Thank you to both gentlemen for being here with us today. My first question is to Dr. Fraser.
Dr. Fraser, the committee has heard many times about not enough funding to eliminate what's referred to as the “valley of death” of research--I know you've heard of that--that area between the concept, or the innovation and idea, and the actual product being produced and applied and used.
There is a program called developing innovative agriproducts, which is a component of Growing Forward. This really applies to all four of the strategies of which you speak, as far as I am concerned. My question is, are you familiar with that initiative? Do you think it's enough? And what other types of mechanisms or programs should be introduced to eliminate the “valley of death”?
I've talked to a lot of people over the summer while in Guelph--to Dave Smardon and others--and they talk about flow-through shares and other tax credits to incentivize the turning of ideas into products. Can you talk about those things?