canada

University-based centers to support collaborative research with industry have been a mainstay of federal competitiveness policies for decades.  Government commitments of multiyear, multimillion dollar funding are thought to provide lab/institutional stability and industry confidence for engagement in longer-term joint research projects. Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program was established in 1989, and, on the eve of the program’s 30^th anniversary, the Government of Canada has announced the program is to be replaced with a new initiative focused on smaller, individual research projects of potentially higher risk and greater timeliness.

While the United States grapples with yet another proposed budget that drastically reduces investments in innovation, Canada’s federal government has announced that five industry-led organizations will share up to C$950 million as part of the country’s supercluster initiative. The superclusters program, a part of the Trudeau government’s innovation and skills agenda announced last year, seeks to encourage leaders from business, research institutions, and the public sector to support the growth of targeted industry sectors. Other elements of the strategy include investments in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and collaborative R&D projects. Although there were originally nine semi-finalists for the superclusters awards, many of the losing bids ended up joining forces with the five winning initiatives: 

In an effort to incentivize large-scale industry partnerships, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada will invest up to C$950 million (US$708.5 million) between 2017 and 2022 in superclusters as part of the nation’s Innovation and Skills Plan. ISED Canada defines superclusters as “innovation hotbeds” that build on the advantages of clusters, “dense area of business activity containing a critical mass of large and small companies, post-secondary and other research institutions.” Grants, expected to be in the order of C$125 million to C$250 million (US$93.2 to US$186.5 million), will be distributed to three to five industry-led consortiums in Canada working around industries where the nation has pre-existing strengths (e.g., advanced manufacturing, agri-food, clean technology, digital technology, health/biosciences, clean resources, or infrastructure and transportation). Awarded consortiums will implement market-driven strategies across topics such as increased industry partnerships, collaborative research and development, and the commercialization of new products, among others.

Canada is targeting innovation to drive economic prosperity through several recently announced investments. These investments are intended to unlock the potential of Canadian universities and entrepreneurs as well as capital for startups. The provincial government of Ontario has also unveiled several tech-based economic development efforts. In addition to these newly announced efforts, the Trudeau administration released a series of economic development-related policy recommendations to support economic growth across the country.