With the challenge of a changing external context for research in Canada 鈥� both a shifting economic and social cultural environment鈥� a new view of innovation is taking hold and a recognition of the value of collaborations across the spectrum of research is emerging.

Effective collaboration as a part of R&D strategies will provide for significant gains in competitive advantage in innovation and productivity growth for Canadian businesses. While more and more business leaders are recognizing the potential benefits of research collaboration, universities must take up this challenge as well. It's critical for universities to build a more comprehensive and sustainable approach to strengthening research opportunities with external partners.

While it is important that universities develop the skills, talent, and creative and innovative capacity to enhance productivity in the new global economy, building new models to meet these challenges will require collaboration and teamwork at all levels and across all value chains.

Increasingly, the government has recognized the importance of enhanced R&D collaborations and invested in them. However, these increased investments have had difficulty in producing effective public and private sector linkages, resulting in a significant innovation gap 鈥� remaining a fundamental challenge for the government.

The difficulty is that the availability and distribution of research funds are increasingly tied to strategic science and technology priority areas. But so much of what drives social change and fuels the modern economy is also derived from social sciences and humanities (SS&H) disciplines. Companies in these sectors (e.g., communications, design, management, law, etc.) have complex challenges and those that derive their primary knowledge inputs from the social science and humanities disciplines account for about $700B (58 per cent) of GDP output, and yet a significant proportion of the research dollars are going to science and technology (S&T) companies that support about $431B (42 per cent) of GDP outputs.

If Canada is going to remain competitive in the new knowledge economy we must heighten collaborative research and development across a broader suite of research areas.

91亚色's innovation and partnership strategy takes a broader focus, contributing not only our S&T research but also leveraging the work of our SS&H scholars. 91亚色 has established significant and sustainable community and regional innovation programs with partners in 91亚色 Region.

The region is the sixth-largest municipality in Canada, with a growing population of 1.2M. It also serves as the centre-point of Canada鈥檚 leading technology corridor, poised to contribute as a significant innovation and commercialization hub given its strong base of IT/software and medical devices/biotechnology companies. It is home to nearly 50 per cent of the medical device technology companies in Canada.

To capitalize on our proximity to 91亚色 Region, 91亚色 is currently working actively to form a unique consortium, establishing a Convergence Centre for the development of next generation medical device technologies in Markham. 91亚色 works with a variety of regional partners on the social innovation side, including the United Way of 91亚色 Region, regional hospitals, and regional school boards.

To grow and foster new and varied collaborations, a new unique innovation facility that 91亚色 is developing as part of the convergence centre 鈥淚nnovation 91亚色.鈥� It will have the capability of both mobilizing social innovation research as well as S&T innovation and commercialization. This infrastructure will actively promote research opportunities that build on the research strengths across the university, address the needs of our partners and support the incubation of the most promising innovative ideas.

The key to fostering ultimate research success, whether in the public or private sector, science and technology or the social sciences and humanities, is a shared philosophy and belief in the value of true collaboration and its power to open new areas of opportunity and innovation.

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Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

The post Universities need sustainable approach to strengthening external research partnerships appeared first on Research & Innovation.

What do you get when you match an inventor with a business student?聽Among many things, you get a聽commercialization plan for a new product or discovery that聽could potentially transform health care.

That was the case聽in YORKbiotech's sanofi pasteur Healthcare and Biotechnology聽Venture Challenge 2009 competition, which聽matched聽students聽enrolled in the MBA Program in 91亚色's Schulich School of Business with聽inventors of viable health-care inventions to devise聽market strategies and goals to commercialize new products. Industry mentors were on hand聽to offer聽teams advice and guidance.聽Each team聽consisted of聽two students working with product inventors and a mentor for a chance to win more than聽$17,000 in prizes.

Above: From left, Gavin Zealey (contest judge), scientist Arjen Bogaards and MBA students Dilip Chary and Saif Mohamed

The project, which started last fall, saw teams work with the聽inventors to聽learn about the product and then create a聽commercialization plan before Nov. 29, 2009.

In the final stage of the competition, three shortlisted聽teams pitched their invention commercialization plans to a panel of judges in a session that resembled an episode from 鈥淒ragons' Den鈥�, the popular CBC Television venture-capitalist show. Industry experts聽Gavin Zealey,聽executive director of聽corporate development for sanofi pasteur Ltd.; Borys Chabursky, founder and president of SHI Consulting Inc.; and Janet Lambert, president & CEO with Lambert BioConsulting, served as聽the competition's judges.

The winners of the 2009 sanofi pasteur Healthcare聽& Biotechnology聽Venture Challenge are:

Sono Pharmaceuticals Inc., which placed first for its venture involving photodynamic therapy聽and sonodynamic therapy聽to produce an immune-therapeutic response to treat certain cancers.聽The team includes scientific entrepreneur Arjen Bogaards聽and MBA students聽Dr. Dilip Chary (who is also a family practitioner)聽and聽Saifuddin Tajuddin Mohamed. The team was awarded $7,500 and a business advisory package provided by MaRS Business Services, valued at $2,500.

Above: From left, Schulich Professor Amin Mawani, MBA students Aravind Petlu and Nilotpala Jena, and scientist Herman Lo

The second place award of $5,000 went to ViewsIQ Inc. for聽its real-time slide-scanning system for digital pathology. The product, named EyesIQ, is a聽diagnostic tool for scanning, storing and retracing pathologists' image data. The team included scientist Herman Lo and MBA students Aravind Petlu and Nilotpala Jena.

The team awarded third place and a cash prize of $2,500 was J. Strupat Technologies Ltd. for a portable pandemic ventilator聽life-critical system that provides mechanical聽assistance to individuals who are unable to breathe properly due to infection or physical damage. The team was聽comprised of scientist John Strupat and MBA students Darryl Baptiste and聽Akyljan Noupbaev.

Above: From left, Janet Lambert (contest judge), MBA students聽Akyljan Noupbaev and Darryl Baptiste, and scientist John Strupat

Fostering an entrepreneurial culture is integral to this competition, says Janet LeClair, chief administrative officer of , who organized the competition along with聽Schulich Professor Amin Mawani.聽鈥淪uch collaboration between scientific, business and academic communities is essential in connecting concept to commerce,鈥� LeClair says. 鈥淭he competition helps in identifying investment opportunities critical to move the economy forward.鈥�

sanofi pasteur was the gold sponsor for the competition, MaRS and the Town of Markham were silver sponsors, while bronze sponsors聽were the Health Technology Exchange聽and 91亚色 Region District School Board.

About YORKbiotech Inc.

YORKbiotech is a growing cluster of public- and private-sector members that promotes the聽convergence and commercialization of research and development in information聽& communications technologies and biomedical technologies.

Its members include biotechnology-related companies from Toronto through 91亚色 Region to Simcoe County, along with service providers, industry associations, research and educational institutions, municipalities, hospitals and government.

It is one of 12 active clusters in , which supports partnerships among business, institutions and local governments to promote innovation. 91亚色 is a founding member of YORKbiotech.

By Sana Mulji Dutt. Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

Thanks also to the .

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