Canadian universities, research hospitals and colleges will be in a better position to compete with large US academic institutions after receiving $14.25 million for 16 regional consortia focusing on technology and knowledge transfer. Announced September 20, the new funding – which includes an additional $2.87 million for internships – will enable institutions to better manage, protect, bundle and market intellectual property (IP). It will also provide companies with one-stop regional shops for academic research.

“When you look at the resources at an MIT or Stanford, they are huge. But if you take four mid-sized universities in Canada, combine their expertise and add together their research budgets, you create a critical mass that makes them internationally competitive,” says Janet Walden, VP research partnership programs at Science and Engineering Research Canada (NSERC).

The Intellectual Property Mobilization (IPM) program is a key component of the innovation and commercialization strategies of NSERC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). CIHR and NSERC are each contributing nearly $7 million to the three-year awards, with SSHRC investing another $360,000.

SSHRC’s contribution will primarily support a new network being established by York Univ and the Univ of Victoria. The “Knowledge Broker” is the first-ever commercialization network involving the social sciences and humanities. CIHR is co-funding the network.

“This network is a bit different from the others in that it’s broadening the definition of IP,” says Mark Bisby, VP research at CIHR. “We’re not talking about development of a new drug or diagnostic technique … it’s very much targeted on the social sciences and its application to health issues, which is an important area for policy in Canada.”

The IPM evolved from the IP Management program, which NSERC launched in 1994 with a budget of $5 million over three years. That earlier program focused on building IP expertise within individual universities. In comparison, the IP Mobilization program aims to accelerate tech transfer by encouraging research-intensive universities, hospitals and colleges to share their technology transfer and training resources. The IPM is funded by the three granting councils and focuses on multiple scientific disciplines.

In this most recent competition, the largest grant ($1.7 million) goes to a McMaster Univ-led consortium which includes the Univ of Waterloo, Univ of Guelph, Univ of Western Ontario and their affiliated hospitals and research institutes. The joint venture – called C4 (coordination, cooperation, collaboration and commercialization) – also received $400,000 for internship training.

The second largest award ($1.54 million) goes to Springboard Atlantic Inc, an existing network of 14 eastern universities led by the Univ of New Brunswick. Springboard was established in May 2004 with $3.6 million from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to link university research with the private sector. “We’ll be sharing expertise instead of building 14 individual centres of expertise throughout Atlantic Canada. It’s an efficient way of doing business,” says Greg Kealey, VP research at UNB.

Most of the 16 networks are regionally based. For example, 26 institutions from the four western provinces have come together to form the WestLink Technology Bundling Initiative, led by the Univ of Northern British Columbia. In Montreal, McGill has formed a network that includes its research hospitals and various faculties.

GRANT AWARDED FOR NATIONAL NETWORK

The granting councils also provided funding to the Alliance for Commercialization of Canadian Technology (ACCT), which will tie together the various local and regional commercialization networks into a national tech transfer organization. Similar to the Federal Partners in Technology Transfer for federal labs, the ACCT will share best practices and provide a central point of contact for industry and other receptor communities. “To some extent I think you will also see (ACCT) as putting a face on, or lobbying for, the commercialization and tech transfer of university research,” says Walden.

Bisby says networks may be eligible for renewed funding after three years, depending on available funding, as well as the outcomes from each network – i.e. number of licences, disclosures and interns supported, as well as revenue from licences.

“I’d like to think that if these networks are a big success and demonstrate their value, we’ll be able to continue funding them,” he says, “but that will require an evaluation of the program before we get to the end of the three years.”

The granting councils are also investing $2.87 million in six internship programs to address the dearth of tech transfer professionals in Canada. New tech transfer trainees will gain hands-on experience working in investment banks, venture capital companies and university and hospital tech transfer offices.

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