Right now, as it stands, the academic institutions and the technology transfer offices work on a localized level with the companies that are interested in using or applying that technology and that research. What we're proposing is a system that would allow different areas. It would take it from a localized approach to a national and regional approach, whereby if there is an academic researcher in Edmonton, for example, and there is an intellectual property opportunity in Fredericton, then they would see and be able to sort by discipline or area of focus to be able to help that organization get to market faster with potentially a new innovation. There would certainly be some challenges with this type of program.
We have seen some success with a similar type of concept that is based in Europe through the International Association of Science Parks. It is based in Spain. It has a very high-touch cataloguing system that it uses. It reaches out to a network of about 250,000 researchers, businesses, and others that are interested in intellectual property, when it has a company that is interested in building out a certain platform, maybe around IT. A number of our parks are focused in advanced manufacturing, IT, oceans technology, nanotechnology, and green technology. It really is across the board.
This program is quite interesting. It's called the POINT program, through IASP. The network includes organizations and groups both in Europe and some in Canada as well that are members of IASP. It's very high touch, and it's actually not a database; it's actually done by reaching out to various organizations.