Our chair is so draconian. I'm sensing the hook coming from the front of the table in a moment.
We're a system out of balance and failing to capitalize on the innovation advantage afforded by federal investments in world-class research, people, and facilities. Indeed, these investments have been material, and we have not capitalized on their fruits. Our system of innovation is not integrated. We're cherry-picking; we're picking pieces, as opposed to supporting the continuum of innovation from creative impulse and response to a market need to delivery of product.
Here are some cases in point: how did we respond to SARS, and how are we going to respond to the next scourge? In fact, this virus was first sequenced in Canada; we dropped the ball. Canada was not prepared to capitalize on the products of the human genome project; we're playing catch-up. Could Canada, in the absence of an integrated approach, support the development of the next Silicon Valley?
Our submission to this committee represents the culmination of an extensive national consultation and response to the four major themes outlined in this committee's study on Canadian science and technology. We propose a model of an integrated, functional innovation system, a framework providing a road map for strategic investment, one that will enable us to capitalize on our health research investments. The model considers the full breadth of function of an innovation system, highlighting the key success factors that enable the translation of discovery and concepts into health and economic impact.
Fundamental to its success is achieving a critical balance of activity within each stage and among the stages of the innovation cycle. Put simply, while rooted in the market, the success of a functional innovation system is underpinned by the government's commitment to support excellence in knowledge creation, effective vehicles for knowledge translation, mitigation of risks assumed by private sector investment in R and D, and the creation of the appropriate policies and policy frameworks that ensure new technologies are made available to Canadians and, indeed, the world.
The model traces the trajectory of activities from creative impulse and discovery through to delivery of product. At its core, the model is predicated on the balance between the push of knowledge creation and the fostering of an environment that enables the pull of innovation to application, whether it be, importantly, not only a new product or widget but also an improved medical practice or a health system policy reform. Each stage of the cycle is defined by specific prerequisites for push-pull balance and by discrete metrics enabling measurement of success.
As well, as we highlight in the model, it contemplates the complementary contributions of each of the stakeholders involved in this enterprise--what we call the GAIN spectrum of government, which is academia, industry, and the non-governmental organizations or private sector--and further, how the contributions from each of the members of the GAIN spectrum differ throughout the innovation cycle.
A work in progress, the goal of the model is the provision of a framework that will guide strategic long-term investments and, through this investment road map, provide a dynamic policy instrument that can be adapted to the full continuum of Canadian innovation. It is a long-term vision, one that could position Canada as a global leader in science and technology. Our innovation system, while chugging along, has predominantly failed to provide the results that you need and that the country demands.
Therefore, on behalf of Research Canada, we make the following two recommendations to this body: that the Government of Canada implement a systemic approach to Canadian innovation through the adoption of a comprehensive, integrated framework that supports the key success factors enabling the translation of discovery into health and economic impact, and that it do so in collaboration with all stakeholders--academic, voluntary, the private sector, and of course the provincial governments.
As a country, we can make a quantum advance in the understanding, design, and execution of an innovation system, one that will surely result in the flexibility to meet new opportunities and one that will deliver increased international competitiveness.
Thank you.