Biotechnology and Canadian Innovation

Statement of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee on the Occasion of the National Summit on Innovation and Learning

The Institutional Transformation Imperative

Transformative technologies like biotechnology bring fundamental changes to societies and thus hold important implications for all Canadian regions, communities and sectors. Through its capacity to provide important benefits for health, the environment and our quality of life, biotechnology is bringing change, as well as challenging existing institutions and beliefs. Its effects will be even more profound in the future. The development and beneficial application of biotechnological innovation must therefore be a central element in the articulation and implementation of Canada´s Innovation Strategy.

Complex transformative technologies like biotechnology also carry with them risks, pressures on existing regulatory and decision-making institutions, and create tensions and trade-offs that cut across personal and social values. As Canada moves forward to capture the benefits of biotechnological developments we must ensure that these risks and tension are addressed and managed through institutional changes in, and outside of, all levels of government in Canada. The work of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (CBAC) to date has clearly demonstrated that policies and programs seeking to promote successful and sustainable innovation in the broadest sense must focus not only the technical aspects of innovation but also on fostering the social and institutional transformations necessary to realize the full social and economic benefits of technological advances and to manage the challenges, pressures and uncertainties.

CBAC is embarking on a major analysis of this institutional transformation imperative and, by next autumn, intends to provide strategic advice to federal Ministers on the more immediate issues and opportunities. CBAC will also inform Ministers of the major topics, background analysis, consultation processes and partnerships it intends to pursue in developing advice on the longer-term institutional transformations required to achieve the goals of:

• ensuring Canadians capture the economic, social, health care, environmental, and quality of life benefits from biotechnology; and,
• addressing and managing the potential challenges, risks, hazards, tensions and tradeoffs associated with this transformative technology.

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Innovation is Everybody´s Business

CBAC will be approaching the foregoing task with the realization that there is a need for a much broader and deeper understanding of the individual and institutional factors that facilitate or?hinder responsible and effective development and assimilation of biotechnological advances so that innovative ways can be found to:

• address the development of biotechnology in a manner that reflects the values of Canadians, protects the environment, ensures sustainability, and builds social cohesion and consensus;
• achieve a fair distribution of benefits including greater equality of access to useful products and services for all Canadians and for the citizens of developing countries; and also to achieve a fair distribution of exposure to risks; and,
• nurture our intellectual and entrepreneurial resources thereby strengthening our economic independence and sovereignty, boosting employment, stimulating greater productivity and, increasing our standard of living.

Identifying and successfully introducing innovations requires involvement of all sectors of Canadian society in the process of institutional transformation. The transformations may involve changes in how existing institutions, both within and outside government, are organized and perform their functions, the development of new organizations or the development of partnerships, alliances and networks among institutions and organizations. The institutional transformations can be considered to fall into two categories. First, those that focus on social and economic development (education, training, research, knowledge transfer, the search for best practices, risk capital supply, staying abreast of scientific and technological advances, new approaches to enhancing access to benefits). Second, those that focus on regulation (risk assessment, management and communication; protection of human and animal health ,the environment, and respect for core social values). In implementing institutional transformation it will be necessary to strike a sustainable balance between competing objectives and social values.

Canada seeks to be a responsible world leader in the development, application, stewardship and governance of biotechnology and has a firm basis for pursuing that goal. With the impetus provided by the Innovation Strategy and sustained commitment there is every reason to be confident that we can capitalize on these strengths for the benefit of all Canadians by matching scientific and technological ingenuity with social ingenuity. CBAC supports a strategy for innovation that is more than simply the invention of new products and processes and establishing ways of getting them into the hands of Canadians. It must be seen as creative activity that takes place within a broader context and that embraces an imperative to transform our institutions. Our members look forward to contributing to such a strategy and an expanded understanding of both the benefits and unintended consequences of biotechnological innovation.