Thank you very much.
Hello. My name is Marc Nantel.
I am the associate vice-president of research and innovation at Niagara College. I've been in this position for six years. Before that, I spent 13 years plus at the Ontario Centres of Excellence in dealing with IP and programs and all that. I'm currently the chair of heads of applied research in Ontario, and I sit on the national research advisory committee with CICan, so I think I can represent broadly the applied research professionals in the context of the Canadian colleges system.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today on this issue. I read the briefings you received from the folks at ISED, Mr. Schaan and Ms. McDermott, which focused mostly on university technology transfer. Although I was an adjunct professor at U of T in physics for 10 years and have patents, and I know that side of the equation, today I'm talking mostly about tech transfer and knowledge transfer in the college system.
It's important to understand the difference between colleges and universities here. The research conducted in the colleges is mostly in response to industry needs, and the companies typically contribute to the projects one to one, in cash and in kind. Any time there's a dollar coming down from the government, there is a dollar coming from industry, so they're actually invested in it.
The applied research conducted at colleges is much closer to commercialization. We are not looking for a cure for cancer or for the Higg's boson. We try instead to create prototypes, new products, new processes, new services that businesses can offer their clients.
College faculties are not hired to conduct research, unlike the typical and maybe mythical 40-40-20 model at universities, where 40% is supposed to be professors doing research. They must released from their teaching in order to work on projects. This means that the ideas for the project are typically not from the faculty, they're from the company. We typically at research offices and colleges match the industry problem or aspiration with the best prof and best students to do the job. The pursuit of knowledge is not the main thing here, it's about solving a problem for industry.
These companies sometimes come to us for IP guidance and we do our best to help them. Of course, we don't have much of a technology transfer office. Colleges don't have the benefits of the indirect cost of research, or as it's called now “the research support fund”, which generally supports that type of activity, but we do our best.
A key differentiator between colleges and universities lies in how they handle intellectual property and tech transfer. As my colleague said, mostly the IP generated in colleges is given back to the company. Although universities might have two different models—sometimes inventor-owned, sometimes university-owned, and any mix of these—we have a third way, which is to give it to the industry mostly.
Our projects are closer to commercialization generally, so much of the initiation and motivation for the project comes from the company. The industry partner contributes significantly to the funding of the project in cash and in kind, so they're into it, and we want the commercialization to happen as soon and as painlessly as possible. Colleges usually have a clear economic development mandate in their region and they want that to happen as much as possible. We want industry to create wealth and jobs for our students. Often they hire the student who worked on the project with them, so that's great for us, and the colleges don't want to carry a large IP portfolio generally. We just don't have the money to pay for that and we just want to make sure that it gets out there and generates jobs and wealth.
We try to eliminate as many barriers as possible between us and the commercialization of the product. Our ultimate objective is economic development.
We consider that it's essentially not the job of the college to do the commercialization. It's not the government's job. It's not the university's or the college's job. It's the company's job, and I think that they're the best people to do that. Government and post-secondary institutions can reduce barriers, de-risk, co-fund, serve as the research arm of the company, but in the end I still think that it's the company's job to actually take the IP and commercialize the thing. They are where the rubber hits the road.
One example—I have 457—is a machine shop in Niagara that mostly dealt with automotive and has now actually entered the racking industry for wineries, breweries and other beverage companies. They came to us and said, “we want to explore what we can do”. We did both the commercialization and the market study for them to make sure it was indeed a good idea economically. Then, of course, with our advanced manufacturing research we helped them design, build, prototype, test, do everything including stress tests for the metal in the structure. Now they're selling these across the province and are looking at B.C.
Another example is MADD Virgin Drinks. Mothers Against Drunk Driving have their brand on a bunch of products. They're non-alcoholic. They wanted a good-tasting lager that was non-alcoholic and these people came to us. With our brewery at Niagara College, we designed a beer, from an expert panel telling us what a lager should taste like, to brewing it, to magically making sure there's no alcohol in it—that's where the IP is—to having consumer tests. Now this beer is on the market across Walgreens in the United States, Shoppers Drug Marts in Canada, in thousands of outlets, and generating income and job creation for that company.
The examples are all over there, whether it's gluten-free pasta for Gabriella's Kitchen, red apple cider for Reinhart Foods, which is now available in LCBO—go and buy some—duck sausages for Black Angus Meats in Costco and food services everywhere. There's a HACCP food plant, a food safety plant, for Vij's at Home, the celebrity chef, who can now sell across Canada because we made their food plant safer. They didn't have that until we got there. Ten-tonne aluminum cranes, baseboard humidifiers.... There are a lot of different things, but they're mostly things and services that are ready to commercialize.
I'm asking that you consider the college model as you go through this study. You'll hear a lot about university IP and how universities handle IP. Please consider how we handle IP, too, because I think we have a different way that sometimes, because of how we work, actually works for us. There are both strengths and weaknesses in both types of models.
I thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today and I look forward to your questions.