Integration of Canada’s strengths to Build – Partner – Buy: The key to innovation capacity

To echo Mark Carney’s Davos speech, international relationships have changed, and while we may wish we could return to how things were, the reality is the world is not what it once was. As Canada moves to increase defence spending and build our R&D capabilities, many are looking for examples of how to best spend these investments. While there is wisdom in doing this, we must be cautious. Canada is not the US, which can afford to invest billions into postsecondary entrepreneurs, nor are we Scandinavian, where the looming existential threat of Russian forces’ integration of higher ed and defence. Canada is its own beast, and that’s not a bad thing. We have long punched above our weight class, whether in education, research, or the militarily. Our biggest challenge is that we need to learn to integrate our strengths and incentivize keeping our innovations Canadian-owned.

The Defence Industrial Strategy’s Build – Partner – Buy framework lays out a plan for how to best work with industry to support defence, and the same framework can be used to leverage our nation’s strengths towards policy change. Canada has invested heavily in its higher education system, placing Canadians among the most educated nations on Earth. Our long-term investments to create a world-class higher education sector should be leveraged to Build capacity, training not just workers in critical sectors but entrepreneurs who will innovate. This same higher-education sector must learn to move more quickly and Partner with industry to give learners hands-on experience so that they are job-ready but also to encourage entrepreneurship. And lastly, we, as Canadians, must Buy into these companies through investments to help them scale. 

One of the most cited reasons that companies leave Canada to scale elsewhere is the lack of capital. They often can’t secure the investments needed to scale domestically, and so they move somewhere they can. Whether it’s simply that the capital doesn’t exist, that Canadian investors are extremely risk-averse, or that our tendency to export our resources is so ingrained that it extends to even exporting our ideas for others to develop, is a debate best left for those with more expertise. But perhaps the Defence Industrial Strategy’s goal of driving innovation by investing domestically can change this, at least in the case of dual-use and defence research, particularly the Higher Education Sector, can move quickly to meet the moment. 

There will always be those who don’t want to engage in this research, for a variety of reasons, and that’s to be expected. However, it’s worth remembering that dual-use is broad and, much like the NASA research into space travel that gave the world things like portable X-ray machines, shoe insoles, and ear thermometers, research in one sector often leads to innovations that shape life far beyond its initial applications. 

What is increasingly clear is that Canada’s success will depend not just on how much we invest, but on how effectively we connect the pieces of our innovation ecosystem. A coherent, operationalized approach that brings together academia, government, and industry is essential. Each holds part of the solution: the talent and research capacity of higher education, the policy and funding levers of government, and the scaling expertise of business. When aligned, these actors can move innovation from idea to commercialization while ensuring it remains rooted in Canada and supported by a workforce ready to meet the moment. This kind of coordination has been central to our work at eCampusOntario, where we have focused on convening partners, surfacing existing supports, and contributing to shared infrastructure that helps bridge these sectors without duplicating effort.

Canadians are educated, innovative, and resilient. We far too often undersell our value. The world has changed, but with that change, Canadians have an opportunity to once again show the world that we are not to be underestimated.