I'm not at all familiar with what the University of Saskatchewan is doing. I can tell you that innovation is an expensive business, because no one is anywhere near a 100% effectivity rate on developing innovation.
One thing I brought forward is that you can innovate in a vacuum or you can innovate to customer demand. Universities are these hybrid-type places. They are places of academia but are also engaging with industry. Not being from that community, I can't speak to it directly. However, it seems to me there is probably a tension between wanting to do the research academia is leading you toward and being told you need to file patents—or whatever it is they are being told. On the flip side, look at the more engineering-based type of research being done. It's probably done with more of a market focus in mind.