Creating commercialization postdocs: Bridging the gap between invention and commercial application

"Science-based innovations – those founded on engineering, scientific and medical discoveries – are critical to tackling global challenges.

Canada’s brightest minds are generating research excellence in a broad range of disciplines; however, the nation’s lost potential within the research-to-innovation pipeline is well-documented. The recent Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System identified significant gaps in Canadian research supports, and recommended providing entrepreneurial training for researchers, to nurture a more entrepreneurial mindset in the research community."

SFU Associate Vice-President, Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation and W.J. VanDusen Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Elicia Maine recently wrote an op-ed for Re$earch Money about the importance of customized science entrepreneurship training for postdocs.

Maine is the founder of SFU’s Invention to Innovation (i2I) program launched at the Beedie School of Business in 2015. An exemplar of science innovation and entrepreneurship training in Canada, the program went national in 2019, thanks to a partnership with Mitacs. It has helped seed the Canadian innovation ecosystem with scientist innovators and a portfolio of science innovation opportunities, while also helping to create some of Canada’s leading emerging technology companies.

Maine’s recommendations in the op-ed are based on a study of commercialization postdoctoral fellowships – in partnership with the i2I national network led by Acting National Academic Lead Jon Thomas (University of the Fraser Valley) with the research team comprising: Finlay MacNab (SFU and i2I alumnus), Bruna Guarino-Moraes (Queen’s University), Tom Goldsmith (Mitacs), James McLellan (Queen’s University), National Academic Lead Sarah Lubik (SFU), and Maine.