“Reversing Canada’s weak innovation performance is more urgent than ever,” the Council of Canadian Academies declared in its recent assessment of the state of science, technology, and innovation in Canada.
The council’s sobering report cites worsening productivity, low rates of technology adoption across Canadian businesses, and low levels of private investment in research and development as key contributors to the crisis.
But there is good news: Canada’s higher education sector is a “rare bright spot” in the country’s innovation ecosystem, producing world-class talent and research.
McGill is one of the leaders in driving innovation, from its work on renewable and sustainable materials to the exciting DNA to RNA (D2R) initiative launched with the largest research grant in the University’s history to develop genomics-based RNA therapeutics. Its globally recognized startup incubators, as well as the donor-supported McGill Innovation Fund, are also helping students and staff bring their ideas to life and to the market.
And there’s more to come. The new McGill Sustainability Park is slated to open in 2029 with a focus on crucial sustainability innovations across disciplines such as green chemistry, sustainable engineering, AI, and public policy.
Professor Dominique Bérubé is vice-president of research and innovation (R+I) at McGill. Under her leadership, the R+I office supports institutional research priorities, cultivates partnerships with industry and other collaborators, and empowers McGill researchers to translate their ideas into solutions that benefit society.
We spoke to Bérubé, a peer reviewer on the Council of Canadian Academies report, about efforts to foster innovation at McGill.
The report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) was blunt about the need to address Canada’s innovation performance ASAP. What do you think is the biggest obstacle to greater innovation in Canada?
From my perspective, the biggest challenge is the lack of investment in business research and development, which is in stark contrast to the success of Germany, the U.S., and Japan, where large-scale companies invest in R&D. In Canada, we mostly have small- and medium-sized enterprises. They are quite invested in research and innovation, but because they’re smaller, the impact is less than if we had those anchor companies.
How is McGill helping to drive innovation in Montreal, Quebec and Canada?
McGill is recognized for the exceptional quality of its research. What’s less well known is McGill’s capacity to feed into the innovation ecosystem.
In 2023, we led universities across North America in the number of startups that emerged from McGill. We have great incubators. The Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship is doing tremendous work at transforming ideas into businesses. Seventy-five percent of McGill startups are anchored in Quebec, employing people here and transforming the ecosystem in the province.
For example, FeX Energy is one of the companies that emerged from McGill in 2023, building on years of research conducted by Professor Jeffrey Bergthorson at the Alternative Fuels Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In Quebec, many regions rely almost entirely on imported fuel for electricity and heating, and this company has developed a carbon-free, clean energy system that uses iron-based fuel to generate and store energy. This technology has the potential to massively decrease dependence on diesel fuel and is just one example of how McGill-led research and the technologies developed here can make a real impact, helping people cut costs while reducing their impact on the climate.
With the RNA research investment, we’re developing a very important ecosystem for bringing RNA-based innovations to market to improve human health. This is all happening in Montreal. They’ve been working for two and a half years and they’re really progressing in creating the right partnerships with industry.
What’s new and exciting in the innovation landscape at McGill?
The McGill Engine Centre just received co-funding from the Quebec government in collaboration with CLIP, the Montreal General Hospital’s incubator and McGill’s Technology Transfer Office to catalyze health innovations in the province.
The McGill community is very excited about the bold vision and design for the new McGill Sustainability Park, which will be an accelerator for entrepreneurship and open innovation.
I’m working closely with the Goodman Cancer Institute, D2R, and the Inspire Bio Innovations hub being developed at the former location of the Montreal Chest Institute. An incubator for startups in life sciences is also being created there. We’re working together to make sure that we can attract and construct venture capital investment funds.
How do we build an ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurship while keeping the University’s core mission – education and research – front and centre?
I think it is important to emphasize that we’re a university – we’re into training. So, we need to strike a balance. It’s important that we develop that innovation ecosystem, while ensuring there’s no conflict of interest. This is about establishing a path for a startup to get funded. That’s why we’re collaborating with external venture capital funds but also looking at developing our own to help support our researchers.
At universities, we tend to sell our intellectual property extremely early because there is no funding to scale up and mature discoveries. So, we have to ask ourselves: how do we bring initiatives to a level that will be easier to sell and with more value? This is what we’re focusing on with the help of alumni, donors and government.
The CCA report said that AI has the potential to reverse declining productivity rates. What role can McGill play in harnessing our recognized strengths in AI for the benefit of the Quebec and Canadian economies?
McGill is a founder of Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. We have always been extremely involved in AI. Our researchers are active in industrial collaborations and in developing startups, and we’re working closely with Mila around that.
We want to make sure that our new entrepreneurs have direct access to AI specialists. New startups should be able to rapidly leverage the benefits of AI in what they’re trying to build. That’s where we think we can make a difference.
