First cut of new federal commercialization program proceeds to full proposals

The Conservative government biggest research and commercialization program to date is now underway, with 25 out of 110 hopefuls green lighted to submit full applications by the end of the month. The last Budget allocated $350 million over three fiscal years to the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR).

Of that amount, $105 million over five years was awarded to seven centres pre-selected by government and handled by Industry Canada. The remaining $195 million will be managed by the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program directorate and flow over the next two years, with further allocations of approximately $30 million annually thereafter.

The competition is expected to yield up to 10 centres, with each receiving an average of $15 million over five years. That amount must be matched from funding from other sources. The number of centres could be less if a larger award is made to a centre of particular merit and sufficient scale.

Program administrators were surprised by the massive response to CECR's initial competition. Given the limitations of its budget, the ultimate success rate will likely be less than 10%.

Those that move to the current round of full proposals are a mix of familiar organizations and new groups that have been formed to apply to CECR. They include Innoventures Canada (Alberta Research Council), Centre for Drug Research and Development (R$, December 11/06), MaRS Innovation and the Canadian Light Source. Geographically, Ontario accounts for seven proposals, followed by British Columbia (6), Quebec (5), Alberta (3), Saskatchewan (1) and Prince Edward Island (1). For a complete list of applicants go to www.nce.gc.ca/ comp/CECR/cecr_e.htm.

"It's a success. The program is very timely. It shows that there was pent up demand and and stimulated a lot of people to look at it. It's a combination of both," says NCE director Jean-Claude Gavrel. "The vast majority of letters of intent were focused on commercialization."

The task of whittling down the initial slate of 110 letters of intent down to 25 applicants fell to the CECR private sector advisory board, whose composition will not be made public until the competition is complete. The nine-member board ranked the applications according to the track record and potential of the individuals and organization involved. Proposals also had to fall within the four priority areas the government has determined hold the greatest potential — environmental science and technologies, natural resources and energy, health and related life sciences technologies and information and communications technologies.

"The board members have significant experience in research, the commercialization of research and the business aspect of building a research program or enterprise," says Gavrel. "They are well known within the community."

When the full proposals are received by October 31st, the private sector advisory board will by augmented by international peer review. Their recommendations will be forward to the CECR steering committee, which is comprised of the presidents of the three granting councils, Industry Canada DM Richard Dicerni and the president of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (observer). Negotiations will then be initiated with Treasury Board to authorize the release and flow of funding. The final announcement of CECR winners is expected in March/08.

The NCE directorate is also preparing the first competition for the Business-led NCE program, which was also announced in the last Budget. The program provides $11 million annually and will be launched later this fall. Once the program is launched, the NCE will turn its attention to the Industrial R&D Internships program, the third new program for which it has been given managerial responsibility.

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