Innovative NC leader and national trailblazer Dr. Marc Nantel brought his expertise to the House of Commons where he shed light on the college sector’s critical role in driving Canadian innovation.
On Oct. 27, the College’s Vice-President of Research, Innovation and Strategic Enterprises, who is also Chair of the pan-Canadian College Applied Research Taskforce, spoke before the Standing Committee on Science and Research as the committee launched its study: Private Sector Investment in Research and Development in Canada. The presentation was also broadcast live via House of Commons webcast.
Nantel highlighted how colleges like NC are uniquely positioned to connect research to real-world business needs, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises. College research teams apply knowledge to solve practical problems for industry, such as developing new products, improving processes, and creating services, and ultimately driving innovation, boosting economic development and job creation.
“Colleges operate within 50 kilometers of 95% of the Canadian population, and 85% of Indigenous people. Colleges are everywhere that people and businesses are,” he said. “We are place-based institutions having local impacts.”
With 500 research centers and labs across the country, Nantel said colleges have worked with 9,000 partners on more than 8,500 applied research projects last year alone. This has resulted in close to 9,000 prototypes, processes, and services to commercialize. He noted that 95% of the projects are Canadian firms and 80% were completed within one year.
He pointed to NC’s history of funded applied research projects with industry for the past 25 years, focusing on projects in important sectors in the Niagara region – advanced manufacturing, agriculture and the environment, food and beverage and more. He also spoke about NC’s leadership in SONAMI which brings together nine colleges and two universities, which has undertaken 563 projects with 479 manufacturers who commercialized 273 project products.
“Our graduates are the backbone of industry. For every PhD or engineer at a company, there are many more tradespeople, technicians and technologists who support them,” said Nantel.
“More than 28,000 college students who work on research projects every year go on to become part of growing Canadian companies, making them more innovative and competitive on the global market.”
Colleges do all this with less than 4% of the federal funding in research, he pointed out. While Niagara College requires one-to-one matching of government funding with private sector investment to stretch the too-few dollars in funding that colleges receive for applied research, they could have an even greater impact with more support, he said. In addition to more funding, Nantel advocated for federal funding criteria that measures success based on economic development and job creation.
The committee heard from witnesses throughout the day. Including a university professor, the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, and the CEO of U15 Canada. The discussion underscored the urgency of boosting R&D and commercialization in Canada.
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