Dr. Robert Crawhall

Linking research investment to value creation

By Dr Robert Crawhall

Today in Canada, we are in the midst of a fundamental restructuring of the Information, Computing and Telecommunications (ICT) industry in Canada. The ICT research community needs to build new paths for research to be converted into “design-ready” technology and flow into product development if Canada is to continue as a world technology leader. This transformation should ultimately lead to increased economic prosperity both within the ICT sector and for all the other sectors of the economy that depend on ICT technologies.

In the past, a few large industry players played the dominant role in converting research to products. The large corporations possessed a wealth of managerial experience and multi-disciplinary expertise, and funded a wide array of projects. In the future, these corporations are going to be much more selective in their research investments.

Other players, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and smaller firms are responsible for a rapidly growing proportion of new product development. Competition within the private sector will ensure that they uncover a plethora of profitable new product and market opportunities and address smaller markets. Each will represent an opportunity for good research to take on real value.

Of course this part of the ICT sector must operate with smaller teams, shorter time frames and less financial security than was the case with their larger brethren. These factors work against their willingness to engage as sponsors of longer-term and more comprehensive research activities or to introduce untried technologies into their products.

Even in a large corporation, an experienced product development team generally turns to new technologies only in the face of severe external competitive pressures and this is why many good ideas do not get adopted.

The research community has insufficient understanding of the risks associated with the introduction of a product into a market and how including new technologies in the design exacerbates this risk. Anything the research community can do to reduce the risk that their innovation will impede a product’s path to market will significantly increase its chance of adoption and improve the return on research investment.

The process of research selection and conversion to design-ready technology is a critical phase in the innovation cycle, one that many promising ideas do not survive. It requires significant investment in time, knowledge and resources. It is also the point of greatest befuddlement to those who try to link research investment to value creation.

Research leaders should address the needs of their new potential patrons by taking a few additional steps on the path to design-ready technology. We need an active dialogue with the new product development community so that managers in research institutions better understand the dynamics of the product design environment.

On a technical level, our larger research institutions such as universities and government labs do contain the multidisciplinary skills necessary to address many of the questions that arise during the critical selectional conversion phase of the innovation cycle. With reduced attrition and the availability of experienced personnel, research teams are stronger than they have been in years.

Specific actions must be identified and implemented now by research leaders in both the public and private sectors if this opportunity is to be embraced. They must address the organizational barriers that prevent the best use of these resources and develop effective alternatives to the proprietary processes of larger private sector labs.

For example, if the innovation is a device such as a chip or an optical module, it must meet at least a minimal set of requirements in addition to its performance parameters. It must be proven reliable and cost effective And it must be able to be tested, procured, included in the computer-aided design environment, manufactured in prototype and volume quantities, reworked, maintained and shipped.

A good example of a new model catering to the entrepreneurial sector is the recently approved Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre at the National Research Council. This facility will allow innovative ideas in the rapidly growing field of photonics from research groups and small companies to be brought closer to volume manufacturing before major investment is required. It will uncover potential problems earlier in the product cycle and increase the confidence of new customers.

At the Communications Research Centre, projects to produce prototypes for broadband wireless services into rural communities and build new all-optical networks will also address important supply and integration issues — ultimately improving the rate of commercial adoption.

By actively supporting professors’ involvement in new companies, the universities and colleges are learning the complexities of the innovation channel’s back end. Programs should be developed that exploit this new found understanding in order to pass it on to the next generation of students.

To further drive the process, the entrepreneurial sector must begin to communicate their needs to researchers. Knowledge repositories and consultants on new technology introduction should be encouraged to take the place of the in-house experts in the large companies.

By implementing research clusters such as Ottawa Photonics Research Alliances, (www.opra.ca) we can focus resources and vision within a particular discipline. Programs to bring industrial researchers back into the public domain as professors or research scientists can help retain their expertise in Canada and make it more widely available.

These new approaches are the first steps toward building a more robust, diverse ICT sector with its various communities combining forces to navigate the research path to design-ready products.

Dr. Robert Crawhall, is president of the National Capital Institute of Telecommunications, a research institute in broadband technologies. NCIT builds research capacity by facilitating collaboration with universities, college and federal labs in the Ottawa region. FMI: www.ncit.ca