Organization: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Opinion Leader: Much stronger public sector support needed for industry’s commercialization of intellectual property

More public sector support is needed to help Canadian companies generate and protect valuable intellectual property, because businesses are failing to exploit their IP and reap the economic benefits for Canadians, Daniel Katz, lead research analyst at Global Advantage Consulting Group, and Natalie Raffoul, managing partner of Brion Raffoul LLP, say in an op-ed.

Government ‘can and should pick winners’ to grow scale-up companies, says federal advisor

In a recent report for the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, Sheldon Levy, special advisor to the federal minister of small business and export promotion, argued that government should identify and support select firms with high potential to become global competitors. “There are many countries that have to pick their laneway and can’t be the best at everything all the time,” Levy told Research Money.

Canada needs a targeted industrial strategy to improve innovation performance, experts say

Canada’s continued poor performance in innovation and business productivity is due to a failure to link publicly funded research and innovation programs to an industrial strategy based on the country’s strengths, say innovation experts. Meanwhile, studies by University of Toronto researchers show the federal innovation agenda has negatively impacted funding for basic, investigator-driven research but hasn’t addressed the underlying problem of industrial innovation in Canada.

National research infrastructures need to improve management and optimize use: OECD report

National research infrastructures (RIs) need to improve how they manage their facilities, resources and users in order to optimize RIs’ scientific capabilities, says a new policy report by the Organisation of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Science Europe. The report offers two new “guiding models” of best practices for improving the operation and use of RIs.