City of Kingston Report to Council Report Number

Transcription

1 To: From: Resource Staff: City of Kingston Report to Council Report Number Mayor and Council Gerard Hunt, Chief Administrative Officer Not applicable Date of Meeting: Subject: Queen s University and City Partnering on Innovation Executive Summary: Progress Update In December 2012, city council adopted the following motion, with a view of strengthening the ties between Queens University and the City for the work at Innovation Park. THAT the City agrees in principle to enter into discussions with Queen s University that would explore the possibility of the City partnering with the university to establish a new concept for Innovation Park. As part of building a sustainable community, the City has the opportunity to partner with postsecondary institutions in a variety of ways. The Town Gown Strategic Plan envisioned partnerships and the City of Kingston s Strategic Plan with Council s priorities for reinforced the concept. This report describes some of the foundational work that has been done over the past two years and sets the stage for specific work to be undertaken in the next six months to identify specific objectives and strategies to advance the development of the ecosystem. Recommendation: That Council receive this progress report and direct the Chief Administrative Officer to continue to work with Queen s University to create a next steps plan; and That Council receive a further progress report by June Council Meeting 32 67

2 Page 2 of 6 Authorizing Signatures: Gerard Hunt, Chief Administrative Officer Consultation with the following Members of the Corporate Management Team: Cynthia Beach, Corporate & Strategic Initiatives Lanie Hurdle, Community Services Denis Leger, Transportation, Facilities & Emergency Services Jim Keech, President and CEO, Utilities Kingston Desiree Kennedy, Chief Financial Officer & City Treasurer Council Meeting 32 68

3 Options/Discussion: Page 3 of 6 The city, as part of its vision, sees innovation and research as a key component to the city s sustainable growth and development over time. To that end the city s motto is where history and innovation thrive. In Council s Strategic Plan under the priority of Enabling Economic Development, Council committed to: Animate Kingston s motto of where history and innovation thrive as our primary objective and message for marketing and business development purposes (p. 20). The Town-Gown Strategic Plan developed in 2010 includes as a theme, community economic development and identifies attracting/retaining the creative class, the development of the talent economy and green jobs, connecting students to business and aligning research/programs with economic plans. Innovation Park, located at 945 Princess Street, is a regional convergence centre and a community of innovators and specialists where academia, industry, government and not for profit organizations work together to cultivate ideas, identify and transform important discoveries, and propel innovations into the marketplace. The role of Innovation Park is to foster interaction among the participants in the research and innovation system and thus stimulate commercialization and economic development in the South Eastern Ontario region. With support from the provincial government, announced in the 2007 budget, and with Queen's University as the catalyst, Innovation Park has emerged as a technology development hub and an important vehicle that is helping to drive and accelerate university-industry interaction, create vibrant research and innovation forums and facilitate business retention, growth and attraction. Innovation Park is built on a strong foundation of partners who are located at the Park, including KEDCO, Launch Lab and mostly recently PARTEQ Queen s University s commercialization and licensing organization. The building of this ecosystem at Innovation Park has been an important step to ensuring that entrepreneurs and innovators are well supported as they map a trajectory to commercialization. Furthermore, the talented researchers at Queen s have a dedicated place and support network to advance their own ideas and to partner with industry. Queen s students are also engaged within the Innovation Park ecosystem. Launched in 2012, the Queen s Innovation Connector (QIC) offers programming to support student entrepreneurs. The signature program of QIC is the Queen s Summer Innovation Institute (QSII). QSII brings together students from across disciplines to spend the summer learning about entrepreneurship, corporate innovation and change management from faculty, alumni, entrepreneurs and business experts. Working in teams, they develop their own companies or contribute to corporate innovation in partnership with industry. Several of the companies established through QSII have continued to evolve and are now located at Innovation Park where they can collaborate and share in the benefits of the ecosystem. The profile and success of Innovation Park and QIC has resulted in the University recently receiving significant investment from both the provincial and federal governments to expand these efforts. Council Meeting 32 69

4 Page 4 of 6 The impetus for the 2012 motion came after several conversations with the University about how to advance the important work occurring at Innovation Park and ensure its continued success. The University recognizes that its success is linked to Kingston s success and the path forward must be one of mutual collaboration and alignment. To this end, in January 2014, the Chief Administrative Officer and Commissioner Beach joined Provost Alan Harrison and Vice- Principal Steven Liss from Queen s University on a fact-finding tour of innovation park facilities affiliated with the University of Waterloo and McMaster University. The purpose of the visit was to receive exposure to and insights on the innovation ecosystems in the Waterloo/ Kitchener Region and in Hamilton. Specifically, the objectives were: to understand the landscape and role of the university-affiliated research parks, incubators and accelerators, and private sector to understand the value proposition of the innovation ecosystem to understand the role of potential stakeholders (university, college, city/ region, community, provincial government, federal government) The tour was of great value to the group allowing them to explore potential models for further developing Innovation Park and more broadly the Kingston ecosystem. In Hamilton, the McMaster Innovation Park has a vision to be an internationally recognized focal point for innovation, creativity, learning and research excellence aligned with the research strengths of McMaster University. Their mission is to develop and sustain an environment that: facilitates and accelerates innovation, the transfer of knowledge and the commercialization of research resulting in economic and social development encourages successful collaboration amongst private sector, government, hospital, university and college researchers and educators is aligned with and leverages the research strengths of McMaster University has global reach resulting in regional prosperity educates and excites the community about new developing technologies and the jobs and prosperity they bring In Waterloo Region, the development of the David Johnston Research & Technology Park has been instrumental in the economic trajectory of the region. The regional partners are committed to creating a unique community-based research park, whose mandate is to foster radical innovation. The high ambition of the David Johnston Research & Technology Park is supported by a comprehensive partnership among the University of Waterloo, the Government of Canada, Province of Ontario, the Region of Waterloo, the City of Waterloo, Communitech, and Canada's Technology Triangle. While both Parks had different trajectories, they were built on the premise that a coordinated and empowered group of partners is required to build a strong ecosystem. Their success has been the continued advancement and diversification of their local economies, which has led to a better quality of life for all their citizens. It is with this in mind, that the City and University engaged with a representative Communitech - the Waterloo Region based not-for-profit organization aimed at helping tech companies start, grow and succeed to facilitate continued discussions about how to build on the success of Innovation Park and advance and coordinate Council Meeting 32 70

5 Page 5 of 6 the Kingston ecosystem. Over two half-day sessions, the group has formatted several concepts to advance, and through a coordinated effort and shared resourcing, believe that we can enhance our efforts in building a climate of innovation and entrepreneurship in Kingston. Since council s endorsement of the motion, city staff have been engaged in discussions with Queen s University. Much is happening in research and innovation at the University, creating a great opportunity for the city and the university to work jointly and stimulate economic development opportunities. The next stage for this joint effort is to describe a path forward that will advance their shared interest in developing Kingston s (and the region s) entrepreneurial ecosystem (the Ecosystem). The recommendations in this report are intended as the next steps in strengthening a collective vision to achieve joint objectives and in advancing economic opportunity in a sustainable way in Kingston. The City of Kingston (the City) and Queen s University (Queen s) intend to engage an individual to serve as a resource in advancing their shared interest in developing Kingston s (and its region s) entrepreneurial ecosystem (the Ecosystem). It is agreed that the cost of this resource should be equally shared by Queen s and the City, and that the engagement should be for a fixed duration (possibly 6 months), with specific tasks and milestones to be completed/attained during this timeframe. The tasks to be completed are as follows: Coordinate and advise individual stakeholders (e.g. Queen s, the City, Launch Lab) various communications and marketing resources in order to launch cooperative and cohesive communications of the recent progress made, and future plans, with respect to the development of the Ecosystem. Advise the stakeholders as to how best to increase their support of aspiring entrepreneurs in the most cost-effective ways; especially by leveraging existing infrastructure and partnerships, and by tapping in to the entrepreneurial communities at Queen s, St. Lawrence College, RMC and Kingston and Eastern Ontario. Advise the Stakeholders as to how we might most cost-effectively increase the retention rate of entrepreneurs in the region, especially after graduating from Kingston-area postsecondary institutions. This work will be jointly funded and will result in a next steps plan that will form the basis for future direction. Sufficient funds to accommodate this work have been budgeted. The effort and action plan will be reported to Council by June Existing Policy/By Law: Town Gown Strategic Plan Kingston s Strategic Plan Council Meeting 32 71

6 Notice Provisions: Page 6 of 6 There are no notice provisions required for this report. Accessibility Considerations: There are no accessibility considerations with this report. Financial Considerations: Funding will be administered by the Chief Administrative Officer, once the scope of work is clearly defined. This is considered an investment in the growth and retention of business in Kingston and is expected to be another significant step toward future economic success for Kingston and area. Contacts: Gerard Hunt, Chief Administrative Officer , ext Other City of Kingston Staff Consulted: Not applicable Exhibits Attached: Not applicable Council Meeting 32 72