Alberta Ingenuity International Board of Review 2007-2008: Alberta’s innovation system: An opportunity for the future

As part of its founding legislation, Alberta Ingenuity is required to form an International Board of Review (IBR) every six years to evaluate the performance of Ingenuity and to make recommendations on its operations.

Ingenuity’s first International Board of Review, chaired by Dr. Alan Bernstein, consisted of six scientists and engineers, each internationally recognized for their leadership in research and innovation.

Alan Bernstein, Chair | The inaugural executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, and was the founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

H. Douglas Barber | Founder of and former President and CEO of Gennum Corporation and Distinguished Professor-in-Residence at McMaster University.

Dr. Rita R. Colwell | Distinguished University Professor at University of Maryland College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also Chair of Canon US Life Sciences, Inc. and former Director of the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Koji Kaya | Director of the Wako Institute and Discovery Research Institute (RIKEN). He is also the president of Japan Nano-Science and Technology Society.

Petri Peltonen | Head of the Innovation Department at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy for the Finnish government; he is responsible for Finland’s national technology and innovation policy and its’ implementation.

Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster | CEO and Director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and a professor of Computer Science at Saarland University in Saarbrücken.

The IBR members worked through the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2008 reviewing reports and other materials. They also spent three days in Alberta meeting with a broad range of stakeholders from government, the university community and industry. Based on this input and following extensive discussion, the IBR made a number of observations, conclusions and recommendations. Alberta Ingenuity has used these recommendations to underpin its inputs to the current changes in Alberta’s publically funded research and innovation system.

Terms of Reference

The International Board of Review (IBR) was given its terms of reference in the fall of 2007. They were tasked with exploring the following questions:

How did Alberta Ingenuity’s operations from 2000 to 2006 compare to the founding expectations?
How might Ingenuity evolve to improve its effectiveness in providing leadership to Alberta’s innovation agenda?

Throughout the review, the IBR was to consider input from stakeholders regarding:

The quality of Ingenuity investments
Activity where Ingenuity has demonstrated leadership in support of research and innovation growth
The outcomes or impacts organizations have seen in relation to the work of the Alberta Ingenuity Fund
Recommendations and benchmarking regarding global best practices in support of research and innovation

IBR Recommendations

1. Alberta’s innovation system: An opportunity for the future

Recommendations: The recent dramatic increases in the price for oil and gas, and the development of technologies for extraction of oil from the oil sands, have created unprecedented wealth and new opportunities for Albertans. The challenge for Alberta now will be to show the leadership required to use that wealth not just for today, but for tomorrow. We believe that Alberta should set its sights high and aim to create a model for the world in both the discovery of new knowledge and its use to create new treatments for human disease, solutions to global warming, new sources of clean energy, carbon sequestration, the challenge of safe and abundant water for everyone, prosperity, etc.

This vision for Alberta is ambitious but achievable. It will require leadership, foresight and an innovation system that is built on sustained political support, outstanding science, skilled entrepreneurs, and clear goals and expectations.

Therefore we recommend that: The Alberta Government hold an “Innovation Summit” in which all the key players from within the province, as well as key individuals from outside the province come together to develop a comprehensive and realistic set of proposals for government, industry and the higher education system. The goals of such a Summit would be two-fold: first, to achieve broad agreement on achievable but ambitious goals for the province and second, to undertake a full review of the province’s current innovation system with the aim of building a stronger system that is less complex and hence more accountable overall. This review would lead to the establishment of province-wide priorities and strategies, and clearly identified roles and responsibilities for each of the players.

2. Ingenuity should be a major player

Recommendations: Ingenuity, as originally conceived, must play a key part in a renewed innovation system.

As a result, we recommend that: Ingenuity remain semi-independent of Government with the Board of Trustees directing its future to ensure that it aligns with provincial priorities through its reporting to the Minister of Advanced Education and Technology.

3. Ingenuity’s vision needs adjustment

Recommendations: Ingenuity has made significant decisions to date, ones the IBR supports overall. We find that Ingenuity has programs on the “push” side of research, but requires further programming on the “pull” side.

As a result, we recommend that: Ingenuity should contribute to the development of Alberta’s commercialization capacity by developing programs on the “pull” side, considering requirements such as managerial expertise and mentoring, marketing, business development services, venture capital, incubation, internationalization, intellectual property rights (IPR), etc.

4. Ingenuity’s governance requires strengthening

Recommendations: Ingenuity’s current Board of Trustees is dedicated to the success of the organization. The Board must play an important role in guiding the evolution of the organization from its current position to one in which it occupies a strategic position in a new innovation system for the province.

As a result, we recommend that: The Board of Trustees of Ingenuity be strengthened and broadened to include people from research‑intensive companies, in both mature and developing industries as well as the Venture Capital community.

5. Leadership requires partnerships

Recommendations: This new vision for Ingenuity will require it to work even more closely with the three sectors that are critical for innovation — government, universities, private sector — and develop deep and trusting partnerships to advance the provincial agenda for innovation.

As a result, we recommend that: Ingenuity should work proactively with its partners, bringing them together to create alignment, and helping all to rise above their current perspectives. As well, Ingenuity work with the Minister and Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Technology to identify a strategic approach to innovation, to identify strategic industries and to develop a viable plan for implementation.

6. Ingenuity’s programs are impressive, and can be improved

Recommendations: Ingenuity’s quality of operations appears to be of international standard and widely appreciated by its clients and stakeholders. It is understandably too early to assess the full results and impacts of Ingenuity’s investments to Alberta. Indications seem positive, and Ingenuity should put effort on impact assessment of its investments and operations.

Nonetheless, improvements are possible in the context of the full innovation system.

As a result, we recommend that:

The mandate of Centres be expanded to include the training of students and entrepreneurs, a higher level of international relationships, and a greater focus on attracting international post‑doctoral fellows.
The current brain drain of Albertan post docs should be reversed by appropriate retention programs.
We believe that successful and strategically aligned Centres could grow into Accelerators.
The Industry Associates Program be expanded to fund projects in companies rather than single researchers. These projects should be linked to the strategic priorities of the province.
The New Faculty Programs be broadened to ensure that Ingenuity does not lose track of these people once their initial funding has ended. A new funding program should be developed that would allow for a second stage award for those projects showing commercialization potential.
Institutes be managed more like Centres, with defined mandates, supervisory structures and performance measures.
Accelerators require further concept development, dialogue with partners, and a source of funding.
Ingenuity should consider Centres as a possible basis for Accelerators, and work to attract world-class companies in the target areas to Alberta.
Ingenuity should work much more closely with its federal counterparts to ensure alignment and leverage where appropriate and to assert greater influence nationally.

7. Building national and international relationships is key to innovation

Recommendations: Alberta is a small province and hence should engage with partners in other parts of Canada and internationally.

As a result, we recommend that: Ingenuity, through all of its programs, actively engage the national and international research community and international marketing avenues. Program design should reflect this objective. For example, the Scholar, New Faculty and PDF programs should attract the best people from abroad. The current priority of dedicating a small portion of Ingenuity funding for developing countries be retained.

8. Capacity building on the commercial side is critical

Recommendation: Alberta is developing capability on the research side of the innovation system, but requires strengthening on the commercialization side.

As a result, we recommend that:

Ingenuity play a role in shoring up this area by:

bringing the key stakeholders together to address the issue,
providing training for academics in commercialization,
working with strategic industries and the venture capital (VC) community to provide commercialization expertise and encourage private risk investment on knowledge-intensive start-ups and growth firms, and
working with Government, universities and industry to bring corporations to Alberta to enhance knowledge and experience.

9. Ingenuity will need an appropriate budget

Recommendations: The recommendations above will have Ingenuity playing a significant role in the full innovation system in Alberta.

As a result, we recommend that: Ingenuity be appropriately funded. Government work with Ingenuity to identify this agreed role and fund it to the level required.

10. Albertans should be part of the process

Recommendations: All Albertans have a stake in innovation success. It is essential to the future of the province.

As a result, we recommend that: This Report be made public at the earliest possible date so that Albertans gain an understanding of the issues and can participate in the creation and implementation of the new innovation system in Alberta.