Canada's Digital Advantage: Leveraging the Contributions of Canada's Universities

Summary

Leadership in the Digital Economy is the key to Canada's future competitiveness and prosperity. As has been amply demonstrated in recent studies on Canada's science, technology and innovation performance, our nation has the right components in place–people, knowledge, infrastructure — but we must all work together if we are going to succeed.

Canada's universities are key players in the innovation ecosystem, and in the digital economy. Our universities' strengths can be leveraged, for the betterment of all Canadians, as well as global citizens. In order to capitalize on and grow these existing assets, we recommend:

• Nimble and flexible research funding for inter–sectoral, inter–disciplinary research in ICT and related fields, in programs such as Centres of Excellence or clusters initiatives, to ensure the capacity to respond to emerging opportunities;
• International collaborative funding frameworks, such as matching–fund programs to support two stages of activity — seed funding and major programmatic support — in excellence–driven ICT initiatives; and
• Teaching, scholarship and research support in all of the areas and disciplines that encompass digital technology, such as the arts, social sciences, education, music, management, engineering, and more, promoting increased participation in ICT, and continuing to build on the excellent programs that have been key in attracting and retaining local and international talent.

Submission

July 9, 2010

Introduction

Canada is positioning itself to becoming a global leader in the digital economy. Our country has many strengths to build on, but also many challenges to overcome, as we strive to ensure that we have the right people and the right technologies to compete globally. In all respects, universities play a crucial role in ensuring Canada's success.

Digital skills are now required across sectors, in all spheres of activity ranging from science and technology, to arts and culture, public policy, industry and commerce, from the service sector through to management. These skills are needed to create innovative products and services and to deliver content that informs, educates and entertains a global audience. Canada's universities are educating the next generation of researchers and innovators, within traditional ICT fields, as well as those who will learn about and utilize digital technologies to increase the innovation and productivity in their own sectors.

Canada's unique geography creates important research challenges. To grow Canada's competitiveness and prosperity, it will be important to strengthen and nurture traditional and burgeoning economic sectors through a focused and committed digital economy plan — a long–term plan with long–term objectives. Recognizing that the Government of Canada has invested heavily in science and technology in the past several years — approximately $10.7 billion in 2010 alone — we must look to maximize these investments.

Innovation Using Digital Technologies

The Organisation for Economic Co–Operation and Development (OECD) recently released an innovation strategy, a document which aims to provide analysis and policy guidance on issues such as education, training, business environment, infrastructure and actions to foster the creation and diffusion of knowledge. Among its many observations is that public research is essential to strong innovation performance: "… the main motivation behind public research is to fund and perform basic research that often has a long time horizon and carries high risks with uncertain returns."¹

This is a strength that universities bring to the innovation pipeline: the ability to bear risk.

A hallmark of the digital economy is the prevalence of innovative new methodologies often spawned by comparatively small companies. Canada's more conservative cultural bias and venture capital community makes rapid high–risk development hard to pursue, and SMEs cannot afford long–term focus required for long–term R&D. Universities are their natural complement, and can act as "living labs" for new ICT technologies.

How Universities Contribute:

• Perform an important part of Canada's R&D, basic and applied
• Act as living labs for new technologies

Recommendations:

• Provide nimble and flexible research funding for inter–sectoral, inter–disciplinary research, to ensure the capacity to respond to emerging opportunities.
• Create and promote Centres of Excellence and clusters of companies and universities in ICT and related fields, to contribute to the development of e–learning, e–health and other applications to promote innovative uses of ICT in Canada.

E.G.

The Healthcare Support through Information Technology Enhancements (hSITE), which has recently received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council , builds on the idea that novel, advanced communications systems and infrastructures will boost health care workflows, patient care and safety — as well as to help deliver more efficient and cost–effective health care to Canadians. The network brings together 17 researchers from McGill University, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, University of Waterloo, Université Laval, University of Calgary and Carleton University.

Eight health care partners — including the McGill University Health Centre — will explore how wireless communications, networking, software, location technologies and smart systems can "bridge the gap" between clinicians and industry partners, including TELUS–Emergis, RIM, Nortel, IBM and HInext.

Growing the ICT Industry

Canada is fortunate in having a world–class infrastructure to support public and private research in advanced networking. In addition to networks such as CANARIE, many of Canada's universities boast top–flight centres, networks and institutes in ICT. McGill University's Centre for Intelligent Machines, which is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, is an inter–departmental inter–faculty research group which was formed to facilitate and promote research on intelligent systems.

Such institutes tap into international research and talent networks that are crucial to Canada's leadership on the world stage, extending Canada's ability to innovate and develop new ideas and products. Conversely, networks leverage financial and human resources; increase Canada's profile as well as the profiles of Canadian researchers and universities; promote our outstanding programs and related economic and service sectors; support international recruitment and retention of talented researchers; attract bright international students; and provide international opportunities for Canadian students.

How Universities Contribute:

• Establish and participate in international networks with other universities and industries
• Connect with the best to improve research, attract top talent and open up potential markets for Canada's innovation output
• Promote Canada's leadership internationally

Recommendations:

• Support international collaborative frameworks in digital technologies, looking to successful models and programs, such as the Canada–California Strategic Innovation Partnership (CCSIP), to ensure international competitiveness.
• Foster matching–fund programs to support two stages of activity — seed funding and major programmatic support — in excellence–driven initiatives, to boost Canada's digital leadership.

E.G.

CLUMEQ, a Canadian High Performance Computing consortium led by McGill University in Montreal and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego, have recently been awarded grants from Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) and the Canada–California Strategic Innovation Partnership (CCSIP) to design an ultra–efficient data center as part of a program to promote 'Green IT' initiatives.

Under the partnership, SDSC and CLUMEQ researchers will design and build a business case and a conceptual design for a jointly–managed, ultra–efficient data center to be built in Quebec, which has an abundance of green hydroelectric power and an ideally suited cool climate that can provide 'free cooling' to the data center's high–performance computer systems for much of the year. Hydro Quebec, Rumsey Engineering of Oakland, California, and ClimateCHECK, an Ottawa–based firm specializing in green house gas (GHG) emission standards and measurement, are collaborating on the project.

Building Digital Skills for Tomorrow

One of the challenges in Canada and the rest of North America is attracting and retaining qualified students to ICT fields at the undergraduate and graduate level. McGill currently has one of the top internationally–recognized programs for ICT research and teaching, however, recruitment remains a key concern. It is also clear that some populations are under–represented in the ICT sector: women (despite the strong representation of women in the university student population) and Aboriginal students. Careers in the digital economy will increasingly become more attractive for under–represented groups, as the digital economy expands beyond 'traditional' ICT areas, such as healthcare and environmental sciences. Because universities are both contributors to, and users of, digital technologies, they can and will continue to play a strong role as a point of entry towards an ICT career.

Universities also serve to attract foreign students to ICT and ICT–related disciplines. Doctoral scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships provide an opportunity to attract and retain young scholars and researchers to Canada. In 2008–9, 79% of postdoctoral fellows at McGill came from outside of Canada.

How Universities Contribute:

• Prepare the next generation of leaders in the digital economy
• Provide a platform for innovative uses of digital economy, in the classroom, and in scholarship and research
• Attract and retain a broad range of students, scholars and researchers, from Canada and internationally

Recommendations:

• Support teaching, scholarship and research in fields that utilize and innovate using digital technologies — such as the arts, social sciences, education, music, in addition to engineering and sciences. This global view of digital technologies promotes increased participation in ICT, expanding the opportunities for cutting–edge discoveries.
• Continue to support and expand programs that are open to Canadian and international talent, such as the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships and the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships. These types of programs are key in attracting and retaining talent.

E.G.

BH–511 is a high–tech "active learning" classroom in McGill University's Burnside Hall, which features powerful computers for each of the 38 students it can accommodate, as well as a central console from which the lecturer can take control of a student's computer and project it onto six large screens around the room.

The specifications of the space were recommended by McGill's Teaching and Learning Spaces Working Group (TLSWG), a cross–unit committee that works to establish teaching and learning space standards based on sound pedagogical and technical principles; identify teaching and learning space needs; and investigate new teaching and learning technologies.

BH–511 has allowed professors to completely redesign their courses: faculty can now combine material into weekly theoretical lectures and practical labs, leading the students through teaching materials with a problem–based approach.

In Closing

As Canada grows its strength and leadership in the global knowledge economy, digital technologies are crucial to our success.

We must ensure that, going forward, Canadians can acquire the digital skills necessary to compete internationally; that scholars, researchers and students have the opportunities to bring technologies into their own fields in innovative ways; and that Canada can attract and retain talented thinkers and practitioners. Universities have many and varied strengths–talented people, access to prestigious networks, the ability to bear risk–strengths that should be supported and celebrated.

Going forward, it will be important that Canada's universities and industry partners have the ability to respond quickly to opportunities for inter–sectoral and international collaborations. Canada will gain global recognition and prominence only through participation in prestigious international partnerships and networks.

Other countries and regions are building their digital capacity and leadership. It is essential and critical that we leverage Canada's existing qualities, as well as develop as–to–yet unrealized potential, in the wide range of digital technologies.

¹ OECD Innovation Strategy: Getting a Head Start on Tomorrow (2010), page 125.