Business Opportunities

Partnering Mechanisms

Federal research laboratories are Open for Business... . They are focused on making a significant contribution to the wealth generating capability of Canada, and represent an exceptional source of expertise for both Canadian industry and the scientific community.

Various flexible partnering mechanisms are available, including:

Flint Box:

Flintbox is an online marketplace for the licensing and exchange of the latest inventions and discoveries at Canadian universities and laboratories. Use this search window to find and access the latest technology. Hint: enter "a" to show all available technologies.

Intellectual Property Licensing:

Intellectual property created, such as patents, trade secrets, expertise and know-how, is available for licensing by (preferably) Canadian companies for commercial exploitation. Licenses may be exclusive, sole or non-exclusive, and conditions may apply to applications, geography, duration, and sales activity. Royalties from licensing provide support for federal research laboratories for further research, funds to finance further patents, and incentive awards to inventors and innovators.

R&D Collaboration:

Opportunities for collaborative research between the federal research laboratories and industry partners exist wherever there are common technical objectives or where the unique expertise of the laboratory provides a good match to industrial requirements. Such research has two important outcomes: the transfer of skills and know-how, and the potential for new or improved products and processes.

Contract Research:

Federal research laboratories have a number of unique facilities and expertise that can be made available to client groups on a full cost-recovery basis within the technical competencies of the laboratory and where private sector service providers are not able to offer such services.

Spin-offs:

Spin-off companies are formed specifically to commercialize technology opportunities when appropriate licensees cannot be identified. They are legally incorporated, their commercial enterprise is substantially based on federal technologies and some sort of formal technology transfer agreement is in place (this could be a collaboration, or equity agreement, not just a license). **note currently only the National Research Council Canada are involved in creating spin-offs.