I couldn't put my finger on any specific piece, but overall there is a feeling that in Canada we have underfunding of our research system and of the connections between basic science and the applications for commercialization.
For example, to add to what has been said about TRIUMF, the University of Saskatchewan has a cyclotron. We produce isotopes that contribute to Canada's capacity as one of the major countries producing radioisotopes. We also have Canada's only synchrotron, Canadian Light Source, which is situated at the University of Saskatchewan.
When you look at the discovery science and the papers that are coming out, I think the connecting piece is not as robustly funded and it's not as robustly connected. There might be a suite of programs at the provincial level or at the federal level. Those are not deeply connected with each other.
The last point I would make is that I think there's a need for the universities to have a fund directly at their disposal that they can provide to the inventors, at a very early stage, when they find something truly interesting. The reason I'm asking for that is that, when an inventor discovers something, it takes a long period of time to get the funding to move it to a TRL 1, 2 or 3. If the universities had a purse of money, they could quickly invest in that product while they're looking for additional funding or creating connections with the private sector.
Those are a couple of ideas I'd like to submit.