text: Research Money Inc – Prospering in the Post-COVID World: Building a Cooperative Model for Success
  Prospering in the Post-COVID World: Building a Cooperative Model for Success
  For almost twenty years, the R$ conference has been bringing together research and innovation leaders from government, business, finance, academia and the not-for-profit sector to review progress, identify challenges and propose solutions around Canada's performance in the knowledge-based economy.
  Over this period, governments have come and gone, companies have appeared and disappeared, economic conditions have fluctuated and the geopolitical landscape has changed dramatically. Through it all, our understanding of innovation has evolved and deepened, and recognition of its importance to our prosperity and quality of life has steadily increased.
  The 19th annual R$ conference will engage speakers and participants in a dialogue that breaks down the traditional silos in which we all operate. Together, we will assess the relevance and effectiveness of our individual and collective efforts to achieve the goal we all share: prosperity and sustainable quality of life for Canadians and the world.
  We'll hear from leading Canadian entrepreneurs about their challenges and successes, analyze the implications of the federal budget for Canada's innovation ecosystem and learn from public and private sector leaders from Switzerland, the top-ranked nation in international innovation rankings. We'll also review progress on implementation across the federal government's innovation portfolio, including Innovation Canada, innovation superclusters, the new digital platform, science advice and coordination of innovation policies and programs within the federal government and between different levels of government.
  Conference delegates will have the opportunity to participate in one of three facilitated design thinking workshops. Each workshop will have a challenge that requires diverse stakeholders to work together. Understanding one another's institutional culture and success metrics will be essential to design viable solutions.
  Challenge A: How do we capitalize on our natural resources strength to grow the green economy?
  Challenge B: How do we capitalize on foreign direct investment to scale domestic tech firms?
  Challenge C: How do we capitalize on research excellence to enhance prosperity and quality of life?
  The R$ conference attracts leaders and practitioners from Canada's research, innovation, investment and policy communities. The resulting cross-fertilization of ideas, expertise and experience always generates fresh thinking, new connections and valuable insights that empower participants to be their best going forward after the conference.
  Panelists and speakers working on the forefront of innovation in Canada
  A unique opportunity to engage in an interactive design-thinking workshop and connect with diverse stakeholders to address a wicked innovation challenge and explore potential solutions
  The RE$EARCH MONEY Conference is an excellent opportunity for students interested in entrepreneurship, business and innovation to hear from and network with prominent members of Canada's innovation community. We are offering a special conference rate for students of only $250+tax, which includes our three-course dinner on the evening of April 28th, 2020.
  Country Managing Director and Head of the Electrification business, ABB Canada
  Eric Deschenes is Country Managing Director and Head of the Electrification business, Canada since January 1, 2020.
  Eric has been a leader in the Canadian Electrification Market for close to 25 years and is passionately committed to driving Canadian innovation to help Canada write the future of industrial digitalization. Throughout his extensive career, Eric has developed expertise in industrial technology, strategic busi-ness development, and a keen understanding of Canadian customer and market challenges.
  Eric joined ABB in 2017 as Executive Vice President of the Electrification business. Prior to his ap-pointment to ABB he spent a successful 15 years at Schneider Electric where he drove the develop-ment and implementation of innovative technologies and digital solutions to solve complex challeng-es in several key market segments. He held several executive-level positions in the organization, the most recent of which was, North American Vice President MMM Segment (Mining, Minerals & Metals).
  As a recognized thought leader in his field, Eric is very involved in the Canadian industry community and has sat on many boards including: ADP Polytechnique Montréal, Smart Grid Canada, Association de l'Industrie électrique du Québec (AIEQ), Fondation et Alumni de Polytechnique Montréal, NSERC Energy Storage Technology, Échanges Jacques Cartier and most recently, he joined Propulsion Qué-bec. He has been an active member of the CIGRE Association (Conférence internationale des grands réseaux électriques) since 2010.
  Eric is a Professional Engineer (P.Eng) and a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) since 1992. He earned his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnique Montréal. Recently, Mr. Deschenes completed an assignment as President of the Association des diplômés de Polytechnique (ADP) which boasts over 32,000 members.
  Head of Start-Ups and Next-Generation Innovators and Member of the Executive Committee, Innosuisse
  Dominique Gruhl-Bégin has more than 14 years of global experience in innovation promotion, international trade, supply chain, management consulting, negotiations as well as in art curating. She heads start-up & next generation innovators division at the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency (Innosuisse) since 2016 and is a member of the executive committee.
  Dominique holds a degree in business studies, Masters in Economics (Canada) and a second Masters in Art Gallery and Museum studies (UK). She has been a management consultant in the US/Chicago (4 years) for A.T. Kearney. In the past, the mother of three boys has also been involved in:
  Strategic Procurement in Switzerland for a silicon valley-based company (Agilent technologies)
  Art Curatorship in the UK
  Trade Commissioner + Innovation officer at Canadian Embassy in Switzerland
  Worked in 3 languages across 3 continents and short working experience in Malaysia and in the Philippines.
  Founder & CEO, The Indigenomics Institute
  Carol Anne Hilton, MBA is the CEO and Founder of The Indigenomics Institute. Carol Anne is a dynamic national Indigenous business leader and senior adviser with an international Masters Degree in Business Management (MBA) from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Carol Anne is of Nuu chah nulth descent from the Hesquiaht Nation on Vancouver Island.
  Carol Anne currently serves on the BC Emerging Economy Task Force as an adviser to the Minister of Jobs, Trades and Technology, the BC Indigenous Business and Investment Council for the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and was the only Indigenous person appointed to the Canadian Economic Growth Council. Carol Anne's work has been recognized most recently with the national Excellence in Aboriginal Relations Award from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and the CE Analytics Mastermind award.
  Carol Anne currently serves as Director on the McGill University Institute for the Study of Canada, the BC Digital Supercluster and most recently as a juror on the Canadian Smart Cities Challenge. Carol Anne is an instructor at Simon Fraser University's Community Economic Development Program and a faculty lead at the Banff Center's Indigenous Business Program where she was also a Fleck Fellow.
  Twitter - Carol Anne Hilton
  Kendra is a frequent speaker and facilitator on the topics of innovation, future of work and disruptive technologies and is the Past-Chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Technology Industries.
  Department Science Advisor, Environment and Climate Change Canada
  Dr. Shawn Marshall is jointly appointed between Environment Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the University of Calgary, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Climate Change from 2007-2017. Following an undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics at the University of Toronto, Shawn migrated west for a PhD in Geophysics at the University of British Columbia, specializing in glaciology. He joined the University of Calgary Department of Geography in 2000, where he studies mountain and Arctic environments, paleoclimate, and cryosphere-climate processes. As both a climate modeller and a field scientist, Shawn has spent more than a year of his life camped out on glaciers in the remote beauty of the Canadian Rockies, Yukon's St. Elias Mountains, Ellesmere Island, Greenland, and Iceland. His research on glacier and ice sheet response to climate change informs projections of global sea level rise and the sensitivity of water resources to climate change. Shawn was a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Earth System Evolution Program from 2000-2015, and is deeply engaged in the national and international scientific communities. He is the current Canadian representative to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Cryosphere Working Group, Chairs the Board of the Alberta-based Resilience Institute, and serves on the Science Leadership Council of the international Mountain Research Institute (Bern, Switzerland). Shawn joined ECCC as their Departmental Science Advisor in July, 2019.
  Vice-President of International Partnerships, Mitacs
  Lissa Matyas is the Vice-President of International Partnerships at Mitacs. Funded by the federal and provincial governments of Canada, industry and universities, Mitacs' mandate is to build domestic and international partnerships that support industrial and social innovation in Canada. Lissa has twenty years of experience spanning international R&D partnership development, graduate program development, graduate student training, university strategic planning, stakeholder relationship management and marketing. She comes to Mitacs from McGill University where she held the position of Director of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and prior to this, Director of Graduate Enrolment Management. Prior to joining McGill University, she was at Concordia University for ten years. At Concordia she managed the university's strategic planning exercise in the Office of the President, held the positions of Director of Graduate Student Recruitment for the John Molson School of Business and Associate Director of the John Molson MBA Program, as well as Director of Alumni Relations at Concordia University. Lissa holds a Greenbelt in Lean Six Sigma from Fujitsu Canada, as well as a Master of Science in Administration degree with a concentration in Marketing and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, both from Concordia University. Lissa sat on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies and is a member of several other professional associations.
  Sue is the CEO of Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster – driving the development of digital technology platforms and products that will transform businesses and industries while making Canada a world leader in digital technology. The Digital Technology Supercluster brings together organizations of all sizes, from industry, academia, the private and the public sector, to work together on solving some of the most significant economic and social issues through the development and implementation of world leading digital technologies.
  The Supercluster is leveraging Canada's expertise in data analytics, genomics, quantum computing, mixed and augmented reality, the Internet of Things and AR and VR to deliver technologies in data commons, digital twins and all aspects of precision health while creating jobs and growing Canada's international competitiveness. Over 300 organizations are working with the Supercluster from diverse sectors including manufacturing, mining, healthcare, agriculture, research, forestry, aviation, software development, telecom and more.
  Chief Science Advisor, Natural Resources Canada
  Vik Pant joined Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) as Chief Science Advisor on August 19, 2019. In his role, he plays a leadership role in developing and promoting NRCan's S&T priorities, providing oversight and strategic policy advice on cross-cutting science issues and opportunities. He is to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the department in order to enhance NRCan's ability to conduct science, economic analysis, and provide evidence-based policy advice via modern advanced analytical techniques
  Vik earned a master's degree in business administration with distinction from the University of London, a master's degree in information technology from Harvard University, and is currently completing his doctorate at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information (iSchool). His research, featured in numerous peer-reviewed journals and juried international conferences, has focused on conceptual modelling of strategic coopetition in complex socio-technical and multi-agent systems.
  Vik joined NRCan from the MaRS Discovery District, a technology start-up accelerator in Toronto, where he was a Senior Technical Advisor of Applied Artificial Intelligence. Prior to that, he had held strategic positions in leading software enterprises including Oracle, SAP and Open Text.
  Departmental Science Advisor, Health Canada & Scientific Director, Institute on Gender and Health at CIHR
  Dr. Cara Tannenbaum is the Departmental Science Advisor for Health Canada and the Scientific Director of the Institute on Gender and Health for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. An internationally recognized physician and researcher, Dr. Tannenbaum holds the Michel Saucier Endowed Chair in Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal where she is a Professor in the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy. She is the Director of the Canadian Deprescribing Network and serves on scientific advisory boards for the European Commission's Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and Radio-Canada.
  Carol Anne Hilton, Founder & CEO, The Indigenomics Institute
  Plenary Panel: Lessons from Switzerland - an international innovation leader
  Eric Deschenes, Country Managing Director and Head of the Electrification business, ABB Canada
  Dominique Gruhl-Bégin, Head of Start-Ups and Next-Generation Innovators and Member of the Executive Committee, Innosuisse
  Moderator Lissa Matyas, Vice-President of International Partnerships, Mitacs
  The Global Innovation Index (GII) has evolved over the past 12 years into a respected reference tool on innovation for policy makers. According to the GII publishers: "Understanding in more detail the human aspects behind innovation is essential for the design of policies that help promote economic development and richer innovation-prone environments locally." As a consequence, the GII includes indicators that go beyond the traditional measures of innovation such as the level of research and development.
  Canada ranks among the top 20 countries (18th in 2018, 17th in 2019). Switzerland consistently ranks at or near the top, coming first in 2018 and 2019. As a small country with few natural resources, the question arises: What is their secret sauce?
  This year, Switzerland and Canada are celebrating 75 years of collaboration. In recognition of this relationship, our panel brings together Swiss and Canadian policy and business leaders to explore what the Swiss are doing right and if there are lessons for Canada. The panelists will engage in a moderated discussion of the policy, cultural, historical and other factors that underlie Switzerland's consistent success in innovation policy and practice.
  Parallel sessions: Design-thinking workshops
  The key element of these facilitated design-thinking workshops is for each participant to gain an appreciation and understanding of the other. What does the other hope for? What does the other fear? What outcome does the other seek? By sharing hopes and fears and creating a context for empathy and a collaborative environment in which to talk about potential actions, the group will create and prioritize several big ideas for making progress on their selected workshop challenge.
  Parallel sessions | SESSION A | How do we capitalize on our natural resources strength to grow the green economy?
  Parallel sessions | SESSION B | How do we capitalize on foreign direct investment to scale domestic tech firms?
  Parallel sessions | SESSION C | How do we capitalize on research excellence to enhance prosperity and quality of life?
  Workshop synthesis and priority actions
  Dinner and panel: Update on Canada's Science Advisory Network
  Shawn Marshall, Department Science Advisor, Environment and Climate Change Canada
  Vik Pant, Chief Science Advisor, Natural Resources Canada
  Dr. Cara Tannenbaum, Departmental Science Advisor, Health Canada & Scientific Director, Institute on Gender and Health at CIHR
  Day 2 - October 20, 2020
  Fireside chat with a special guest - Stay tuned for an announcement!
  Supercluster update
  Canada's five superclusters have started to see traction, with all of them having announced funded projects during the past year. R$ is pleased to welcome back all five CEOs to update conference delegates on progress to date and plans for the coming year and to answer questions.