Action on innovation

The past few days have seen some activity to advance Canada’s national innovation agenda.

Action is overdue.

On Wednesday, a concise report was issued by the Coalition for Action on Innovation in Canada, co-chaired by former Industry Minister John Manley and GlaxoSmithKline CEO Paul Lucas, setting out 10 recommendations “to remove the barriers holding Canada back from taking its rightful place as a leader on the world innovation stage.”

The “Ten Steps Toward a More Innovative Canada” are:

1. Reform tax support for research and development;
2. Expand the pool of risk capital;
3. Adopt the world’s strongest intellectual property regime;
4. Strengthen business-academic links;
5. Tap private-sector expertise when spending public money;
6. Speed adoption of innovative products and services;
7. Launch a National Learning and Innovation Initiative;
8. Seek out the best and brightest;
9. Nurture and strengthen innovation clusters; and,
10. Ensure ongoing advocacy for innovation.

Yesterday, the government announced the creation of a Research and Development Expert Panel chaired by Tom Jenkins of Open Text.

The panel will conduct a comprehensive review of all existing federal support for businessR&D to see how this support could be enhanced to make sure federal investments are effective and delivering maximum results for Canadians.

With strong representation on the panel from academia, the panel may be suited to address a number of points emerging from the Manley / Lucas report. It is to report back to the Minister of State (Science and Technology) in one year with its recommendations “to enhance Canadian business innovation.”

In the meantime, our trading partners aren’t standing still. The EU has an initiative called Innovation Union,

It aims to improve conditions and access to finance for research and innovation in Europe, to ensure that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services that create growth and jobs.

European Voice observed that the EU is experiencing the same innovation gap that concerns us in Canada. The Innovation Union initiative includes over 30 action points.

We’ll want to watch the process undertaken by the R&D Expert Panel to gather advice from individual Canadians, entrepreneurs and business leaders. The report from the Coalition for Action on Innovation in Canada is a good start to the discussion.

The name of the coalition says it: Canada needs to move quickly from talk to action on innovation.