Canadian Innovation Needs Innovating
Canadian innovation lags for a reason.
The Canadian academic world is in a tizzy because the country’s five largest universities, including UBC, want the federal government to steer more research funding to them. The big five say they could really kick-start Canadian “innovation” if they’re given most of the money. Naturally, other universities disagree.
Problem is that this perpetuates a myth that innovation is the sole purview of universities, and thus they – whether five or 10 doesn’t matter -- should receive most of the funding for it.
Nearly 13 years ago, Canada launched an innovation agenda with the lofty goal of becoming one of the top five countries in the OECD in terms of innovation.
It’s failed miserably. Today Canada ranks 13th among 17 peer countries, because, I believe, innovation is too often misunderstood here. Universities like UBC have convinced funders that academic research equals innovation. It doesn’t.
Research is not innovation, which is the transformation of products and services to something that is more valuable than the alternatives. While some research may be used down the road in innovation, it’s a long, perilous journey -- often known as the “Valley of Death” -- from the lab to the marketplace.
Neither does innovation mean simple development of products. Most of the innovation in the world today involves a combination of new technology and new business (or delivery) models.
One only has to look at Silicon Valley or to some areas of Europe to see what real innovation is about. Those areas have managed to work together to create the computer revolution, the communications revolution, the clean energy revolution, and many other revolutions that were hatched by innovative small and large companies.
Here, “innovation” too commonly means warring over who should get government grants. Yet a far bigger incentive to innovation is investment. Canada, locked in its traditional granting mentality, has also failed miserably in this department.
Today there is even less investment in Canadian innovation than there was a decade ago. Tiny Israel, with a population slightly larger than BC’s, has greatly surpassed us because it understands how to combine private and public investment to drive innovation.
Instead of forming a cogent plan that combines the skills of academia, government and private sectors, we in Canada prefer the traditional method of hiding in our silos and fighting over funding. That means we’ll always be mediocre innovators.
Maybe revolution is the real cure for Canada’s innovation sloth.
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