The Commercialization of R&D
A guest post from the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper.
The economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the urgency of finding strategies for growth.
One area that remains challenging for a number of advanced economies is the commercialization of research and development.
In Canada, where I served as Prime Minister for nearly ten years (2006–2015), there remains a troubling “commercialization-gap,” despite stable and robust public investments from government.
This gap means there is lower adoption of new technologies compared to our peers, and slower commercialization of research and development. Unrealized productivity growth and fewer jobs are the unfortunate result.
These problems are not necessarily linked to the amount of public dollars being spent by governments on innovation. According to Statistics Canada, in 2019 Canadian federal and provincial and governments intended spend over $8B in research and development. It is not lack of money; it is the inability to help innovators scale and grow ideas into businesses that is holding back progress. We simply must do a better job of connecting scientists and researchers with entrepreneurs and global capital.
Quasi-commercial vehicles that partner governments with venture capital funds have proven effective in this work. Ontario, Canada’s largest province, is seeing success with this approach under the premiership of Doug Ford. The Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC) has partnered with institutional investors to provide positive returns for taxpayers, while also providing operation and business support to early stage companies. One of the OCGC’s funds, the Ontario Venture Capital Fund, was an early investor in Shopify for example.
But governments alone will not solve this problem, and for every example of success, there are failures to match. Therefore, we must unceasingly build market partnerships between researchers and entrepreneurs and global entities that can raise capital, contribute scientific expertise and drive commercial scale.
Canada should do so without hesitation. Partnerships of this nature are not indicative of weakness or inability. Far from it, they demonstrate a maturity and confidence that speaks to the calibre and quality of our people and ideas.
Dakin and the Prime Movers team are on a mission to speed the transformation of science into social and economic results. Their model and team are ready for today’s challenges, and I see tremendous potential for partnerships in my own country and globally.
Stephen Harper
22nd Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and agriculture.
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