME'S Can Turn Innovations Into Income, part of the RBC Business Advice Series: Innovation for SMEs.

It was a good overview of the value college and polytechnic applied research holds in supporting SMEs to take products to market. Our focus on applied research helps SMEs close the commercialization loop by helping take concepts from idea to invoice by providing access to the four key areas: capital, talent, facilities, markets.

Access to capital – government funding supporting college-industry applied research provides matching capital for industry to engage in innovation partnerships. 

Access to talent – this includes our talented faculty who are industry professionals (we call them dual professionals – industry experts + expert teachers) as well as our students. By engaging our students we help to train the talent needed for the innovation economy. Our industry partners get to test drive potential future employees, while ensuring that all students gain crucial innovation skills as part of their education. This is very important. Not only do students gain the technical skills inherent in their program of study, but they gain these crucial soft skills – innovation, entrepreneurial, product development, communication and team work skills essential to the innovation economy. We’ve had several students get hired in new positions created by industry partners who have worked with us. This includes Timor Sharaftinov who has been hired by Infonaut.

Access to state-of-the-art facilities  –  colleges and polytechnics have equipment and facilities SMEs need but perhaps cannot afford on their own that can be used in the various stages of applied research. Some of the GBC Research Labs facilities we offer include

• GBC is investing in new campus facilities and infrastructure to create a business accelerator for Green Building applied research, which will help us amplify our work with industry in the construction and smart building sectors 
• The Food Innovation Research Studio (FIRSt), in our leading Chef School, works with companies on food product development <
• The new Waterfront Campus, a new centre of excellence for health education and community wellness in the heart of Toronto’s revitalized East Bayfront neighbourhood, will feature 22,000 sq. ft. of health care simulation spaces for applied research

Access to market  –  companies can leverage the extensive industry networks we have, which we use to introduce businesses with potential clients.

Our focus is on speed to market and helping companies to commercialize at the speed of business. At George Brown College, we are open for business innovation.

Polytechnic Education Works: Talent and Innovation for Employers

The Annual Polytechnics Canada conference concluded yesterday at Sheridan college, featuring the generation of good discussion and ideas around the conference theme Polytechnic Education Works: Talent and Innovation for Employers.

Ian Shugart, Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada spoke about the need for the sharing of labour market information, and outlined HRSDC's plans for an "open government" approach to collecting and collating information on the labour market. This is a good move, and one that will enable all in the post secondary system to work together to gather relevant data on how best to respond to emerging trends. I look forward to learning more about this, and to participating. A real highlight was the panel discussion “Manufacturing Innovation & Talent: Are we going to make it?”moderated by Bert Van den Berg, Director-Knowledge and Technology Transfer, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. It featured Rob Atkinson, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Washington DC and Jayson Myers, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. Atkinson in particular offered some excellent insights on the differences between a science-based and engineering-based innovation culture - the former being a hallmark of the united States, and the latter of Germany. Saying that "Canada is neither the US nor Germany," Atkinson spoke about how over-investment in basic research puts a country at risk because knowledge (in the form of workers) is portable. What is needed is more investment in talent and the capacity to engage in applied research and development in higher technology (as opposed to medium or lower technology) manufacturing. The focus on short term profits has put our productivity in peril, as this is counter to investment in work force training (a major theme of the conference) and more attention to higher order manufacturing. 

The key here is a balance that is needed between basic and applied research, and science and engineering. To this we would include the people-centred innovation skills required for a fully functioning innovation economy. The discussion yesterday drew attention to this necessary combination of skills. 

My last post referred to the Economist's take on the Third Industrial Revolution, and the Globe has picked this up today as well. Elsewhere I've spoken about the need to be a price setter, not a price taker, which NSERC's van den Berg amplified during the session. The bottom line for polytechnics in Canada is that we fill a necessary void in providing both labour market support in our education and training programs, as well as innovation and applied research support to help firms be more productive. 

Another highlight of the day was the closing address by The Honourable Gary Goodyear,Minister of State for Science and Technology and Minister responsible for Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Minister Goodyear spoke about how "Collaboration between government, applied researchers and the private sector is vital to building an innovative economy," said Minister Goodyear. "The College and Community Innovation Program supports research collaborations between companies and colleges. It illustrates the importance our government places on creating the conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive in this country." The full press release is online here, which provides details of the colleges and polytechnics who are receiving funding under the College and Community Innovation Program. This includes two for George Brown College:

• The Green Homes initiative, based in our Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies, which focuses on novel building retrofit materials and methods and "Smart" building automation, sensor and control system technology development; and
• The George Brown College Food Innovation Research Studio (FIRST), which is one of the country`s first Technology Access Centres.

Congratulations to all the winners, and in particular to the George Brown College recipients. These are all examples of how polytechnic education works, for Canadian innovation and productivity. 

Open for business innovation

Budget 2012 shows the federal government focusing its innovation efforts on the private sector, something sorely needed in Canada. There are many elements in the Budget that offer incremental changes and spending increases to the federal support of R&D. A predominant theme here is that companies are going to be able to get money and choose who to go to in order to access innovation support services. This is right thinking to get businesses investing in R&D.

There is good news with $1.1B in additional funding to support research, development and innovation. This includes $500M for the CFI, including specific mention of the College-Industry Innovation Fund. There is $15M for NSERC to foster industry-academic partnership under the Strategic Partnerships Initiative, and $7M for SSHRC for industry-academic partnerships. For the latter this will go a long way to encouraging a participatory, people-centred innovation. The Business Development Bank of Canada gets needed risk capital, which industry can access to help get innovations to market. IRAP gets their budget doubled, again offering industry with a valuable conduit for funding innovation. The SR&ED reforms will be watched closely, as will the revamp of the NRC. We are looking forward to the consultations that will lead to a better “demand-driven focus” for the NRC. Also of note is the creation of a “concierge service” to help firms navigate the federal funding waters. There is much to be said here for the government taking seriously the Jenkins Panel recommendations. The Polytechnics Canada news release offers good analysis on the benefits of collaborative industry-academic applied research.

Budget day was also the day Michael Porter spoke at the Toronto Board of Trade’s Economic Summit. Porter’s work on clusters is well known, and his keynote address was an excellent overview of how the Greater Toronto Area is emerging as a real economic powerhouse. Porter said that “the region is on the right path to start to make a meaningful impact on competitiveness,” but we require better coordination – of businesses, governments, and educational institutions – all oriented to fostering greater social and economic productivity. “Economic development is a process of continual upgrading” he said. Regions are critical to national economies, and within clusters it is important to encourage training and development, and business partnerships with colleges and universities. On the issue of education Porter said that our education and training system is not as strong as it could be, likely because of the fragmented nature of the post secondary system. We are a region without articulated education, and making it easier for learners to access education and training across the system rather than in pockets or silos will go a long way toward increasing our competitive advantage. On this Porter reminded us that “all clusters should try to strengthen education and training capacity in their regions.”

And so Budget 2012 offers good fodder for encouraging a resilient regional innovation, putting funds in the hands of businesses and giving them the option to access innovation support services from across the post secondary system. This is the staple element of how George Brown College and polytechnics and colleges work to foster business innovation while training the talent for the innovation economy. Michael Porter said today that on a microeconomic level, only businesses create wealth and jobs. Because polytechnics and colleges are close to industry, we are ideally situated to help the private sector innovate. With more direct access to capital, industry can choose the right support, in the right place, at the right time. Polytechnics and colleges are open for business innovation.