SELECTION OF PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS

1
SELECTION OF PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS

• TORONTO REGION RESEARCH ALLIANCE
• APRIL 30, 2004

2
RATIONALE FOR SELECTING PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS
FOR CAPACITY BUILDING

• Critical mass is needed to achieve and sustain
  research excellence and international leadership
• Growing reliance on increasingly costly
  infrastructure (high tech equipment and
  facilities, highly skilled technicians)
• Growing concentration of research funding among a
  shrinking number of leading regions -
  increasingly a winner take all environment
• Funders increasingly seeking to optimize large
  infrastructure investments
• Critical mass of leading researchers and cutting
  edge infrastructure necessary to achieve and
  sustain excellence in a region
• By selecting a few priority research areas for
  coordinated investment, Toronto region
  institutions can
• Increase attractiveness to funders
• Better optimize resources
• Build critical mass needed for research
  excellence and profile more quickly and
  effectively

3
PROCESS FOR SELECTING PRIORITY AREAS

• Research and consultations to identify
• Areas of existing and emerging research strength
• Key research driven industry clusters
• Research areas with high potential to provide new
  technology platforms to drive innovation
• Existing priorities of research institutions and
  major funders
• 2. Development and approval of selection criteria
  
• 3. Identification of 5 preliminary areas
• 4. Surveys of research institutions to further
  prioritize and identify critical sub-fields

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AREAS OF RESEARCH STRENGTH IDENTIFIED BY
CONSULTATION
Selected Research fields
Number of responses
Sub-categories
Bio-products, clinical medicine, genetics,
imaging, mass spectrometry, medical biophysics,
proteomics, structural genomics, photonics
High
Biotechnology and biomedical
Information and communication tech.
Computation, software, data visualization,
multi-media, geomatics
High
Atmospheric science, air emissions, modeling,
environmental technol-ogies, alternative energy,
bio-solids, bio-waste treatment, geo-engineering
High
Environmental science
Chemistry
Analytic chemistry, atmospheric chemistry
High
Advanced manufacturing, engineering
Nanotechnology, materials science,
self-organizing systems
High
Social science
Urban planning, governance geography, human
settlement
Medium
Aerospace
Medium
Astrophysics
Applied mathematics
Modeling (financial services), bioinformatics,
computational chemistry, computational biology
Medium
Source Key informant Interviews (n38) and desk
research conducted by The Boston Consulting Group
and Mulholland Consulting
However, further investigation required to narrow
down to areas within key research fields
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CANADA IS HOME TO MANY OF THE WORLDS TOP
SCIENTISTS BUT DO WE HAVE ENOUGH?
Canada Ranks 4th on Global Scale For Total of
Highly Cited Scientists
Torontos Ranks 1st for of Scien-tists, but
lags on per capita basis
Toronto Region Now Home to 27 Highly Cited
Scientists

• Ecology/environment 4
• Engineering Ecology/
• environment 4
• Clinical medicine 3
• Pharmacology 3
• Agricultural sciences 2
• Molecular biology and genetics 2
• Plant and animal science 2
• Space science 2
• Engineering 1
• Geosciences 1
• Immunology 1
• Materials science 1
• Physics 1

Per Million Population
Total Number
Per Million Population
Total Number
U.S. U.K. Germany Canada France Japan Switzerland
Australia Sweden Italy
2.4 1.4 0.7 1.2 0.5 0.2 3.3 0.9 1.9 0.2
678(1) 86 62 37(2) 28 28 24 17 17 14
Toronto Vancouver Waterloo Halifax Guelph Montreal
Ottawa Winnipeg Edmonton Hamilton Calgary London
Quebec City
1.7 4.0 39.2 8.4 20.0 0.6 1.9 1.5 1.1 1.5 N/A N/A
N/A
8 8 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0

• 54 Harvard/MIT, 51 Stanford, UCSF, and Berkeley,
  19 UC San Diego, 16 U of Texas
• 8 UBC, 8 U of T / Hospitals, 4 U of Waterloo
• Source David Pecaut based on ISI citation data,
  ISI Most highly cited researchers 2002 (based
  on total citations 1981-1999)
• Note 11 categories included Agricultural
  sciences, Biology biochemistry, Chemistry,
  Engineering, Immunology,
• Microbiology, Molecular biology genetics,
  Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Physics, Plant
  animal science

Slide courtesy of the Boston Consulting Group
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LEADING TORONTO REGION INDUSTRY CLUSTERS
Industry Cluster
Rank in North America
Information Technology and Telecom
Equipment Food and Beverage Automotive Financia
l Services Film Media Biomedical and
Biotech Business and Professional
Services Aerospace Tourism
2nd 2nd 2nd 3rd 3rd 4th 4th Top 5 Top
5 8th (overseas)
Courtesy of the Boston Consulting Group
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KEY CLUSTERS WITH RESEARCH DEMAND
Automotive
Financial Services
Employees (Thousands)
Employees (Thousands)
143
69
L.A.
Chi- cago
Flint
Cleve- land
Grand Rapids
Day- ton
TORO- NTO
Det- roit
Minn.
Phil.
Atlanta
L.A.
Boston Worcester
Chi- cago
N.Y.
TORO- NTO
Film
Biotech and Pharma
Employees (Thousands)
Employees (Thousands)
10
47
Phil.
Nassau
Boston
N.Y.
Middle- sex
New- ark
TORO- NTO
Wash.
Boston.
Atlanta
New London/CT
Chi- cago
N.Y.
L.A.
TORO- NTO
L.A.
Slide courtesy of the Boston Consulting Group
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EMERGING INDUSTRY NEEDS DOES TORONTO HAVE
CAPABILITIES REQUIRED?
Manufacturing

• Integrated manufacturing, improved materials

Financial Services
Modeling and computational capacity capable of
handling large, highly complex systems
Film/Entertainment
Visualization tools to support design, animation,
special effects
Better high throughput technologies, capacity to
store/analyse large amounts of data,
bioinformatics, data visualization
Pharma/Biotech

• Additional data to come from industry interviews

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CFI STRATEGIC REVIEW 7 HIGH POTENTIAL RES. AREAS

• Focus on emerging research areas where
• Canada competitive and could lead at
  international level
• There could be significant benefits for Canada
• Research areas
• Clinical medicine
• Genomics/proteomics
• High performance computing
• Imaging
• Information and communications technology
• Population health
• E-business

Is Toronto well positioned against these areas?
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MATRIX FOR IDENTIFYING PRIORITY AREAS

• Toronto regions
• competitive research
• strength
• High calibre researchers and grad students
• Quality infrastructure
• Cost advantaged
• Institutional priorities
• Research capacity/performance
• Potential to be world-leading

Advantaged
Now or Never
High Potential Opportunity
Not worth the effort
1
Disadvantaged
Upgrade Required
Forecasted industry demand for innovation
3
Size
Too far behind
High
Low
2

• Scope and degree of innovation
• Potential for major breakthroughs and new
  platforms
• Potential for impact across multiple areas of
  application

Slide courtesy of the Boston Consulting Group
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CRITERIA FOR PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS

• Capacity for major differentiation domain,
  niche where Toronto region could be world leading
• Potential to drive innovation and/or provide next
  generation of robust technology platforms
• High relevance to one or more leading or emerging
  economic clusters
• Potential benefits worth the scale of investment
  needed
• Sufficiently cross-cutting to benefit a range of
  Toronto region research institutions (e.g.
  support from minimum of three institutions)

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QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

• Should we focus within the research domains
  identified by CFI review or include others?
• If we want to look at additional domains, are
  there any where the Toronto region is poised to
  take off good capability, excellent potential
  and high potential benefits -- all we need is a
  little push?
• Are there research areas in which we are
  currently at, or close to, world-leading, but we
  risk losing this position for lack of investment,
  strategic coordination?
• Are there research areas undergoing a fundamental
  transformation, where we need to invest in and
  develop a new kind of infrastructure without
  which we cannot advance?
• Are there research areas that are critical to
  attracting and retaining companies in the region,
  that we should be developing our capability in?
• Are there domains on the CFI list that are not
  appropriate priorities for the Toronto region,
  based on capability, demand, and TRRA criteria?

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FIVE BROAD PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS IDENTIFIED
1
Biotech Life Sciences
Selection Criteria

• Toronto regions
• competitive research
• strength
• Calibre of researchers and grad students
• Quality of infrastructure
• Potential for cost advantage
• Research capacity
• World-leading potential
• Sufficiently cross-cutting to benefit range of
  institutions

• Industry
• demand for innovation
• High relevance to large or emerging economic
  clusters

• Scope and degree
• of innovation
• Potential for new platforms, major breakthroughs
• Potential for impact across multiple areas of
  application

2
Material Sciences and Engineering
gt 40 Research Fields in Toronto
3
Information and Computer Technology
Can we commercialize it?
4
Applied Mathematics
Is there a future in this sector?
5
What are we good at?
Environmental Science
Further consultation undertaken to validate and
refine
Slide courtesy of the Boston Consulting Group
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KEY QUESTIONS POSED TO TRRA RESEARCH WORKING
GROUP
Biotech and Life Sciences
Material Sciences Engineering
Information Computer Technology
Applied Mathematics
Environmental Science
Key Sector
Are there key sub-fields we should be
accelerating?
Research Sub-fields Enabling Infrastructure
What key infrastructure is vital to achieving
world-class capacity in priority areas?
Capabilities - e.g. Computation / applied
mathematics
Acquire Key Equipment/Technology e.g. Mass
spectrometry, image archiving capacity
Facilities e.g. NRC, other laboratory space
Which critical infrastructure pieces are beyond
reach of individual institutions and can only be
achieved if we link arms through TRRA?
Slide courtesy of the Boston Consulting Group
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KEY TRRA STAKEHOLDERS SURVEYED ON PRIORITY
RESEARCH AREAS INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS

• Nine responses - 5 universities, 2 colleges, 2
  teaching hospitals
• CONSIDERATIONS FOR PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS
• Capacity for major differentiation by Toronto
  region
• Potential for innovation new technology
  platforms and breakthroughs
• Relevant to leading industry sectors (financial
  services, auto etc.)
• Applications across multiple fields and
  disciplines
• Sufficient return on investment needed to reach
  scale
• Opportunity for range of Toronto institutions to
  benefit
• CONSIDERATIONS FOR PRIORITY INFRASTRUCTURE
  INVESTMENTS
• Toronto region cannot achieve/sustain global
  leadership in one or more priority research areas
  without it
• Large scale
• Achievable only through close collaboration
  across multiple research institutions

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HIGH LEVEL SUMMARY OF SURVEY FEEDBACK

• TOP 3 PRIORITY AREAS SELECTED

KEY ENABLING CAPACITY/ INFRASTRUCTURE

• Biotech/Life sciences (8)
• ICT (6)
• Materials science/manuf. (4)
• Environmental science (3)
• Applied mathematics (2)
• Viewed as critical enabling capacity for other
  priority
• fields

• Applied math/computation (3)
• High perform. computing (3)
• Broadband infrastructure/ networks (3)
• Mass spectrometry (2)
• Data visualization (2)

• Additional broader research capacity/environment
  issues raised
• Personnel support (technical, graduate,
  post-doc, new immigrants with PhDs) (4)
• University/education funding in general (2)
• More lab space in general (2)
• More think tanks/stand alone institutes (1)
• Creating a culture that values and is
  interested in science (1)
• Commercialization capacity (1)
• Additional convergence centre (1)

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PRIORITY RESEARCH AREA 1 BIOTECH/LIFE SCIENCES
Rationale
Sub-fields

• Current capacity and strength commercial
  potential.
• Strong commercialization efforts in this area.
• Toronto has critical mass, depth of research, and
  internationally recognized scientists.
• Toronto biotech cluster largest in Canada, 4h
  largest in N. America, among top 10 in the
  world
• gt100 medical/biotech companies here, 40 of Cdn
  industry, gt140,000 jobs, combined annual
  revenues gt4 billion.
• One of worlds major acad. health science
  complexes.
• Breadth of expertise across many fields and
  disciplines- critical mass across span of
  disciplines is fundamental base for innovation.
• Colleges closely linked with industry
• NB Concern we may be overselling potential for
  commercialization. Governments getting impatient
  at lack of commercialization results

• Disease areas
• Brain dementia, stroke, mood disorders
• Cancer
• Cardiac
• Immune system disorders
• Infectious disease
• Neurosciences
• Vision science
• Platforms/service areas
• Genetics
• Genomics
• Proteomics
• Bioinformatics
• Computational chemistry
• Medical imaging
• Mass spectrometry
• Flow cytometry

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PRIORITY RESEARCH AREA 2 ICT
Rationale
Sub-fields

• Big shakedown underway but sector will rebound.
  No short-term payback. High risk but high
  potential payback down the road. Have to be
  strategic in how we place our bets.
• Quantum computing and processing a key area of
  strength. Toronto among best in the world e.g.
  CIAR program a real asset - national but many key
  members in Toronto region.
• Toronto and Waterloo strongest computer science
  departments in the country.
• U of T - Strong linkages with industry (e.g. Bell
  University Lab agreement and relationship with
  Nortel).
•  
• Mohawk - formal IT partnerships with Dell and Sun
  Microsystems. Completing construction of IT
  research and innovation centre
• Key enabler for data mining, image analysis,
  computational biology/chemistry, advanced
  mathematical modeling.

• Advanced mathematical modeling
• Bioinformatics (crucial to proteomic and
  genomics)
• Computational biology and chemistry
• Computer security
• Data mining
• Image analysis
• Processing and archiving of images created thr/
  new imaging technologies
• Quantum computing and processing
• Software quality

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PRIORITY RESEARCH AREA 3 MATERIALS SCIENCE
MANUFACTURING
Rationale
Sub-fields

• Materials and Manufacturing should be one area of
  priority. They are intimately linked.
• Impacts across many industrial sectors. Southern
  Ont. Cdn manufacturing heartland (automotive,
  steel, aerospaceetc) with major relevant
  research institutions. Region has developed
  global reputation in this field.
• We have real strengths i.e. MMO, nanotech,
  automotive. Demonstrated expertise in robotics
  and prostheses program. Cross over with Biotech
  in tissue engineering and medical imaging - 2
  highly innovative areas in Tor region
• Ryerson, McMaster and U of T (Institute of
  Biomaterial Research) all have expertise
• May be difficult differentiating Toronto
  Detroit/Windsor area and Kingston very active.

• Automotive
• Medical imaging
• Nanotechnology
• Prostheses
• Robotics
• Tissue engineering

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PRIORITY RESEARCH AREA 4 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Sub-fields
Rationale

• Limited ability to pay for innovations no
  industrial receptor capacity or sizeable pull
  from government right now. Govts will invest in
  this area, but some time before we see real
  economic potential.
• Have to look at priorities in terms of short- and
  long-term impact. Over time, environmental
  science will become much more critically
  important and we will then want to move it up the
  TRRA list.
• NB Important to revisit these priorities
  periodically as the landscape changes
• Mohawks strong programs in chemistry and
  environment and the location of resources like
  the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canada Centre
  for Inland Waters nearby.
• Significant need for research in reclaiming
  polluted lands and to address pollution control.

• Atmospheric and air quality
• Environmental site remediation
• Pollution control

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PRIORITY RESEARCH AREA 5 APPLIED MATHEMATICS
Sub-fields
Rationale

• Extremely important. Together with world-class
  HPC, seen as basic foundation for other priority
  research areas biotech/life sciences, materials
  science manufacturing and ICT.
• Sector is tied into industry problems, many of
  which begin with math.
• Toronto region can differentiate itself if we go
  after it Toronto regions undeclared secret
  weapon.
• Significant room to grow but we already have
  certain strengths MITACS, Fields Institute,
  Waterloo math faculty has an international
  reputation.
• Supporting infrastructure primarily high
  performance and quantum computing capability.
  Doesnt need huge infrastructure investment.

• Biotech
• Health and infectious diseases
• Environmental sustainability

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PRIORITY RESEARCH AREA RECOMMENDATIONS

• Focus on top 3 priority research areas
• Biotech and Life Science
• ICT
• Materials science and engineering focus on
  materials science and manufacturing
• Focus on applied math/computation as an enabling
  capacity for top 3 priority areas, but also
  explore applications for financial services
  industry
• Revisit environmental science as potential future
  priority

WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC FIELDS OF STRENGTH IN EACH
AREA WE SHOULD BUILD ON?
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FEEDBACK - CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS

• Computation capability critical to all priority
  fields requires supporting computing
  infrastructure
• High performance/grid computing
• Broadband infrastructure and collaborative
  networks
• Capacity to archive and analyse images
• Quantum computing capability
• In Biotech/Life sciences Investments have
  already been made over past 5 years fields below
  foundation to build on?
• - Cancer - Mass spectrometry (highlighted by 2
  respondents)
• - Cardiac - Medical imaging
• - Flow cytometry - Proteomics
• - Genomics - Scanning microscopy
• Data visualization
• Additional convergence centres? (i.e. Sunnybrook
  campus? CAMH campus?)

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WHAT MAJOR CAPACITY-BUILDING INITIATIVES SHOULD
WE BE PURSUING COLLABORATIVELY?

• INFRASTRUCTURE CRITICAL TO GLOBAL LEADERSHIP IN
  PRIORITY AREAS
• Applied math/computation and supporting
  infrastructure?
• Platform technologies for Biotech/Life Science
  and Materials Science e.g. Mass spectrometry?
  Imaging? Data visualization?
• Ohers?
• EXTERNAL INITIATIVES WE CAN EXPLOIT
• 1 billion Ontario cancer initiative?
• Federal public health agency?

Common themes

• Large infrastructure efforts, too costly for
  individual institutions
• Potential application across multiple research
  domains
• Building on existing local research strengths
• Opportunity for multiple institutions to
  participate and benefit

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PROGRESS ON HARD INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS TO BE
ACCOMPANIED BY ATTN TO BROADER SYSTEM ISSUES
PERSONNEL
FUNDING

• Competitive research funding to attract critical
  mass of leading scientists in priority fields
• Competitive compensation/opportunities for
  technical support staff
• College salaries
• Competitive support for graduate students (NB
  Alberta PhD stipend increase)
• Funding for post-docs important for leveraging
  foreign trained researchers, an under-utilized
  local resource

• How universities are funded failure to address
  ongoing maintenance sustainability of
  infrastructure
• Adequate funding for undergraduate and public
  education to ensure dissemination and uptake of
  scientific knowledge

CULTURE
Need to build public culture that values and is
interested in science Ontario Academy of Arts and
Sciences? Greater public engagement and strong
lobby power
SYNERGY
More free-standing think tanks like Perimeter
free up scientists time and foster synergies
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FIVE BROAD RESEARCH SECTORS TO ACCELERATE
Backup
Research
5
4
1
2
3
Environmental Science
Applied Mathematics
Material Science and Engineering
Information and Computer Technology
Biotech Life sciences
Leverages existing biotech, imaging and
healthcare strengths Identified by CFI as high
potential field Toronto ranked 4 in North
America by number of employees
Existing capabilities in place Priority for
region and institutions Nanotech seen as
emerging priority field Toronto 2 in North
America in auto industry for number of employees,
top 5 in aerospace

• Priority for region and institutions
• Identified by CFI as high potential field
• Toronto ranked 2 in North America by number of
  employees

• Priority for region and institutions
• TBD
• Potential for benefit across multiple industry
  clusters

• Highly cited experts (10)
• Opportunity for development of new hybrid
  agriculture/ health sciences research
• New startups emerging e.g., bio-diesel

Toronto Region Competitive Research Strength
Scope and Degree of Innovation
Industry Demand for Innovation