Thank you. Good evening everybody.
I'd first like to acknowledge that I'm speaking from the ancestral territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam peoples here in Vancouver.
It's my pleasure to present to you today. I'll pick up from where Elizabeth left off.
To ensure a truly sustainable and optimized platform in glycomics through GlycoNet and for the full economic benefit of GlycoNet to be realized, we need sustained public-private support on an ongoing basis. Continued and sustained joint public and private funding is critical to retaining and building the talent we need to capitalize on innovation, commercialization and the competitive advantage we have in glycomics.
As Elizabeth mentioned, glycomics is one of the leading fields in Canada and we rank amongst the top three in the world.
At the heart of Canada's glycomic ecosystem, GlycoNet is training the next generation of glycomics innovators and enabling talent attraction and retention in new and existing companies as well as traditional and global companies that are based in Canada in biotech and big pharma. Without top talent in this growing field, our country risks losing its opportunity to capitalize on the glycomics research, innovation, commercialization and investment and therefore on the economic benefit. Talent is the new oil and it certainly is no different for us in the glycomics area. This multi-stream approach has already demonstrated the economic benefits of new jobs and made-in-Canada solutions in the areas of health, clean tech and agriculture to support our innovation economy.
Canada's investment as a percentage of GDP has declined over the years in R and D and innovation and is sitting now at 1.7% versus the OECD average of 2.7% versus the 4% that top-tier countries are investing. Canada is slipping in innovation output and productivity in spite of our high quality of science and discovery, so it becomes very important to keep investing in our strengths and the platforms on which we are leading in the world.
The opportunity for Canada to firmly establish itself as a world leader in glycomics is very real. Its potential impact to Canadian health and to the Canadian economy is very significant.
Thank you.