Indeed we do. Similar challenges are faced because of the newness of our entry into applied research. While we have been doing research in various forms for the better part of 100 years at our college, the application directly to the work we do now at the Olds centre for innovation is challenged by the existing framework. The existing framework identifies opportunity based on researcher capacity and researcher awareness. We've seen at this committee presentations with such phrases as the “right” research being done by the “right” individuals or researchers at the “right” institutions. The question I have to challenge the committee with is this: Who defines “right”?
There's a challenge that we have to address now from the Olds College perspective and organizations like the smaller institutions, whether they be Capilano University or Kwantlen or us, and that is understanding the capacity that we have built and leveraging that capacity across the ecosystem. We were challenged 20 years ago: Build capacity so that we understand that you have capacity. Well, we've developed it. The infrastructure or the system itself—what gets measured, how it gets measured and how it gets valued—does not leverage that capacity that we have built.