Why partner with university for R&D?
“Open innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. [This paradigm] assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they look to advance their technology.” Professor Henry Chesbrough, UC Berkeley
Companies can harness outside ideas (deeper, broader, different perspectives) to advance their own businesses while leveraging their internal ideas outside their current operations in order to thrive in this era of open innovation.
Many advantages/benefits:
- Access to wealth of talent (including potential future employees), expertise, facilities, equipment, intellectual property
- New ways to create value
- Keep up to date with frontier scientific developments
- Advantageous cost structure (R&D tax credits, access to government leverage, e.g. NSERC, FQRNT, Mitacs)
- Access to real-world applications, problems and challenges
- Keep up to date with new technologies and the new scientific challenges they can pose
- More relevant research topics
- More relevant teaching programs
- Great experience for students
- Increased funding
- Increased capability for innovation delivery, i.e. impact on society and economy
Past Program
Thanks to funding from the Quebec government to encourage collaboration between universities and Quebec companies, the McGill Engine was able to offer a funding program, the Triple IQ program, that is, Implementation of Innovation in Industry in Quebec/Implantation de l’innovation en industrie Quebecoise (IIIQ).
