Grant: Lab to Market grants

Expansion of the National Invention to Innovation (i2I) Network will transform the entrepreneurial mindset, innovation skills and culture of Canadian STEM and Healthcare researchers - while mobilizing their research - through tailored programs for key change agents. Commercializing STEM+H research benefits all knowledge domains and is crucial to addressing global challenges, but requires different timelines, resources and collaborators than traditional entrepreneurship. The award-winning i2I program, based on decades of research in science-based entrepreneurship by leading academics and practitioners, addresses a major challenge in Canadian innovation: the gap between invention and innovation. Designed strategically as flexible, hybrid and part-time so researchers can continue advancing their research while gaining innovation mindset, skills and competencies, the i2I skills training program unlocks the underutilized potential of our most highly educated researcher talent. Not all innovation comes through ventures: the i2I guides researchers to mobilize their research through three key pathways: venture founder, translational scientist, or industry champion. Deeply embedded in Canada’s world-class research institutes, universities and labs, i2I faculty and mentors (trusted boundary spanners and ecosystem connectors) will deliver the i2I program suite with a strategically selected national network of 13 co-applicants and 55+ collaborating organizations. In each regional ecosystem, these partners act as gateways to research and innovation ecosystems. Over the last decade, with 500+ alumni, i2I has grown through the support of the research community, but faces constraints to sustainability and to the time of key agents of change. Backed by the NSERC Lab to Market program, the i2I Network will become more inclusive, expand its proven skills training program at the graduate level with key regional and national partners, scale up a transformational full-time Commercialization Postdoc program, develop Faculty Innovation fellows, and offer customized, intensive learning opportunities, designed to be on-ramps from research networks and to overcome systemic barriers for underrepresented groups. The i2I Network will strengthen linkages across Canada’s science innovation continuum, build industry innovation capacity, shape commercialization strategy and intermediate innovation outputs for Canadian research labs, and enhance entrepreneurial culture at universities.