Alberta Ingenuity Fund selects nanotech to launch Accelerator program

Attracting world-class expertise

Alberta is raising the bar for attracting top research talent to Canada with the first in a series of planned research institutes that closely correspond to the provincial government's economic priorities. The Alberta Ingenuity Fund (AIF) has selected nanotechnology as the first Ingenuity Accelerator and will provide $100 million over 10 years through a dedicated portion of its endowment.

Each subsequent Accelerator will also have a budget of equal size, designed to support three researchers per Accelerator who are internationally renowned for their research expertise and focused on applying that knowledge through real-world applications. The level of support works out to more than $3 million per researcher annually — the highest in Canada — and is certain to put pressure on other provinces to respond with ever richer compensation packages.

Each Accelerator will be embedded within an existing institution and discussions are now underway with the province's universities to determine which areas of research are best suited for nanotechnology investment. The areas examined for potential nanotech research investment all fall within Alberta's strategic priorities: energy and the environment, health and medical technologies, agriculture and forestry and information and communications technology.

"It's now in motion and we need to develop the model that works best. Nanotech's evolution is critical for the future structure of the program … We want to build a proper foresight activity and analytical framework," says Dr Peter Hackett, AIF's president and CEO. "This is intended to enable people in an open innovation environment. It's all about the people, breakthroughs and application."

The Accelerator program has been in the works for the past three years. The AIF's International Advisory Council played a key role in defining the program, pushing for a more aggressive strategic plan to ensure that the endowment's funding yielded concrete results. But it wasn't until AIF began receiving money under the province's 2005 Access to the Future Act that those plans moved into the implementation phase. The Act committed $500 million to the AIF and $200 million has been transferred with another $300 million to be endowed at the discretion of the provincial Finance minister.

"Since it is endowed it protects against inflation and is fully sustainable. Sustainability is attractive to a researcher," says Hackett. "It's about change, flexibility and a new way of doing things … Our hope is to get stronger results."

need to grow endowment

AIF's endowment now stands at approximately $900 million, rising to $1.2 billion once the remaining $300 million is delivered. But for a series of Accelerators to be launched, the AIF endowment must be significantly larger.

"We need to grow the endowment. Another $600 million would get us a good way down the road," says Hackett. "After nanotech, we will move faster on the other accelerators."

Helping to guide that growth will be a panel of internationally renowned scientists and industry experts. Recruitment has already begun and is expected to take about six months. Cross appointments with AIF's own advisory panel are also likely.

A key objective of the Accelerator program is to transfer knowledge and discovery into the marketplace. Hackett says achieving such a goal depends on choosing people to lead the Accelerators.

"It will all depend on the people, the high achievers. People will drive the knowledge translation," he says. "It will depend on the people, the environment you create and the resources you provide."

global scan for input

In developing the Accelerator concept, the AIF looked at several such research funding models both in Canada and internationally. While the Alberta model will be tailored to the needs of the province, valuable insight was gained from such institutes as the Univ of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle WA and the Carnegie Institute at Stanford Univ.

The latter is where long-standing AIF Advisory Council member and Canadian ex pat, Dr Christopher Somerville, rose to become a world renowned expert in plant biology. Somerville receives about $6 million a year to research plant biotechnology.

"He has total discretion over how the funds are used," says Hackett. "Somerville is on our advisory council and they insisted that we move our game up from where we were."

Somerville was recently chosen to head up a new Energy Biosciences Institute at Univ of California Berkeley, funded by energy giant BP to the tune of $500 million over 10 years. The Institute's objective is to conduct research into mass producing biofuels from biomass in a manner that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

While Alberta is not yet offering research funding of this magnitude, that could change as the province undertakes a review of its current savings of approximately $40 billion. That amount could increase following premier Ed Stelmach's announcement last week to begin raising royalty rates on oil and gas beginning in 2009. It's estimated that royalties will increase by $1.4 billion annually in 2010.

"All of this is in play," says Hackett, "We're in the building phase and we'll be diligent about getting it right."

R$