Strategy Enhances Opportunities for Innovators

As a government, we like innovators.

Innovators are catalysts of strong and diverse economies. They have the ability to introduce new ways of doing things, increase competitiveness, and improve productivity across traditional and knowledge-based industries.

Newfoundland and Labrador has the ingredients to be an incubator for innovators. It is home to world-class research and academic institutions and private sector enterprises rich with an entrepreneurial spirit.

In an effort to support innovators and foster an environment that encourages greater levels of innovation, the Provincial Government has embarked on an aggressive course of action.

At the heart of our approach was the 2006 release of the four year, $20 million innovation strategy Innovation Newfoundland and Labrador: A Blueprint for Prosperity.

This strategy laid the framework for a broad range of initiatives geared towards increasing the province's communications capacity, establishing the Research and Development Corporation, developing a five-year strategy focused on stimulating growth of the ocean technology sector, and creating a genetics research facility at Memorial University.

Through the innovation strategy's two funding programs — Commercialization and Innovation Enhancement — the Provincial Government has invested in organizations and small businesses in a variety of sectors including life sciences, biotechnology, and information and communications technologies.

Examples of our investments have included $225,000 in Smart Labrador to collect and record traditional knowledge in a digital format; $100,000 for the purchase of testing equipment at the College of the North Atlantic in Port aux Basques — testing that measures the strength of materials in the automotive, aerospace and construction industries; and most recently $500,000 in Dynamic Air Shelters to increase its ability to satisfy requirements of its industrial customers.

The voice of the advanced technology sector — the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries described the programs as adding value and enhancing business opportunities. Additionally, the strategy laid the starting point for important partnerships between the Provincial Government and industry to emerge — partnerships that assist industry achieve its goals.

To ensure that the momentum garnered over the last four years continues, the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development is currently reviewing the programs and examining potential areas of focus that may be targeted in the future.

This process will include valuable dialogue with industry, research and educational institutions, and government partners to identify opportunities for improvements and next steps.

Capturing the input of our partners will allow for a renewed strategy — one that furthers the success achieved in its first four years into the next decade.

2010 05 05                    2:25 p.m.