In collaboration with Industry Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has awarded 14 Knowledge Synthesis Grants to top researchers at universities across Canada. With their focus on public investments in higher education research and development (R&D), the 14 funded projects will help stimulate innovation and economic growth for the benefit of Canada.

Supporting SSHRC’s priority area of Innovation, Leadership and Prosperity, the goal of the grants is to synthesize new and existing academic knowledge and to identify gaps in our current understanding of what stimulates innovation and economic growth. Valued at a total of $327,109, the grants will enable experts to identify international best practices on using public investments to stimulate innovation, and to engage with policy-makers on their research questions and findings. Recognizing the potential of this undertaking to inform future Canadian science and innovation policy, Industry Canada has partnered with SSHRC on this important knowledge synthesis project.

Adam Holbrook, professor and associate director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology at Simon Fraser University, and Catherine Beaudry, associate professor in the Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal, serve as co-scientific directors of this knowledge synthesis project. The 14 grant recipients will submit final reports to SSHRC in May 2012, after which a summary of the findings will be made publicly available.

The following is a list of the grant recipients and their projects:

Wendy L. Cukier, Ryerson University—Assessing impact: incubators, accelerators and the culture of innovation

Margaret J. Dalziel, University of Ottawa—Measuring the impact of investments in higher education R&D

Rodney A. Dobell, University of Victoria—Measurement, metrics, indicators, innovation: can the wisdom of crowds re-orient the HERD mentality?

James Dzisah, Nipissing University—Leveraging of public investments in HERD: a synthesis of the Triple Helix linkages literature

Roger Keil, Université York—Mobilizing new urban structures to increase the performance and effect of R&D in universities and beyond

Mary A. Kilfoil, Dalhousie University—Understanding effective entrepreneurship ecosystems in advancing innovation: embracing a culture of usefulness

David J. Phipps, York University—Knowledge mobilization creates collaborations that leverage investments in higher education R&D for social innovation

Johanne Queenton, Université de Sherbrooke—Commercialization of knowledge and innovations in life-sciences through entrepreneurial industry/university ecosystems

W. Chad Saunders, University of Calgary—Knowledge synthesis of entrepreneurial activities by social sciences, humanities and arts

Myra J. Tawfik, University of Windsor—Strategies and best practices for overcoming obstacles to the effective commercialization of student innovation on university campuses

Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, Télé-université (UQAM)—The national mechanism for competitive focus and the regional mechanisms for clustering: public mechanisms to support academic R&D

Samuel E. Trosow, University of Western Ontario—Technology transfer and innovation policy at Canadian universities: opportunities and social costs

Barry Wellman, University of Toronto—Networks of knowledge mobilization and transfer among scholars, industry and government

David A. Wolfe, University of Toronto—Growing innovation ecosystems: university-industry knowledge transfer and regional economic development in Canada

For more information, please contact:

Julia Gualtieri
Media Relations Adviser
Email: julia.gualtieri@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
Tel.: 613-944-4347

Media Relations
Industry Canada
Tel.: 613-943-2502