By IAN ROSS
The fusion is getting off to a slow start, but there may be a unification of test tubes and dollars as Sault Ste. Marie promoters work to turn research into big business.
Proponents of Science Works, a cluster development concept being floated by the city’s two government forest research institutes, expect to hear sometime this summer whether their application for public funding to undertake a business feasibility study will be approved.
Geoff Munro, director general of the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, says although the still-evolving science park concept remains at the “developmental stage,” applications have been submitted to various funding agencies for the project. Applications have been made to FedNor and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund to drum up support and money for a $100,000-business feasibility plan this year.
“Our hope is that the Science Works initiative will serve as an attraction as the place to do biotech work in Northern Ontario,” says Munro, one of the main drivers of the Science Works concept.
“We have the infrastructure here and we can create an environment of education and entrepreneurial capacity.”
The city already has instant worldwide credibility in the fields of scientific research in the federal forestry centre and the Ontario Forest Research Institute (OFRI), the research arm of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Collectively they employ about 400 people and conduct more than $20 million in research annually.
The two centres house a treasure trove of forestry scientists and insect experts supplemented with visiting scientists and graduate students on special exchange programs from as many as 20 universities worldwide at any given time.
The Science Works concept aims to formally unite the Sault’s research community and one day create hundreds of
high-paying jobs.
The ultimate goal is to use knowledge and science as key to diversifying the local economy based on science.
The City of Sault Ste. Marie, one of the project partners, allocated $12,500 toward the business plan, which was matched by a bevy of contributions from public, private and non-profit partners including Sault College, Algoma University College, the Upper Lakes Environmental Research Network, the Group Health Centre, St. Marys Paper, forestry consultants Bio Forest Technologies Inc. and R & B Cormier Inc., the Industrial Research Assistance Program and the Innovation Centre.
The concept has also drawn interest from Valent BioSciences, a major American agri-chemical corporation currently working on a project with Bio Forest.
After discussing the concept with a number of funding agencies, Munro expects approvals and planning to begin by early summer and hopes to move forward with marketing some of the bigger project initiatives this fall.
Their application includes recommendations on a governance model and some ideas for some undisclosed projects that fit under the science park theme.
Munro feels the timing is right with the Canadian Innovation Strategy, which demands product commercialization and the provincial push for the clustering of science and technology in areas of biotechnology.
The provincial government gave the biotechnology sector a boost to encourage investment by creating a $51-million fund, including $30 million to create up to 30,000 jobs across Ontario.
The Business Development Bank of Canada is also targeting $200 million in venture capital financing for biotech companies during the next five years.
“Sault Ste. Marie does have the strong capability with the two labs,” says Munro.
As well, the Great Lakes Forestry Centre still holds the patent rights to a number of natural-based pesticides, he
says, but government researchers do not have entrepreneurial capacity and are restricted from commercializing these products.
“Historically the reward system for government-based research does not include taking that extra step of commercializing it,” says Munro.
On some occasions, multi-national corporations have borrowed Sault researchers to develop products for the market.
“What we’re trying to do is turn that around and have the power of the synergy created by having entrepreneurs and educators working with the scientists and create an environment that is built on that synergy,” says Munro.
“Why should we export the product when we might be able to develop it here?”
Munro uses the analogy of two anchor tenants - namely the federal Great Lakes Forestry Centre and the Ontario Forest Research Institute - situated at opposite ends of a successful shopping mall occupied by related business startups or branch offices.
Munro’s personal vision is a building situated on the waterfront between the two Queen Street East government facilities featuring several teaching labs and an entrepreneurial development centre for startups where venture capitalists could meet with researchers and educators to learn about their work.
The true essence of the concept is not to steal jobs away from neighbouring communities, but tap into outside investment, recruit business savvy people and create new positions.
“If we attract science jobs from North Bay, Sudbury and Thunder Bay, all we’ve done is re-arrange the deck chairs in Northern Ontario, we’ve haven’t won anything.”
Though the project proponents have talked to a number of companies, Munro says no deals are close to being
done.
