TIMES ARE CHANGIN’
Government axes Research and Development Corp., creates ‘Innovatenl’
The provincial government is shutting down the Research and Development Corp. as part of a restructuring that will see a more “holistic” and “ecosystem” approach to funding “innovation.”
The provincial government is shutting down the Research and Development Corp. as part of a restructuring that will see a more “holistic” and “ecosystem” approach to funding “innovation.”
The announcement Wednesday was rife with buzzwords about economic growth and partnerships, and officials were loath to admit they were shutting down RDC. It sounds like there will be layoffs, although some of RDC’S 35 to 40 employees will go to work inside the Department of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation (TCII).
“We anticipate that in the process there would be a review taking place of the amount of supports that are needed to be provided to deliver the innovation services,” TCII Minister Christopher Mitchelmore said when asked about layoffs. “Right now our focus clearly is about establishing Innovationnl and the services that it will provide in an effective way.”
The basic idea is that RDC was funding cutting-edge research and development, and the government was funding companies trying to get products to market, but there was a lot of administrative duplication and there was some confusion when it comes to supporting the companies that are in between.
From now on, “Innnovatenl” will handle the lot of it, within TCII.
“This is all about linking up the opportunity of anything from an idea right to market to internationalization, and it’s a way of ensuring that all the services are streamlined, that people — clients and individuals — with ideas have ample opportunities to get all the services that they need, without having to have undue red tape and other inefficiencies.”
There’s no new money associated with Thursday’s announcement, but Mitchelmore was at pains to say there is $40 million currently being spent on this.
The announcement also includes an “innovation council” headed by Mark Dobbin, the president of Killick Capital Inc. The council is a blue-ribbon panel of representatives from academia and business that will serve as a board of directors for Innovatenl.
When asked for a definition of “innovation,” innovation council vice-chair Jacqueline Walsh acknowledged it’s a bit of a vague word.
“I bet you if you asked all three of us, we’d each give you a different definition,” Walsh said. “But collectively we think innovation leads to economic development, I’m sure, because that’s what we’re all here for.”