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Elicia Maine: Transformational innovation begins with universities
In these times of innovation and transformation, we should look to Canada’s universities—and their leading researchers—as powerful originators of inventions the world needs, writes Elicia Maine in an op-ed for Canadian Science Policy Magazine.
Maine is the associate vice-president, knowledge mobilization and innovation at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the W.J. VanDusen Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. She is also the founder of the Invention to Innovation (i2I) program.
She advocates for better supports for Canadian university science in general and especially in areas of deep tech. For example, developing clean hydrogen technologies as part of a national build-for-scale innovation strategy, will lead to a thriving Canadian hydrogen economy. This could potentially create hundreds of companies and hundreds of thousands of high-quality jobs. She urges policymakers and governments to take action to secure Canadian leadership in clean hydrogen.
She describes SFU’s comprehensive innovation ecosystem as a winning formula for ensuring Canadian inventions take their place on the world stage. Maine shares how SFU is mobilizing breakthrough inventions in clean hydrogen energy, working with a consortium of partners to produce low-cost, clean hydrogen and to de-risk the scale-up of hydrogen technologies. This work will enable B.C. companies to develop highly qualified personnel within Canada’s burgeoning hydrogen sector.
Maine’s op-ed coincided with the 2023 Canadian Science Policy Centre’s (CSPC) annual conference held from November 13-15, where she spoke with other experts in the panel entitled, “A shorter path from fundamental research to commercialization.” At last year’s CSPC conference she was honoured with the CSPC Trailblazer Award for her Exceptional Contribution to Innovation Policy.
To read the full article visit the Canada Science Policy magazine: https://sciencepolicy.ca/posts/transformational-innovation-begins-with-universities/