U of T's Rotman School receives $50 million to advance the study of jurisdictions

Nearly nine years after pledging to invest in the Rotman School of Management, the Ontario government has followed through with a $50-million commitment to the Centre for Jurisdictional Advantage and Prosperity (CJAP). The new Centre was funded in the recent provincial Budget with $20 million upfront followed by $6 million annually for the next five years.

Two thirds of the Centre's $120 million price tag will go towards bricks and mortar to construct a new building beside the Rotman School of Management, with the remainder devoted to research. The Centre will be operational by this summer, with the new building slated for completion in mid 2010.

The provincial funding allows Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman school to realize his long-held ambition to establish a world-class Centre for examining jurisdictions and factors that lead to their prosperity. Another $10 million in federal infrastructure funding has also been committed and $36 million out of a target $60 million in private sector money has already been raised.

"My vision is to create the most outstanding centre in the world for studying jurisdictions and what makes them prosperous," says Martin, adding that it will be similar to the renowned National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Cambridge MA, but with a broader business perspective. "It will not take a right wing business perspective but more of a centrist approach. Lots of softer things will be measured … I believe the best thing a jurisdiction can do is move up the well-being of the median person, not the lead person."

mcguinty government honours commitment

The pledge to fund new research at the Rotman school was made by the former Mike Harris government when Martin was asked to chair a new task force assembled by the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity (ICP). Martin says that the pledge was not honoured by the Harris government nor that of the successor government led by Ernie Eves.

"I've been on this kick for a long time and I've been secretly assembling pieces of the puzzle ... Finally, two governments later I got something," says Martin. "The good work of the Rotman school and the ICP showed the current government, the premier and the Cabinet that this is something we've got to be really smart about. In the realm of economic development and the innovation strategy and competitiveness, that's really hard and most government efforts are mediocre. Universities need to give them (governments) actionable items. I suspect this government decided to spent a little to become better informed. It results in better policy and this is our goal."

Researchers that Martin has brought to the Rotman school in anticipation of CJAP funding include William Strange, Brian Golden and Jack Mintz, former president of the CD Howe Institute.

While the CJAP was stalled due to lack of funding, the ICP has produced a steady stream of research on innovation and clusters, as well as a one-off project examining commercialization. The insight it has generated into cluster development and wealth creation has attracted considerable attention, as well as an annual one-day conference held in both Toronto and Ottawa.

"The OECD and the IMF now quote ICP extensively … Ontario policy initiatives have also resulted from ICP work," says Martin. "Our research on the US versus Canada resulted in the government funding 14,000 more positions for more graduate students."

Martin is confident that the CJAP, with its larger scope and resources, will have an even greater impact than ICP.

"This area is not studied as much as you'd think. It's never been studied in a holistic way and not studied in the big schools. The key actors are businesses. Governments are important as context setters but they do not create prosperity" he says. "In 10 or 15 years, I hope it will be as important as the NBER but from a business perspective ... I want the Centre to establish a global reputation in this field."

Martin says the relationship between CJAP and ICP has yet to be determined. But he's confident ICP will co-exist with CJAP and continue to flourish.

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