I can speak just a little bit about the Mitacs experience with that. What you say is correct. There are a lot of demands on a professor's time. In addition to teaching and research, there are administrative duties; there are all sorts of duties. So there's no doubt....
We have found a lot of success in employing graduate students and post-doctoral fellows as that bridge. They're able to bring a lot of the expertise from the university system, have access to the supervisor for consultation, but then also move into the industrial space. It benefits the student, who gets this experience in networking, but it also serves as a link between them. That's really effective.
I'll also just suggest that not only is the funding system changing, but academia is changing. I come from academia, and even when I was there you could see that professors were much more ready to work with industry; they see it as a positive, generally. They're just pressed for time. In the same way, companies, especially start-up companies or small and medium enterprises, are also pressed for time, and I think the lack of time and ability have been a real pressure point as well.
That's where we have found that by having people who actually go out and try to match.... We have a matchmaking service, effectively, and we're very proactive about it. Everyone is keen. We have very few people who tell us no. But we actually help put them together; they don't just find each other.