The federal government hopes its ‘supercluster’ plan will result in “bold and ambitious proposals that will supercharge regional innovation ecosystems.”
There are a couple of key elements to the plan. One is that by having big companies team up with numerous smaller ones, the initiatives will provide a sector-wide boost rather than just serving the interests of a few large players. The other is that the partners in each successful supercluster will pony up their share — in “industry contributions” — on at least a dollar-for-dollar basis. (Each of the five chosen superclusters will receive between $125 million to $250 million over five years.)
The government is expecting to see four outcomes:
- “a shared competitive advantage for their cluster that attracts cutting-edge research, investment and talent” to create “a world-leading innovation hotbed”
- increase business R&D investments that boost productivity, performance and competitiveness
- new companies, and commercialization of new products, processes and services
- “a critical mass of growth-oriented firms,” and increased collaborations between private, academic and public sector organizations.
