Colleges: Hidden Gems of the Innovation Ecosystem

Excerpt from the National Post – November 8, 2010

AS GOVERNMENTS AROUND THE WORLD increasingly turn their attention to the economic returns from public investments in research, policymakers are beginning to recognize the value of colleges beyond their traditional training role.

While universities focus on basic research to discover new knowledge, colleges work on applied research problems that are user-centric and often bring immediate benefits to society. The two kinds of institutions are complementary, together helping to prepare Canadians for success in the knowledge economy. "In the spectrum of R&D, curiosity and discovery-driven basic research is generally the realm of universities." explains Nobina Robinson. The CEO of Polytechnics Canada describes the differences and complementarities between universities and colleges, and about the different roles for the research they produce. Downstream from universities, businesses frequently approach colleges to help develop aspects of new or improved products. College faculties and students respond, creating a major route for transferring technology into commercialization. "College-based applied research helps to achieve either new outcomes that bring productivity, competitiveness, new products or commercial benefits."

The college sector has shifted significantly over the last twenty years. "Colleges tended to be purely training institutions," says Chris Hawkins, Vice President Research at Yukon College. "Most colleges have moved to an applied role in research because they have strong technology programs – and that's what small and medium-sized businesses need. No matter what they do, businesses look for technical expertise, hence the changing role of colleges." Robinson agrees. "That confirms what has always been in colleges' DNA: solving industry's problems." Colleges are now working way beyond their original mandate: on product development, process-testing models, building prototypes and planning marketing. Or, businesses might ask them: "Could you add two more applications to our I.T. software?"

"Commercialization exposes our students to innovation-literacy and gets them job-ready to apply to the real world what they've been learning in college." Companies benefit from colleges' enhanced courses and revised vision, while students, led by their faculty, do the last-stage tinkering (late stage commercialization) that leads to commercial release. Colleges assign many business based problems to their students and faculty: Prototyping, scaling, avoiding costs incurred by poor production. "Not sexy, not profound," says Robinson. "We're not going to win a Nobel Prize," adds James Watzke, Dean of Research at Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning. He adds, "But someone else might, working with something we helped create!"

While college faculty are not paid to do research, like their university colleagues, their research is an important part of their training mandate. "That we do research for industry is a byproduct of what we do one hundred percent of the time, which is to train," says Robinson. The college community as a whole offers a powerful latent tool, "an innovation tool kit that governments could harness for the benefit of businesses." That has been proposed, but the college community feels that an ancient, enduring paradigm persists: that governments are trying to enforce university standards on colleges; while colleges feel that they should be "downstream," because "what we do does not compete with universities."

Biology applies a term, convergent evolution, when different animals adopt similar characteristics. Convergent evolution may also be true of human societies. Colleges across Canada have adopted similar procedures to deliver applied research to the needs of different regional populations. Here we showcase a selection of colleges, their research and their impact:

Centennial College "Colleges were mandated to teach, to enhance students' employability," says Trish Dryden, Associate V. P. Applied Research. Industry and community partners help us understand what employers need in curricula, applied research and innovation. All along, businesses have come to us, asking for help, for our staff, labs and equipment – although that part of our role has been a hidden gem until recently. In a sense we are almost a finishing school for universities: 48% of our students have under-graduate degrees. They come back to college to get the applied industry-based know how." And to get leverage! Centennial partnered with "a very small company" which had an electronic controller for large buildings. It eventually won a "Mind to Market" award from the Ontario Centres of Excellence. "That kind of support is what people need. The impact of college applied research is very powerful," Dryden adds. The Conference Board of Canada will issue a report soon to tell us just how powerful! Meanwhile, one finding is clear: Industries invest much more with colleges than they do with universities, and the number of students who graduate into employment with industries where they worked as students is very high.

To read the full article: www.researchinfosource.com