10. What can research institutions do to help innovation outcomes for the benefit of Canada?
IP policies need to transparent and appropriately account for the interests of the various stakeholders whose interests they impact including those of academic staff, researchers, students and licensees as well as assignees of the technology and IP that they generate.
Research Institutions need to give some consideration to creative business models that improve outcomes for the Canadian innovation ecosystem.
They also need to ensure that they do not exercise undue influence in having researchers relinquish rights in the IP that they have generated.
Research Institutions also have an important role to play in terms of ensuring that all researchers, and in particular students, understand IP and how it can be leveraged for economic and social benefit.
They also need to ensure that researchers understand that the TTO or ARO represents the institution’s best interests –and cannot act on behalf of the researcher.
Ideally, they should support the development of mechanisms which ensure that independent advice is available to researchers on an affordable basis by qualified advisors.
And finally, research institutions can ensure that the IP agreements they enter into, whether with industry partners or otherwise, fair and balanced and that some significant tangible benefit of IP generated at the research institutions remains within Canada.
To learn more about best practices for technology commercialization of researcher and institutional IP, listen to the short clip from Natalie Raffoul.