I make this word bold and underline it several times because without investment in basic research, there could be no commercialization. I do not differentiate the research as basic, applied, or able to be commercialized, but we have to work at that level.
A good example is, we're talking about the automotive industry and fossil fuel dependency. The only way we can get ahead of this is to invest in energy storage systems, which require materials. The only way Canada can be a leader in this subject is to invest in, basically, nano-materials. From that basic research, there will be hundreds of leadership types of commercialization opportunities for us, but that is the level we need to start at.
I had lunch with Israel's minister of science and technology yesterday in Toronto and this was exactly the subject. How do we support institutions at the level that their research will be transformative, instead of trying to do the same thing with hundreds of others? This is the differentiation that U15 research-intensive universities are trying to bring forward.