This month's regions piece focuses on the rapid growth of Canada into the university innovation scene.
Canada is going through something of a golden age, not only in terms of tech transfer, but university innovation as a whole. The country’s tech transfer efforts are fundamentally different from those in the UK or the US. Unlike the US, where the Bayh-Dole Act governs intellectual property (IP) rights in government-funded research, Canada’s universities are more or less left alone to develop their own regulations for tech transfer, similar to how Sweden’s “professor’s privilege” law gives the academic inventor full rights.
This situation has created freedom for institutions, but also presents its own set of problems when it comes to developing a network to support academic entrepreneurship. However, whereas Sweden’s tech transfer system is disjointed and fragmented, Canada has been able to fill the void with an intricate and well-connected mix of organisations all geared to supporting university innovation.
One of drivers behind this cohesion is the Ontario Network…
