The Human Factor Building the Skills Base for Innovation
Friday, May 24, 2002
BC Innovation Summit Speaking Notes
Dr. Michael Stevenson, President and Vice-Chancellor
Simon Fraser University
Innovation key to economic growth and well-being in leading-edge economies dominated by knowledge-based enterprises.
Key Conditions for Success/Foundations for Innovation:
- Knowledge Creation - Research
- Knowledge Application - Innovation and Commercialization
- Knowledge Transfer - Skills Development
- Entrepreneurship - Economic Climate and Organizations Favouring Innovation
- Capital Investment - Effective capital markets and Political/Regulatory Climate Favouring Capital Investments
Only address questions 1-3
What needs doing?
How is it to be done?
Knowledge Creation
Canada ranks 15th in R&D intensity in OECD
Canadian business enterprise sector ranks 14th (U.S. = 4th)
R&D
Canadian government ranks 13th (U.S. = 12th) - almost average
Canadian higher education sector ranks 11th - above average + above USA "...universities employed 31% of Canadian R and D personnel and produced two-thirds of the nation's scientific publications"
| BC poor | > 0.87% of provincial GDP |
| R&D expenditures | 1.6% for Canada as a whole |
| 2% for Ontario | |
| 2% for Quebec | |
| 2.6% for USA as whole | |
| 4% for California | |
| 5% for Washington and Michigan | |
| 6.5% for New Mexico |
BC particularly poor given importance of universities to R&D.Federal Research Funding per capita ranks 8/10
But Federal Research Funding per faculty member ranks 4/10
So BC's universities = high quality but the scale of university system/relative investment in universities is low
Scale problem, size of academic complement particularly worrisome because of Canada-wide problems:
| A | - undersupply of graduate degrees 400,000 MA's/PHD's employed in 2000; 300,000 produced in Canada |
| B | -- Demographic surge in demand from universities who need 40% of PHD's -- Canada needs 30,000 per year over next 10 year but will produce only 40,000 of which non-university employers need 28,000 |
Summary -What needs to be done for knowledge creation in BC?
- R&D investments 5X present % of GDP in BC
- Increased private sector investment in R&D
- Increased public and P3 investment in universities
- Expanded grad enrolments/funded graduate enrolment
- Balance applied and basic research funding/investment
Knowledge Application/Commercialization
Economic benefit of knowledge creation is a function of conversion to commercially valuable technologies, products, services and management improvements
- Canada leader in university-industry technology collaboration
- Growth in commercialization of university research patents/university agreements/spin-off companies/contract research with industry
- 800 firms spin-off from university research 1970-2000
BC does well - UBC well over 100 spin-offs
But SFU success in 1990s (Association of University Technology
Managers ranked SFU #1 on list of 50 North American research
universities in # spin-offs in proportion to dollars in research) - Patent and licensing activity strong although lags U.S.A. and poor income performance
Knowledge Application/Commercialization
Economic benefit of knowledge creation is a function of conversion to commercially valuable technologies, products, services and management improvements
- Canada leader in university-industry technology collaboration
- Growth in commercialization of university research patents/university agreements/spin-off companies/contract research with industry
- 800 firms spin-off from university research 1970-2000
BC does well - UBC well over 100 spin-offs
But SFU success in 1990s (Association of University Technology
Managers ranked SFU #1 on list of 50 North American research
universities in # spin-offs in proportion to dollars in research) - Patent and licensing activity strong although lags U.S.A. and poor income performance
- P3 - MITACS (e.g. Ballard/Biotech/
NEWMIC (partners with Electronic Arts, IBM, Nortel, Xerox - BC leader in Coop undergraduate programmes
- BC leader in incubator development through Discovery Parks
Summary - What needs to be done for knowledge application in BC
- Stimulate greater commitment to commercialization of university research [investment in UILO's/intellectual property initiatives]
- Stimulate greater P3 partnerships in leading edge research
- Expand incubator investment and interaction through Discovery Parks
- Develop marketing strategies to sell commercial potential of BC research to venture capital industry
Knowledge Transfer/Skills Development
| Key | = Highly qualified personnel: Post-secondary education including trades and technical training in community colleges |
| Good news | = Canada has most highly educated labour force |
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| Not so bad news | = Canada lags slightly in university degrees in labour force |
| Bad news | = Government investment in universities lagging USA |
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| Current university participation rate below average | |
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| Very bad news | = job-related continuing education very poor |
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| Worst news | = BC university system lags Canada
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Significant professional degree problems
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| Significant skills problems = heavy equipment operators, project managers, industrial mechanics, industrial electricians, most building trades, automotive trades, welders, aerospace trades and technicians Demographic pressures - BC age cohort growth |
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Summary - What is to be done for skills development?
- Fundamental problem of investing in greater university capacity
- greater flexibility/differentiation good thing but privates not going to do much for quality access + university colleges degree granting = danger of inadequate attention to applied skills programme development
- New era initiatives -- health sciences/IT very good
- Still much more investment in quality assured access to university programmes required Need FTE enrolment increase of 35,000 FTE by 2010 to keep at Canadian average
- Greater investments in P3 programmes, e.g. SFU's Learning Strategies Group
- Greater incentives to highly qualified immigrants/investment in international recruitment
