"And the end of our exploring..."

"...is to arrive from where we started. And know the place for the first time."

This line from TS Eliot is a fitting epigraph for my final week at George Brown College. Over the past 9 years I have led the development of applied research at GBC, in Ontario and across Canada, working in concert with many outstanding people inside the college and out. College applied research has grown exponentially over the years into a viable and complementary component of a healthy innovation ecosystem in Canada.

The history - in metrics - of GBC Research since 2007: 781 partnerships; 7592 Student research experiences; $96M in research funding from public and private partners; 724 Applied research collaborations; 180 Research-active faculty members; 7 Academic partners. 

I am very proud of these accomplishments, but I am most proud of the 7592 students who now have innovation literacy. They are the future of our country, flexible innovators who will be integral members of teams no matter their careers or profession.

Two students have been members of our Innovation Advisory Board. Comments from each are below, which speak volumes for the work that the college system does in fostering industry innovation while ensuring that students like these gain innovation skills so essential to the future of our society and economy.

James Henderson: "As one of the 7,500 students who have participated in applied research during your tenure, I can attest to the profound impact such opportunities have on us. The skills we acquire, the network we form and the experience we gain makes our transition into the workforce so much easier. For so many of us, applied research has allowed us to explore interests and discover passions we might not otherwise have known were there."   

John-Allan Ellingson: "I'm glad to have been a part of the 'Luke Generation' of researchers, and the experiences I had with the group have been extremely valuable in the time since. I am confident that they secured me my current internship, certainly I drew from them heavily during interviewing. It could be the solution to the 'Entry level position: 3 years experience required' problem - possible marketing opportunity." Beyond helping students through the difficult post-graduation period, exposure to the wide spectrum of industries involved with the R&I office will remain career-long assets for the cohort of student researchers. With one foot now in the working world, I'm starting to better understand this - how a problem tackled in the Food Service or Assistive Device realm provides solutions for Construction and elsewhere, with the right perspective - and appreciate how rare the experience was. I'm sure that fostering this ecosystem, and its added value for students, ranks highly among your successes at GBC.

If anything exemplifies why I have been so committed to this work it is contained in these statements.

As of next week I take up the role of Vice President, Research and Innovation at OCAD University. You can find periodic updates here, connect with me on LinkedIn, and follow me on Twitter @LukeRobert.

Social Finance and Impact Investing

On the day that Food and Beverage Ontario convened their annual meeting for the food cluster, the
Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity launched their latest paper on Clusters in Ontario: Creating an Ecosystem for Prosperity. The paper provides a good overview of the importance of clusters; these will figure prominently in the new innovation agenda, and rightly so. We have been supporting cluster development for several years through the Toronto Region Board of Trade. And the recently launched Tech-Access Canada featured discussion on how Technology Access Centers are important portals into local clusters, supporting resilient regional economies. 

Yesterday also saw Research Money convene the Future Finance and Social Innovation conference. This was an excellent discussion focused on social impact investing and social innovation. It was sponsored in part by SSHRC, who featured the College and Community Social Innovation Program, including GBC's professor Jaswant Bajwa's project, funded in the first round. We hosted the Honourable Kirsty Duncan's announcement of the second round announcement two weeks ago. It occurred to me as I listened to the many presenters, including CICan's Christine Trauttmansdorff (who provided a great overview of college applied research into social innovation) that college applied research is a great example of impact investing. When governments and our partners invest in applied research we engage students, and these students gain innovation literacy, all while while derisking social change and future-proofing economy. R$is commended for convening thought leaders on an important topic - clearly at the forefront of social innovation. 

Canadian Chamber of Commerce convenes roundtable on Talent for Innovation

Yesterday the Honourable Perrin Beatty convened the Toronto roundtable in this series, examining the important topic of what talent Canada needs for the innovation economy. Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship the Honourable John McCallum opened the session with remarks on the importance of immigration to the supply-side of talent for Canada - this is particularly important for a country where we need people to fill the growing demographic gap due to retirements. I made the point that international students - important to the national economy - are prevented from participating in entrepreneurship programs - let's hope this can be changed.

I joined Cisco's Rick Huijbregts, VP Innovation and Digital Transformation Lead, Cisco, Americas, Wendy Cukier, Vice President, Research and Innovation, Ryerson University, and Alex Parizeau, Managing Director, Ubisoft Toronto in providing remarks for the roundtable discussion.

The Chamber set the stage thus:
Talent for Innovation is our topic. Through this project, our central question is: How can Canada cultivate talent for innovation? We are preoccupied with business innovation (i.e. innovation within companies) and innovation that comes to market (and not on pure “science and technology”). During our project, we will explore three key sub-questions:

• What are the skills that foster innovation?
• Where and how do we cultivate innovation skills and talent?
• What can the federal government do?

We discussed many important topics, from the importance of generational change, to digital literacy, and main street entrepreneurship - fostering growth companies in all sectors of the economy, not just new technology. Diversity was an important theme - building on the initial discussion about the importance of immigration, but also encouraging women in STEM and other fields.

My remarks used Technology Readiness Levels as an example of the need for diversity and complementarity in skills, competencies and credentials. That is, if you are going from TRL 1 - where I have an idea to build a rocket - to TRL 9 - where I am actually launching that rocket - you require a team of multidisciplinary people who are educated at different level - from PhDs, to engineers, to technicians, marketers and beyond. When people from varied competencies/credentials work together there is a multiplier effect. This is the principle of ensuring that everyone - from across the credential spectrum - has innovation literacy. 

We need to focus on the skills Canada needs, but also the skills Canada wants - both transactional and transformative skills for the economy and civil society. A focus on Work Integrated Learning is essential here - both as a component of all undergraduate programming, but also as a model for integrating and socializing youth into careers. This latter point fits well into the federal government's initiative to reboot a Katimavik 2.0 - a kind of youth internship for a gap year between secondary and tertiary education. The government could offer tax incentives to businesses who participate, pay a stipend to youth to participate in social and economic nation building while trying out a potential career. This could be a way to avoid the $500-600M in student loan defaults per year, by enabling students to find a career, and so educational path, that suits their interests and aptitudes well.

Above all an integrated approach to fostering education for innovation is required. The Chamber should be applauded for adding its voice to this Canadian imperative.

Federal government launches Innovation Agenda, Science Review

The last couple of days have been a busy one on the Canadian innovation policy front. The new Innovation Agenda consultation process has been launched by Minister Bains, and prior to that Minister Duncan launched the Science Review. The latter looks at basic research, and the former applied research and experimental development. Amidst this the Institute for Research on Public Policy convened a discussion and published a review of the Jenkins Panel report. All of this is good for Canada - if it leads to substantive changes in how we invest in the continuum of research and innovation.

The Innovation Agenda is most relevant to colleges and polytechnics, and we are well represented in the language - our focus on industry-partnered research is a key platform for innovation, for both the private and public sectors. Specifically the background on the Innovation Agenda asks: "How can colleges play a larger role in the innovation ecosystem?" This is a positive step forward for the country and our urgent need to refocus efforts on research and innovation for Canadian productivity gains.

In addition, the Technology Access Centres, represented by Tech-Access Canada, are well suited to being the portal into local and regional innovation ecosystems (a point expertly made by NSERC president Dr Mario Pinto at the recent launch of Tech-Access Canada). TACs are at the forefront of college applied research, enabling the innovation economy in several important sectors and clusters. The colleges, cegeps and polytechnics that form Tech-Access Canada are already functioning as important portals into regional ecosystems, supporting private firms to get new products to market swiftly.

As the Canadian college and polytechnic applied research system matures, the Innovation Agenda offers an important avenue for enhancing the strategic value we represent to the country. Earlier in May GBC submitted advice to Minister Bains on the Innovation Agenda. In preparing this input we gained advice from our Innovation Advisory Board, industry partners, and the Practical Policy Exchange (PPX), an ad hoc collaboration of public and private sector participants we convene for input on important policy matters relevant to the College. Our input was organized according to the following themes:

• Canada has a two-fold productivity problem
• Start-ups need to Scale-up, and Stay up
• Work-Integrated Learning drives industry innovation
• Supporting homegrown talent
• Place matters to innovation
• De-Risk personal innovation investments
• Engaging First Nations communities 
• Enhancing Academic Productivity 
• IP Pooling from public R&D creates public value
• Bridging the Academic-Industry divide
• Innovate the machinery of government

Watch this space in the days to come for our input.

Tech-Access Canada: Portals into Innovation Ecosystems

Today saw the formal launch of Tech-Access Canada - the network of Canada's Technology Access Centres. Today's press event was held at Cegep Levi-Lauzon, which hosts TransBioTech, a member of Tech-Access Canada. NSERC President Dr Mario Pinto gave remarks to herald the formal launch of Tech-Access Canada, calling the TACs important portals into local innovation ecosystems. Dr Pinto spoke about college and polytechnic applied research as important parts of the diversity of the research landscape. TACs, and Tech-Access Canada, are key components of NSERC's 2020 Strategy, providing an integral link to local companies and universities to realize commercialization and innovation potential.

Tech-Access Canada supports the economy and student skill acquisition. TACs conduct applied research with private sector partners, helping to create new products and services and get these to market swiftly. These firms create jobs and wealth in the economy. Our students work with these firms on applied research, and thereby gain innovation literacy skills. The students graduate and become our future innovators and entrepreneurs.

Tech-Access Canada has been launched with the support of NSERC, CICan, and member TACs. Today marks an important moment in the formation of a national network of Technology Access Centres dedicated to business innovation in their local economies.

CICan annual conference inspires

Colleges and Institutes Canada convened their annual conference in Quebec City this week under the banner of Inspiration. The conference provided excellent discussion on important topics on applied education and research, and featured many tracks on leadership, entrepreneurship, indigenous education and more. Sessions on innovative teaching and learning and the future of applied research were of particular interest, providing good insight into the value proposition of colleges and our impact on social and economic development.

I moderated a panel discussion on "Supporting Industry Innovation Through a Network of Technology Access Centres," which featured the following speakers:

• David Berthiaume, OLEOTEK
• Maike Luiken, Lambton College
• Christine Trauttmansdorff, CICan
• Bert van den Berg, NSERC
• Ken Doyle, TechAccess Canada

Of the many interesting points raised by the panel, the idea of Technology Access Centres being a form of public good that contributes to a shared public infrastructure underscores the important role that colleges engaged in applied research play in local innovation ecosystems. I've written before about the importance of fostering resilient regional economies, and the importance of TACs in playing an integral role in leading local clusters cannot be overstated. This is particularly important as Canada looks to pivot and transition the economy to embrace new technologies and business practices. 

A shout out to GBC's Dawn Davidson, Diana Facchini, and Jamie McIntyre for an excellent presentation on working with industry partners, and Marc Nantel of Niagara College on what college applied research will look like in 20 years. Inspiration indeed. 

Innovation in the Humanities and Social Sciences

On the day that the Governor General issued the first Innovation Awards, I had the great fortune to attend a workshop yesterday put on by the Social Sciences And Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as part of the Imagining Canada’s Future focus. The symposium was specifically about "Leveraging Emerging Technologies For The Benefit Of Canadians" and featured the grant winners of the Knowledge Synthesis Grants. As an aside it was held at the very excellent Canada Aviation And Space Museum - everyone should visit this place.

The stated Workshop Objectives were as follows:

• Convene academic, government, industry, and not-for-profit organization leaders to share insights on the critical societal impacts and opportunities related to emerging and game-changing technologies in Canada. 
• Discuss emerging trends and knowledge gaps as well as practical and policy alignment and implications of knowledge synthesis projects. 
• Lay groundwork for knowledge mobilization activities. 

Led by Ursual Gobel, AVP of Future Challenges at SSHRC, the workshop was an excellent discussion of the essential contributions that Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) disciplines make to innovation and emerging technologies. The morning got off to a great start with an introduction by Alex Benay, President and CEO, Canadian Science and Technology Museum Corporation, who talked about cultural sustainability and museums as content and knowledge organizations. It was great context setting for the keynote from IBM's Pat Horgan, who provided an overview of IBM's Data, Cloud and Engagement strategy and business led innovation model. Pat showed how IBM is helping Canadian businesses outthink our innovation problems. 

A highlight was a presentation by Cisco Canada's Willa Black, who talked about Cisco's Connected North program, which uses HiDef video to bring shared education experiences to Canada's remote and northern communities. This is really engaging work that is showing excellent returns on investment and interest in terms of educational outcomes. Another highlight was an overview of innovation as a team sport by the NRC's Duncan Stewart. He talked about the need to adopt an ARPA model - something I've written about some time ago - in addressing Canada's grand challenges. It was one of the better talks I’ve heard in quite some time regarding innovation. Stand out quote: The government shouldn’t pick winners, but we should pick the races. 

I gave a short presentation on partnerships as enablers of the innovation economy, using Technology Readiness Levels as a way to show how technology is fundamentally a human activity that requires input from across the disciplinary and credential spectrum. More on this to come in the days ahead.

Throughout the day the audience heard from the many award holders of the Knowledge Synthesis program who are engaged in studying technology's impact of society. 

The day ended with SSHRC president Ted Hewitt telling the audience of the experience at the GG Innovation Award, and how human activity underwrites technology. 

All in all an excellent event and discussion. 

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. 

GBC Applied Research Day a Success

The annual George Brown College Applied Research Day was held this past Monday and was a great success, convening 200 faculty, students and research partners for an afternoon of dialogue, discussion and a tour through the Galaxy of Research. A highlight this year was the student start-up pitch competition that saw five student entrepreneurs vie for a spot at the GBC Research OCE Discovery booth and $500 in applied research services to support their venture. Congratulations to mywinecanada.com - I encourage everyone to check out this exciting business that enables wineries in Canad to sell wines direct to consumers.

The annual Applied Research Day demonstrates the strength of applied research at the College. Our faculty, industry and community partners spoke about curricular innovation, social innovation and industrial innovation – three facets of innovation that give our students key innovation skills while creating social and economic value in our community.

One of the things that struck me was how applied research offers an "unstructured structure" to curricula at the College. That is, we have the structure of engaging with partners on applied research and giving these experiences to our students as part of the educational environment. But we do not know how these projects will turn out, Some will success, others will fail, some will get taken in new and unplanned directions. This is the beauty of why applied research works so well to instill innovation skills in our students. It requires extemporaneous thinking and perseverance. It promotes outside the box thinking and the acquisition of innovation literacy, skills that foster resilience, problem solving and entrepreneurial thinking. 

A highlight for me was speaking to the many students who attended, and who attested to how working with our partners on the many projects helped them gain innovation literacy. These students have the skills needed for the economy of today and tomorrow, proving our strategic imperative of Enabling the Innovation Economy.

GBC Applied Research Day 2016 Logo

Numeracy and Essential Employability Skills

GBC President Anne Sado was on TVO's the Agenda this past week, participating in a panel on the numeracy gap. It was a good discussion about the need for better math and numeracy, building on a recent study "Closing the Numeracy Gap." This report is worth reading, as it relates well to our ongoing discussion about skills for the innovation economy. George Brown College is focused on providing rounded skills to our students via work integrated learning in all of our programs. This enables a balanced approach to what are called hard and soft skills. College programs it is worth noting articulate clear outcomes and integrate Essential Employability Skills across curricula. This renders explicit the tacit assumptions around the what and the why of education. This is good for students and social and economic development and productivity.

Budget 2016 and the incipient Innovation Agenda

Yesterday's federal budget offered the new government's prescription for the economy. Many pundits are offering cogent analyses - see Alex Usher's here, and the Polytechnics Canada reaction here, and that of Colleges and Institutes Canada here.

Above all this budget shows strong investment in education, research, and the clean/green economy. Directionally this is good for the country. On the clean economy side, the government is her not picking winners, but showing leadership for any and all of Canadian industry to find a place in this global reality. This is right thinking, and an essential element in Generation Renew.

Increased funding to the granting councils is also excellent. Even better is the language outlining the new Innovation Agenda that will be crafted over the coming months.

The language in Budget 2016 regarding investments in research supports colleges, polytechnics and universities as all being key component of the R&D and innovation ecosystem. 

STRENGTHENING SCIENCE AND RESEARCH The Government understands the central role of science in a thriving, clean economy and in providing evidence for sound policy decisions. Canada’s universities, colleges and other research institutions play a fundamental role in Canadian society by developing highly skilled and creative workers. They are also the engines of discovery, and collaborate on innovations that help companies compete and grow. Budget 2016 takes action to reinvigorate Canada’s research and science base by investing in infrastructure at postsecondary institutions and federal laboratories, fostering research excellence, and accelerating the diffusion and commercialization of knowledge into applications that benefit industry and society as a whole.

This language is intentionally inclusive. While Usher points out that no specific earmark for college research is indicated, this is a positive step forward in that the country recognizes there are many complementary actors in the R&D scene. It is unclear if the granting councils will be left to allocate funds to either basic or applied research (read: university or college); the granting councils have an opportunity to continue to grow the entire ecosystem and I am hopeful that they will continue on the complementary path rather than regress to the politics of the past. The budget makes clear that this kind of divisive thinking is not the target audience.

The infrastructure spending in the $2B Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund (PSISIF) is good for all post-secondary and there are examples in the budget of what it can mean for colleges in terms of training and applied research:

• A college could modernize or create sector-specific training facilities, including capacity for advanced areas such as Red Seal trades;• College and university facilities that support prototype development or proof-of-principle assessment could receive investments in order to better serve the needs of industry partners;

Our role as a demand driven innovation enabler is central to locating our place within the education and R&D ecosystem in the country. 

The really good news is with the Innovation Agenda that Minister Bains will be crafting in the coming months, as he outlined in a recent Toronto Region Board of Trade speech. There is mention of supporting clusters and incubators in colleges and universities. The focus on clean tech and sustainability is significant in that the government is clearly signally that this is an opportunity for Canada to step onto the world stage and craft a role for multiple industries to play in this important global imperative. This is in addition to key investments in skills training and apprenticeships, aboriginal education and skills, and arts and culture. I look forward to learning more in the days and months to come.

At its core innovation is a mind set

"At its core innovation is a mind set" said the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development during a lunch time speech at the Toronto Region Board of Trade. And he is right. Minister Bains made the point repeatedly that Canada should be telling the world about our business strength, our leading position as tertiary educated population (including college and university graduate), our leading basic research capacity. Where we need to do more is in translating this into innovation for Canada. His speech was followed by a panel of discussants and a follow on response by the Minister. All in all, a good discussion on the importance of innovation, and importantly, what the federal government will do about our poor record in innovation.

Minister Bains called for Canada to leverage Canada's diversity for competitiveness and prosperity. To focus on the range of industries in the country, old, new and emergent. Innovation is the ability to find solutions to big problems, and this includes social innovation, he said.

And while the focus is on many industries, clean tech is a priority and not just to our country; it represents 3 trillion to the world economy. "A clean environment means a strong economy" and this will be a focus in the upcoming budget and the Innovation Agenda he has been mandated to create. Collaboration will be a hall mark of this Innovation Agenda - not just in how it will be created via the consultations such as that today, but also in how innovation is supported. This includes the development of clusters: the Government is committed to creating a national network of clusters to replicate the success of DMZ and MaRS. This is a good ting. We have a well defined ecosystem wherein colleges, polytechnics and universities work in concert to support innovation in the public and private sectors. "Innovation is a team effort" the Minister said, and this complementary approach ensures that the right people, with the right skills and the right context are applied to innovation needs as they arise. 

Fundamentally Innovation is about investing in people the Minister told the crowd. This includes STTEM skills and coding - ensuring that our youth can be both producers and consumers in the technologically mediated world. This world will be defined by a focus on climate change and clean tech; Clean Tech companies and technology are important to government because they are important to the society of today and tomorrow. Innovation must be done in a global context, the Minster reminded the audience, and this is Canada's time to lead.

Ontario Budget funds education, applied research

Yesterday's budget by the Ontario government included good news on the education front for college and university students (Alex Usher has a very good analysis here). It also includes new funding for college applied research, in addition to investments in Ontario's innovation economy more broadly. The government announced new $20M applied research funding to support colleges and industry:

• Establishing a three-year, $20 million fund that connects colleges and private-sector employers on applied innovation projects that result in breakthrough products and services for sale at home and abroad.

This is important news and a validation of the outcomes that college applied research achieves. In addition to this there is a host of other research funding for the innovation system, from auto and aerospace to clean and green technologies, all designed to aid firms in starting up and scaling up to be globally competitive. This is a very forward thinking budget that will enable colleges, polytechnics and universities to better link with private sector partners in support of innovation across a range of important industrial sectors.

Mayor John Tory launches #startuphereTO

Toronto Mayor John Tory today launched StartUp HERE Toronto - a new initiative to encourage and enhance innovation and entrepreneurship in the GTA and with the Kitchener-Waterloo corridor. Hosted at the Toronto Shopify offices, this morning's event featured four breakout discussion groups to bring fresh thinking to the City's efforts at (re)imagining the future of the city and its role in supporting a vibrant ecosystem for entrepreneurs, including those innovating in the sharing economy and digital space. It was a fantastic event attended by many leading entrepreneurs and established technology companies, and the discussions engaging and thought-provoking.

I was in the future of the city group and there was great discussion on leveraging the city's convening power to create a runway for startups to disrupt and innovate the economy. One idea was to leverage the local BIAs (Business Improvement areas - of which there are purportedly 81 in Toronto) as ways to try out ideas and new technologies prior to scaling more widely. Great thinking, led by a great and dynamic team from the City of Toronto and the Mayor himself.

As I mentioned on Twitter, Mayor Tory coined a nice phrase in describing the current gold rush:

People are the gold of the 21st century - mayor Tory on #startuphereto and the talent pool in TO - enabling the Innovation economy

Kudos to everyone at the City for showing exceptional leadership. Read the press release here.

Barn Raising the Innovation Economy

Of the many useful things I learned growing up in Saskatchewan, two in particular stand out as relevant to Canada's research and innovation ecosystem. The first is the importance of cooperation. The second is the weather.

Cooperation is the cornerstone of community building on the prairies, as anywhere really. I learned from a young age that when your neighbour is building a barn, everyone pitches in to help. "Collaborating to compete together" has real meaning: working together we create vibrant communities and resilient regional economies that amplify complementary strengths and common goals.

This form of "coopetition" defines how various actors in the research and innovation ecosystem work together. Where once we might have seen these actors try to upstage each other in a scramble for money and attention, we now see cooperation to achieve increased academic and industrial innovation and productivity.

There can be little debate about the need to increase business investment in research and development (R&D). We have too little firm spending on R&D (and new equipment and training for that matter). This translates into poor industrial productivity and innovation capacity.

For academic productivity, we are excellent in our ability to perform basic science. We need to start focusing more on leveraging and translating our basic research into practical applications for social and economic good. Successive expert panels have all identified a systematic failure in this country to capitalize on the basic research capacity of our world leading research institutions.

Countries like Canada, with economies dependent on resource extraction industries, need to start adding value to the raw resources we extract. Basic research with little or no focus on application or commercialization becomes just one more example of how Canada exports raw commodities (in this case ideas) without adding value (commercialization of these ideas).

Polytechnics and Colleges like George Brown work with many university scientists. We help them produce PhDs, patents, publications and products, just as easily as we work with industry to get new products and services to market. Here are some examples.

In 2012, the GBC Food Innovation Research Studio (FIRSt) collaborated with scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital / University of Toronto and Ryerson University to help test whether eating cheese fortified with Vitamin D could affect the levels of the vitamin in the body. Over the course of the study we recruited 120 students, staff, and faculty who volunteered to eat pizza—topped with Vitamin D fortified mozzarella—once a week for 8 weeks in a double-blind randomized trial. Our food scientists and chefs were able to design an optimal and delicious Italian style pizza and produce over 100 pizzas every week for 8 weeks. Leaving aside the difficulty we may or may not have had in recruiting volunteers, we were approached to participate in the study because we offered these scientists complementary expertise to help them test their hypothesis.

This project showcases a unique recipe that blended basic and applied research. The findings provide scientific support for commercialization of vitamin D fortified cheese, showing that Vitamin D3 is safe and metabollically available from fortified mozzarella cheese, even after being cooked.

Applied research at George Brown supports firms in a range of industries from construction and Building Information Modeling through to prototyping and food product development. Companies often access more than one academic partner in their engagement with industry-academic partnerships.  One such company is Clear Blue Technologies. Their "smart off-grid" street light uses solar panels and wind turbines to power street lights, networked through wireless technologies to provide cost effective and green power solutions for lights, traffic cameras and signs. The company received support from MaRS and Centennial College; at George Brown our Advanced Prototyping Lab helped take the product from prototype to production manufacturing. A graduate student from Ryerson University was also employed on the project. By working together and leveraging complementary strengths we have collectively helped propel the company from idea to invoice.

And so the weather.

Talking about the weather is a national past time, but it very nearly passes for religion on the prairies. Perhaps this is because so much of the growing season is determined by the whims of nature. Being able to talk about the weather is what is most important – predicting it, observing and commenting on it, lamenting it. The weather is something we all have in common. In this sense, weather talk is an important social lubricant, an expression of our commonality and shared experience in place.

And this is the point. Like the weather, innovation is a social activity. While innovation may involve a technical challenge, it requires us to recognize common goals and to socialize and realize we are stronger when we work together.

Place matters when it comes to innovation. By integrating the harmonizing strength of regional college, polytechnic, and university capacity, and linking this with industry, we can evolve the Canadian economy. Together we can ensure graduates from across the credential spectrum understand innovation, and can work together to stand up the innovation economy. 

This article is reprinted with permission from the Research Infosource Canada's Innovation Leaders 2015 / Feature Article and Editorials.

Generation renew: innovation policy and education

I've been reading the revised edition of The Entrepreneurial State which supports the idea of state intervention and the development (and funding) of priorities in basic research. Those interested in this viewpoint would do well to read the interview with Bill Gates in the Atlantic, in which he says the same thing regarding the need for basic science investment in climate change. This is an important point that needs to be discussed as it relates to innovation policy and the public funding of basic and applied research, as well as experimental development (which is the innovation side of the equation - see post script below). There is also an interview in the recent Report on Business magazine with nobel laureate George Akerlof, in which he also supports the notion of state intervention. We are witnessing the rise of behavioural economics that shows how rational actors are induced to act irrationally.

A positive link here is the work that the Canadian Council of Chief Executives initiated recently: the Business Higher Education Round Table (BHER). There are two foci here: research collaborations and work integrated learning. Of particular import is the fact that leaders of business and higher education are working together to find productive solutions to inherent challenges in our economy - the lack of productivity and innovation, as well as persistent (and perceived) skills gaps. Universities Canada new CEO Elizabeth Cannon (co-chair, with GBC President Anne Sado, of the BHER) recently came out with a list of 5 priorities, which includes better industry academic partnerships.

All of this points to what I will call Generation Renew: we are generating renewal through a politics of detente that sees business, colleges, polytechnics and universities working together to address common needs. This includes industrial and academic productivity and partnerships, as well as a greater focus on skills the economy of the future needs.

Generation Renew is not just the generation of new models of cooperation and collaboration, it is also the generation of people that will come up within this milieu and start to address the long standing issues faced by the Canadian economy. Generation Renew supplants the alphabet soup of generational change and flux. Generation Renew are those people who work their way through the educational systems in Canada to acquire skills and competencies, are entrepreneurial and innovative, and who work together to make Canada a better place for all. The right mix of intervention and coopetition will enable Canada to make maximal use of our basic and applied research capacity, while ensuring we have the right skills for the innovation economy.



Post Script: Today's One Thought a Day blog post by Alex Usher offers some good advice on innovation policy. Usher offers views on differential spending between what he calls "pure research and applied research." There is an inherent problem with calling basic research pure research - it implies that applied research is somehow impure (and this in one statement sums up Canada's problem with commercialization as seemingly not pure). And, Usher, like most, ignores the third component of R&D - experimental development, in which innovation emerges. However, let's focus on Usher's repeat of the Jenkins Panel recommendation to support the establishment of an innovation granting council. This is important. While the previous government did a lot to promote HERD as well as to continue the previous Liberal government's initialization of the college research funding program, a lot of the good was lost in the rhetoric of entitlement to what I would call a libertarian view on "pure research": don't tell me what I can and cannot research, just fund me to do what I want to do. As I have pointed out in this space many times over the years, state intervention is required to support the establishment of clusters and national priorities. This is because, even though Canada spends more per capita on HERD than any other G7 country, we do not have the GDP to support research into anything and everything.

Design is the bricoleur of innovation

Last week I wrote about innovation policy and its coverage in the media and in particular Mariana Mazzucato's book The Entrepreneurial State. It's in the news again today and what interests me most about this discussion is the unstated role of design in taking ideas to market. That is, intentional design - or design with intent if you will - is about finding ways to shape technology into useful and usable products and services. Many are fond of talking about Apple products and the particular genius that company had in taking others' inventions and packaging them in a way to make them appealing. Have a look at this site for an interesting look at how Mac products moved "forward through the rearview mirror." The designer is the bricoleur, and this is at the heart of innovation. Not invention, though this is important. Rather, when we take ideas emerging from basic research and put these together to form products and services that people will find useful and usable, then we have innovation. This is the stated goal of Tandem Launch, for example, and is well worth looking into. GBC's Design Centre for the Smart Economy is how we scaffold ideas and inventions through to innovations and invoices.

Innovation policy the rhetoric of research

There has been some good coverage in the Globe and Mail recently on innovation policy in Canada, leveraging the current election to promote fruitful discussion on this important aspect of public policy. One of the better pieces was by Doug Saunders on Saturday, where he asks "The question of Election 2015: Can government create jobs and growth?". In a nutshell he lays bare the need for government intervention in the economy specifically as it relates to promoting innovation in extant and emergent industrial sectors. The government's role is not to pick winners and losers, but rather to create gravitational pull towards specific goals such that industries can develop. Most importantly he cites the work of Mariana Mazzucato and her book The Entrepreneurial State (a must read). We need to get away from the tax incentives as a spur to innovation - these are not working. Instead, direct supports - such as those recommended by Polytechnics Canada  recently - will go much further in supporting a holistic approach to both industrial and academic R&D productivity. This point, made by Saunders and repeated today by Kevin Lynch, is seemingly not well understood in Canada.

Saunders makes a significant error in his reporting; in paraphrasing Mazzucato, he talks about the Canadian predilection to invest in what he calls "pure research." In the quote from Mazzucato, she talks about the continuum of basic research, applied research, and commercialization. It is worth quoting this passage in its entirety:

“What doesn’t work,” Dr. Mazzucato says, “is when the direct investments are too focused on one part of the innovation chain. The kind of active government involvement that was characteristic of Silicon Valley and places like Denmark – that government involvement has been across the entire innovation chain. Basic research? Yes. Applied research and early-stage financing for companies? Yes. Those countries that think they can just spend a lot on science and a lot on basic research and assume business can take care of the rest, without also having a strong presence in public policy – they tend to fail.”

Saunders's error is a linguistic one that is common among Canada's R&D policy set: equating basic research with the term pure research automatically confers on applied research and commercialization the connotation that this is impure. You might think this does not matter. But language constitutes reality, and in the partisan world of research funding, where one is seen as preferable to the other in the scrum for scant dollars, we would be wise to heed Mazzucato's words to diversify our investments along the innovation chain.

Saunders should be aware of this linguistic issue, having written arguably one of the better histories of Canada's consistent failure to embrace innovation in a 2012 piece called "My ancestors and the worst thing that has ever happened to this country." In this, he outlines may aspects of the historical antecedents of our long standing failure to capitalize on anything other than raw resources, and how

the idea of an individualistic, entrepreneurial, industrially adventurous economy became alien and undesirable. The hewing of wood, the drawing of water and the selling of furs may been the origins of Canada, but the post-1812 rulers turned them into an unavoidable fate.

With the opportunity before us to engage in dialogue and debate, I believe we can turn around this "unavoidable fate."

On that note, a good read on the connections between all forms of research and the complementary aspects of various education outcomes can be found in Fragmented Systems: Connecting Players in Canada’s Skills Challenge, released this week by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. 

Job makers and job takers

Yesterday's news from the Conference Board that Canada still remains "an innovation laggard" is disheartening to say the least. There is some good news in that Canada has improved on some measures, and the report on the page linked above reminds us that a focus on incremental innovation is a valid path for companies to pursue. The Globe Report on Business story about this latest innovation scorecard contains reference to the new indicator of entrepreneurial ambition, on which Canada scores well. This is an important point that is well worth emphasizing.

George Brown College understands employment - this is core to our Strategy 2020. We rightfully focus on ensuring employment outcomes for our graduates - making sure that where the labour market is headed is where our graduates get jobs and excel in them. GBC was a partner on a recent labour market information report by the Toronto Region Board of Trade that offers the best LMI available for the region - find it here: Closing the Prosperity Gap.

The point here is that we focus on job takers - preparing people to take the jobs in the economy that need to be filled.

We also need to focus on the job makers - those people who have entrepreneurial ambition and who are creating companies and jobs in the economy. startGBC, GBC's gateway to entrepreneurship is our access point for the job makers in our programs. There are many programs and post-secondary institutions focusing on entrepreneurship, from MaRS to Ryerson University's DMZ. All have in common what the Conference Board is measuring as entrepreneurial ambition, which "helps shape the entrepreneurial and innovation performance of an economy." 

We should celebrate our A rating on this factor, and do more to encourage not just the jobs takers - who need innovation literacy to help companies and entrepreneurs to be more innovative and productive - but the job makers, who will create jobs, opportunities and new industries in the years to come.

Innovation in Canada

The Globe and Mail has been running a series of articles on innovation in Canada, kicked off back in May by a piece by Jim Balsillie. These articles are not really telling us anything we do not already know: Canada spends more per capita on basic research than our G7 counterparts, but we are at the bottom when it comes to business investment in R&D (and education and training and new technology, while we are at it). A couple of weeks ago there was a good article by Ian Klugman and Kevin Lynch on how the Toronto-Waterloo corridor could be Canada’s own Silicon Valley. For the first time in the series an author (or authors in this case) acknowledged that there is an innovation intermediary system comprised not just of universities, but also of colleges and polytechnics. I suppose in some respects it is short hand for post secondary education for most writers and editors to simply say universities, but we ignore the wider system at our detriment.

The key point here is that, while we certainly need to focus on more startups emerging from our world leading basic science labs, we also need to focus on what we can do to help those companies who want to innovate. A well functioning innovation intermediary ecosystem includes the span of PSE institutions all working toward their particular strengths.

The Greater Toronto Area is emerging as one of these, with world leading university research labs and hospitals functioning well alongside smaller universities and start up ecosystems along with colleges and polytechnics that are each doing their part for the whole.

Ensuring everyone across the educational outcome spectrum is well equipped with innovation literacy skills - and knows how to work with others in the system - will future proof our economy. A good thought for a week when the world's markets are taking such a beating.