By Rob Lewis

The fact that Canadian industry has been underperforming in terms of innovation and productivity by comparison with other developed countries is attracting a lot of attention from public and private organizations in Canada.

Most of the discussions to date have addressed the issues of “innovation” and its relationship with various aspects of “research”.  As a result, little is known about the actual practices of “commercialization” (broadly defined as the transfer of knowledge into money) necessary to reap the economic and social benefits of innovation developments.

The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (and its partners) are inviting Canadian executives to participate in their 2011 study on commercialization.

The study is meant to help Canadian industry and Government executives to develop better practices, policies and programs for ensuring Canadian competitiveness on the global stage.

Complete the Commercialization Survey (link no longer available) now and answer the survey questions to provide your personal contribution to a better understanding of what works and does not for Canadian companies in matters of commercialization and related support programs.

Responding to the survey will also open the opportunity to participate in follow-on interviews and the regional round-table discussions planned to enable debates on the preliminary results of the study and the ensuing proposals for policies and programs conducive to higher commercialization performance by Canadian companies.

The Commercialization Survey (link no longer available) will be available online until October 1st.