Regional Innovation Ecosystems in British Columbia

Activities that support a regional innovation ecosystem to respond to a specific challenge, opportunity, or market need or demand related to business scale-up and productivity, with emphasis on:

• Technology commercialization – includes enhancing businesses innovation efforts; and establishing, expanding or modernizing a facility for providing specialized services for businesses, including platforms, innovation assets, tools and testbeds. The focus should be on late stage product development; for example, technology showcasing and demonstration.
• Business scale-up – includes entrepreneurship development and business support in market development, export, and investment attraction; and opportunity analyses such as identifying changes in global demand or prime contractors’ requirements for a given sector.
• Productivity improvement – includes technology transfer including validation of needs, training and implementation of a new technology; and technological adoption for new industrial applications and/or entry into new markets.
• Ecosystem capacity building – includes development of strategic business alliances within a specific sector or cluster; research and analysis to identify barriers to scale-up and productivity enhancement within the sector/cluster; and development of a strategy to address these barriers.
• Business acceleration and incubation – includes supports for entrepreneurs to create and grow their start-up company, such as advice on how to create a business plan, determine a marketing strategy, hire employees, and other aspects of setting up a business. This support may also include services such as office space, expert mentors or specialized equipment.