Comments on: Bridging innovation and commercialization

By: Building A Creative Infrastructure: The Prime Economic Directive | A Chronicle of a Learning Journey

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:44:57 +0000

[...] Harold Jarche posted about a project he undertook involving the idea of a research center bridging university research [...]

By: Harold Jarche

Harold Jarche — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:11:07 +0000

I’m sure there are examples but I don’t have any personal experience. The SynergiC3 project is an example of this type of work. A now closed organization that I once worked at focused on that area:

http://www.jarche.com/2006/12/centre-for-learning-technologies-lessons-learnt/

By: Howard Johnson

Howard Johnson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:17:51 +0000

An interesting idea; a research center that focuses somewhere between stages 3 and 5, creating bridging (knowledge centric?) relationships as a key development catalyst. There certainly is an explosion in stages 1 & 2 knowledge and there seems to be a lot of money chasing speculation instead of value. Do you think anyone knows how to do such a thing – examples of methods?

By: Harold Jarche

Harold Jarche — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:32:25 +0000

I didn’t say that Atlantic Canada needs an aggressive investment program, but Allan Cornford did, and his report had already been accepted by my client. I was building on what the organization had already used.

My model is not industry-directed, but shows the link between research (left side of table) and commercialization (right side). Industry focuses on commercialization while universities & NRC focus on innovation, according to the table.

The aim of this report was to determine if an applied research centre could be established around a “community college” in a rural region. There was no direction of what research universities or research institutions should be doing, only the creation of a bridge between the public and the private sectors with a focus on innovation:

“For the purposes of this report, a working definition of innovation, from Cap Gemini is “a robust creative process that turns out a very distinct output with significant impact on the market”. Therefore, what we are looking at in this study are the ways that applied research and development activities in the Miramichi area can help to create measurable, market-accepted products and services.”

I understand that the public should drive the high-level agenda, but industry decides what is viable and how to commercialize it. This is the case of the SynergiC3 project as well. Perhaps that is why I was hired to do this report instead of someone with a vested interest in the local economy. In the end, the report was shelved, so it’s a mute point. I have written this up in case anyone else sees some use in it.

By: Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:25:50 +0000

I think you need to be careful with statements like “Atlantic Canada requires an aggressive investment program, with funding increases focusing predominately on industry-driven applied R&D. ”

If ‘industry-driven’ means that the program is driven in such a way as to develop the region’s industrial capacity, then that is fine.

if, however, the phrase is interpreted in such a way as to be interpreted as ‘industry directed’ then this is less fine. While I can agree that industry should be a beneficiary of research, I don’t believe that it is in the best position to direct the distribution of those benefits.

- first, industry is often not in the same position as research to understand the need or potential for a given applictaio n. Often, industry representatives respond to a proposal with an erroneous “it can’t be done” or “nobody needs this” response.

- second, industry is not supportive of R&D that could undercut its existing business. Hence, for example, a paper company would be interested only in technologies that increased the use and utility of paper, and not technologies that replace paper, even if these technologies are more viable.

- third, industry is often focused on the short-term and is not interested in an R&D program that will not produce immediate next-fiscal-year return on investment

- fourth, existing industries, especially in a small region such as the Maritimes, seek to direct all investment to existing entities, and away from new entities or those that might move in from other regions.

For these reasons, an industrial R&D strategy, even if it is driven by industry needs, should be determined at the public level, and not by the industries that might stand to directly benefit from the allocation of public funds.