Derek Newton
Senior Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, Mitacs
Dr. Christian Weedbrook
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Xanadu
Investing in Canadian talent can help businesses turn world-class research and emerging technologies into homegrown innovation, jobs, and economic growth.
More than ever, Canada’s long-term prosperity depends on sovereign innovation. This means owning as much of the supply chain as possible right here. It’s not enough to do the research here; we need the intellectual property, infrastructure, manufacturing, and job opportunities to stay in Canada too.
If we control the development and deployment of critical technologies, we are less vulnerable to geopolitical disruption or foreign supply-chain shocks. One way to get there is by investing in talent to support Canada’s businesses and organizations.
“Growing and retaining talent in Canada is critically important,” says Derek Newton, Senior Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, Mitacs. “Canada’s success depends on having the skilled people, research capacity, and innovation capability needed to compete in an increasingly complex global environment. We need to make sure the talent coming out of our world-class universities, colleges, and polytechnics is connected to Canadian organizations, so great ideas can be developed, adopted, and scaled here at home.”
Skilled talent powers sovereign innovation
A huge advocate of sovereign innovation is Toronto-based Xanadu Quantum Technologies, a Canadian tech success story. They are building the country’s first utility-scale quantum computer manufacturing facility thanks to a historic Government of Canada investment of $195 million.
“The difference between Canada being a place where breakthroughs happen and a place where they get commercialized is ensuring the customers, capital, and policy support are found right here,” says Dr. Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Developing homegrown expertise and talent pipelines is foundational.”
Canada’s success depends on having the skilled people, research capacity, and innovation capability needed to compete in an increasingly complex global environment. We need to make sure the talent coming out of our world-class universities, colleges, and polytechnics is connected to Canadian organizations, so great ideas can be developed, adopted, and scaled here at home.
Derek Newton,
Senior Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, Mitacs.
According to Weedbrook, Canada has been producing world-class talent and science, but the gap has always been what happens next. “Incredible AI researchers were trained in Canada and then got pulled to the U.S. because that’s where the companies, funding, and career paths were,” he says. “If we don’t build that same pipeline for other technologies, from university lab to job at a Canadian company, we’ll repeat the same story.”
Leveraging partnerships to deliver results
Canadian tech success stories start by supporting emerging talent from the ground floor, which leads to big wins for our businesses and domestic capacity. Enter Mitacs, one of Canada’s leading innovation organizations, connecting businesses, students, and researchers to deliver a measurable return on innovation.
Since 2018, Mitacs has invested over $1.68 billion in R&D, supported 42,000 innovation projects, and partnered with more than 12,500 companies. It has collaborations with 215 postsecondary institutions and 170 innovation incubators across Canada.
The difference between Canada being a place where breakthroughs happen and a place where they get commercialized is ensuring the customers, capital, and policy support are found right here.
Dr. Christian Weedbrook,
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Xanadu
Businesses find the talent, funding, and expertise to innovate faster and at a greater scale. Post-secondary students access funding, work experience, partnerships, and global networks. Organizations that partner with Mitacs innovate faster, commercialize sooner, and scale and grow stronger. Just ask Xanadu.
Xanadu started working with Mitacs in 2019 and recognized early on the unique opportunities it could bring. “Mitacs has been a genuine pipeline of talent for us. They do a great job connecting quantum companies with promising graduate students from across the country and building relationships that often turn into long-term hires,” says Weedbrook. “For growing companies like ours, that kind of national reach is hard to build on our own. Mitacs is a real accelerant for getting Canadian talent into Canadian quantum companies early, which is exactly what this industry needs to keep building on.”
Benefits for the entire ecosystem
Mitacs is the essential connector in Canada’s innovation ecosystem. A recent Statistics Canada survey shows that private-sector partners that worked with Mitacs experienced an average 11 per cent boost in productivity, 9 per cent growth in revenue, and 16 per cent increase in sales.
“It’s clear that connecting Canadian companies to research institutions and talent, combined with co-investment, leads to tangible results for the economy,” adds Newton. “Mitacs delivers a return on innovation that Canada needs now by connecting big ideas, people, and ambition to turn potential into results.”
Discover return on innovation at mitacs.ca
