Feds call for input on innovation agenda

Ottawa, ON – The federal government has launched a website that invites Canadians to share their ideas for building the country as a global centre for innovation. The website, Canada.ca/Innovation, allows Canadians to share their ideas for positioning Canada as a world leader in turning ideas into solutions, science into technologies, skills into jobs and start-up companies into global successes. That’s what innovation is all about.

Six areas for action have been identified, namely:

– promoting an entrepreneurial and creative society

– supporting global science excellence

– building world-leading clusters and partnerships

– growing companies and accelerating clean growth

– competing in a digital world

– improving ease of doing business

“Support for world-class research is critical to making innovation a national priority,” said Kirsty Duncan, federal minister of science. “We are looking for Canadians’ input on how to strengthen applied research while promoting partnerships with businesses so that the knowledge and discoveries generated in the lab make their way to the market.”

At the same time, a group of innovation leaders have been selected to hold round-table discussions across the country. Those individuals include:

Janie Béïque is senior vice-president, natural resources, industries and consumer goods at Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

Dr. Elizabeth Cannon is president and vice-cof the University of Calgary.

Valerie Fox is chief innovation consultant at The Pivotal Point.

Dr. Arvind Gupta is a distinguished visiting professor at University of Toronto.

Austin Hill is co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, a provider of Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Dr. Sarah Lubik is the director of entrepreneurship for Simon Fraser University as well as co-founder and director of high tech start-up Lungfish Dive Systems.

Dr. Maurice Moloney is executive director and CEO of the Global Institute for Food Security, as well as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) / Dow AgroSciences industrial research professor at the University of Calgary.

Mark Podlasly is the founder of Brookmere Management Group, co-founder and CEO of North Pacific Energy Ltd., a trustee at Tribal Sovereign Wealth Fund, a senior teaching fellow at Harvard University, a fellow at Action Canada and a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation.

Dr. Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District innovation hub in Toronto.

Dr. Tyler Wish is the co-founder and CEO of Sequence Bio.

The government says the feedback it receives will help to shape an innovation action plan with the goal of positioning Canada as a global leader in promoting research, accelerating business growth, and propelling entrepreneurs from the commercialization and start-up stages to international success.