I'll let her deal with the last ones; Heather will deal with one or two. The rest we'll have to deal with off line.
We talked a lot about industrial R and D, but also this applies to commercialization that emanates from university research. Concerning the person who told you about money for a prototype, which I would call a pilot plant—for a chemist, it's the same thing—there are small programs, Idea to Innovation and Proof of Principle, in two of the three granting councils. But that's from research accruing from university; from industry, it's a different issue.
That brings up again how you enhance support for R and D in industry. The big problem is that discovery requires creativity. The role of a university professor is to nurture creativity—that's it—as a supervisor of graduate students.
If you make some major or landmark discovery, it goes then to the next stage of scale-up, which is what you're talking about. Then beyond that, depending what area we're in, you have financing for it, including venture capital—the challenge of securing venture capital is a major issue in Canada right now—and then ultimately go to the marketplace.
The problem here is not on the R side of R and D; it's on the D side. This is where considerable focused attention needs to be addressed for the future. That's very important.
The other thing goes back to the former Prime Minister of Finland and what he had to say.
In Finland they enhance R and D through two mechanisms. They said SR and ED or equivalent tax credits are useful, but they're far less efficient and effective than direct grants to companies on a partnership basis—50:50, 60:40.... He said his government could demonstrate to you how effective this has been. This might be worth looking at. The second is that successful procurement policy is an essential part of the innovation process.
Those are two components that he raised.
I should tell you that in my evaluation of Slovenia and Turkey—Turkey is not in the EU, but it is treated as such—and I evaluated Emilia-Romagna for the EU, the number one innovation region in Europe....
Emilia-Romagna has a spinner program that is absolutely fantastic, which many countries and regions in Europe are now copying, whereby a student in the last year of his or her studies gets supported by the government, goes into an SME, is supported 100% for the first three years, and supported at a declining percentage for the next three years. You can show the growth of 964 companies in Emilia-Romagna in the last five years.
Turkey has a direct program of direct support—as a partnership, again, 50:50, or 60:40—and Turkey has a fascinating new technology entrepreneurship program, which just started April 1, to stimulate entrepreneurship.
Those are interesting things. But Chair, what you're really talking about is the D part of R and D and then going to the marketplace.