That is an excellent question. It is the fundamental debate in innovation: things like trying to identify the sources of innovation, the role of government, the role of private business and other players.
There have been some attempts in the last 10 years. There was one basic one, based on the argument that public money invested in research and development should be used to serve private business, commercialization, and so on. The objective was to increase private investment. With more public investment, it would spark an increase in private investment, hence the idea of partnership we hear so much about. The university invests more money if it finds private partners.
Unfortunately, after 10 years, we have not seen an increase in private investment. According to the data we have available, the formula that demands partnerships, that conducts public research in a targeted way, with the target being the needs of private business, has not provided the result that was anticipated, an increase in private investment. That formula does not work.
In Canada, the preferred formula, compared to the one in other countries, has been to give more and more tax credits for research and development. Our country is one of those that provide them the most. But that formula does not seem to be working either. So where are we headed?
We have to distinguish between what I call market-driven research and curiosity-driven research seeking to discover new ideas.
In the last 10 years, a lot of money has been invested in market-driven research at the expense of basic research. Unfortunately, in order to commercialize an idea, you have to find the idea first. The idea can come from anywhere, including from basic research. We believe that one of the fundamental errors we have made is to decrease investment in basic research.
We must start to invest in basic research again, at least in order to be able to build the system up again and increase our capacity for innovation. We think we have to start there. Afterwards, other measures can be put in place in order to increase Canada's overall capacity for research and development.