New TRLabs CEO a boost for industry participation in not-for-profit ICT research

TRLabs’ recent hiring of Robert Tasker as president and CEO solidifies the industry-driven model for the Western Canadian research consortium – something that should benefit the Canadian telecom industry, and e-health in particular. “TRLabs has been around for about 24 years,” Brian Eckhardt, the chair of TRLabs, tells Tech Media Reports. “And industry participation has gone up significantly – we have the highest percentage of industry participation of any network of excellence.” TRLabs receives funding from the federal government through Western Economic Diversification Canada, as well as from the Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta governments. At present about 50% of the organization’s funding comes from industry. “Our job is to support the Western economy by bridging the gap between universities and industry,” says Tasker. “We are also measured on how many students we land, and how many get careers in Western Canada.” TRLabs bills itself as supporting the creation of innovative technologies with an eye to accelerating technology commercialization. “There is a lot of research done that ends up sitting on shelves in universities and never gets commercialized,” says Eckhardt, who is also president of InfoMagnetics Technologies Corp. (IMT) in Winnipeg. “The purpose of TRLabs is to have industry participation and investment so that what is done in the universities has an industry sponsor to pull through a commercialized product.” As a result, Tasker was chosen for the job partly because of his strong industry ties. He has 23 years of information and communications technology (ICT) experience in marketing, operations and sales engineering functions within Nortel Networks, Bell Canada, and Stentor Resource Centre. Most recently, he was a senior VP at Telus Corp. “It was a tough selection process,” says Eckhardt. “We started in November and did two rounds of executive search. We looked at 145 candidates before selecting Robert. Because of the way that TRLabs operates, we needed a balance of industry, academic, and government .” At TRLabs the universities retain ownership of the intellectual property (IP), but TRLabs is the sole commercialization agent. There are also levels of IP ownership. A “Charter” industry member like SaskTel or Telus receives non-exclusive rights to commercialize IP. “Industry Associates” and “Industry Affiliates”, which are typically SMEs and some medium sized enterprise, have to negotiate licensing terms after the IP is developed. “One of the primary challenges we have is to get the right balance between the stakeholders,” says Tasker, noting that TRLabs’ focus is on applied research. “One of the reasons I am here is to make sure industry is part of that balance.” In terms of industry and market opportunity, Tasker says that one area where TRLabs has a lot of specific projects is in e-health. “E-health is the most exciting area. I am thrilled about this in terms of opportunity. ICT can be leveraged for the benefit of healthcare in Canada, including remote diagnostics. We are poised for a tremendous ability to exploit a number of opportunities here.” TRLabs has a lot of specific projects in e-health, which could result in more subscribed and contract research and development, above and beyond core research. In this model companies can negotiate stronger levels of IP ownership based on how much money they put into projects. “SaskTel, Manitoba Tel, these companies are very interested in the healthcare sector from a telecommunications perspective,” says Tasker. And of course his former employer Telus has also been active, through Telus Health Solutions, in the e-health market. As it now stands, TRLabs has 71 partner members and a presence in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg, employing 249 people. “The number of member organizations has increased by 25% in the last year,” says Tasker. “Canada has the opportunity through organizations like TRLabs to leverage innovation and technology from universities and take that globally. This is a huge opportunity for Canada.” TRLabs can also offer a degree of stability to ensure longer term research and development, which usually requires multi-year funding and on-going commitment. “Our funding is reviewed every five years and has remained consistent,” says Tasker, adding that TRLabs isn’t all about the big players. “The companies that really benefit the most from this are start-ups – this is all about giving them some stimulus and support to get up and running.”

New TRLabs CEO a boost for industry participation in not-for-profit ICT research

News | June 4, 2009

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