CARPA diem: seize the innovation

It can be hard to cast your mind back to the halcyon days of 2015 and 2016, but I remember it fondly. In the early days after the Liberal government took office, there was a real sense of excitement around innovation in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went viral for a video explaining quantum computing. The federal government retooled the immigration system to fast-track highly skilled tech visas, giving a shot in the arm to firms bringing talent to Canada. And the crown jewel of it all was supposed to be a $900-million program to create hotbeds of innovation across Canada: the so-called superclusters. A few years later, the Parliamentary Budget Officer would scrutinize the program and conclude that the superclusters were unlikely to achieve their lofty goals for economic stimulation and job creation. In the fullness of time, there may yet be some benefits to emerge from the superclusters, but it seems like former innovation minister Navdeep Bains’ excitement from the early days has not manifested itself into hotbeds of regional innovation as we were once promised. So, what should we make of last year’s campaign promises from both the Liberals and Conservatives to create some Canadian advanced research agency, modelled on the United States’ Defense Advanced Research and Projects Agency (DARPA)? The optimistic interpretation is that it presents an opportunity to learn from the superclusters, and design a program which is more effective. Already, there’s reason to be optimistic on that front. Instead of $950-million spread across five superclusters, the Liberal platform promised that the Canada Advanced Research Projects Agency (CARPA) will launch with an initial endowment of $2-billion. Moreover, we could do a lot worse than to take inspiration from DARPA, which has a solid track record for success by funding ambitious innovation challenges led by leading experts over short three- to five-year timelines, with projects being selected largely independent of political interference. All this allows DARPA to take big swings, and risk big misses because they also hit home runs. But Canada will need more than a well-funded advanced research agency if we want its work to turn into innovation and sustainable economic growth. Canada already has world-leading universities doing cutting-edge research. The key dimension that will be needed when setting up CARPA will be a focus on commercialization and ensuring that this agency is geared towards solving problems with real potential for economic benefits. The leadership of CARPA should be free from political meddling, but they should be mandated to focus on real challenges that exist in Canada and globally, where Canadian companies have the talent and IP to solve problems and commercialize the solutions globally. The leadership of this new agency must also consider Canada’s strengths, as well as global market opportunities when planning their work. This requires strategic thinking: if the research projects aren’t validated with significant potential clients, we risk pursuing dead ends, or creating a reliance on public sector contracts. We should also focus on areas where existing Canadian companies have the chance to excel. From artificial intelligence breakthroughs to battery technology, we’ve seen examples where Canadian research winds up propelling foreign tech giants. Canada’s next great research breakthroughs should propel homegrown firms. This is a topic that Dan Breznitz writes about in some detail in his recent book, Innovation in Real Places. Breznitz talks about policymakers identifying the “agents of innovation—companies and individuals” in a region and identifying what kinds of support they need. “Find the most effective ways to stimulate said agents to innovate and grow their businesses,” Breznitz writes. “While it would be truly wonderful, for multiple reasons, to have the most highly educated science, technology, engineering and medical workforce in the world, if the individuals in that workforce don’t engage in innovation, then all your investment in skills and education is for naught.” In the CARPA idea, we see real potential, but it must be developed in collaboration with Canadian innovators, and what they bring to the table. In fact, at the outset of the government’s new mandate we see a real glimmer of optimism on the innovation file. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives promised in their platforms to modernize the Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit, the cornerstone innovation funding mechanism in Canada. And the Liberals committed to creating a council of expert economic advisers, which would help add capacity and create a conduit for consultation with the private sector on economic matters. These measures aren’t as sexy as a shiny new advanced research agency taking aim at ambitious challenges, but arguably they’re more important. Altogether, what matters is the ethos of collaboration, and a sense of urgency that creating the conditions for innovation success in Canada will drive 21st century prosperity. Benjamin Bergen is president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a national, non-partisan business council made up of more than 140 homegrown Canadian scale-up companies. The Hill Times