Hosted by Shaun Haney of RealAgriculture, the program tackled innovation and resilience in agriculture. Smardon shared the stage with John Stackhouse, Senior Vice President at RBC, and Francis Bilodeau, Associate Deputy Minister at Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada. The session was held at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting in front of a live audience of their delegates. Panelists shared their views on trade, venture capital and agriculture, post-secondary exposure to agriculture as a career, and the extent to which government should be funding innovation.
According to Smardon, Canada ranks comparatively well in funding for research and development but has poor global performance when it comes to commercializing innovation and bringing it to market. That is due in part to a fractured national agri-food innovation ecosystem, which Bioenterprise has been working hard to bring together and strengthen under Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine.
“There has always been a gap between research and commercialization and because of the relative uncertainty around bringing something new to market, there will always be a need for government to support innovation commercialization,” says Smardon.
Source : Bioenterprises.ca