RXN HUB’s Address to the Standing Committee on Science and Research

This week, RXN HUB’s Executive Director, Morgan Lehtinen, addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research as it explores how to increase private-sector investment in Canadian research and development. The committee’s study focuses on unlocking stronger industry–research collaboration and supporting the commercialization of innovations emerging from universities across the country. In her remarks, Morgan challenged this very gap—emphasizing that invention is not innovation, and outlining what Canada must build to prepare university inventions for private-sector investment.

Watch Morgan's prepared remarks here:

"Madam Chair and Committee Members, thank you for the invitation to speak today.What differentiates an invention versus an innovation?

Before we discuss how to promote more private-sector investment in university research, I’d like to pause and rethink the question itself; because invention is not innovation.

What leaves a university lab is an invention: an idea unconstrained by real-world requirements. Universities excel at generating breakthrough discoveries, and Canada is globally recognized for this strength. 

But the private sector invests in innovation — technologies that are validated, de-risked, and ready to scale.

In the sectors I represent as the Executive Director of RXN HUB, a scale up and commercialization hub for chemical technologies and processes that span natural resources, energy, critical minerals, and advanced materials — these real-world constraints are substantial: energy, safety, labour, environmental impacts, economics, and scale. 

Universities are not designed to apply these constraints, nor should they be expected to function as industrial innovation agencies.

This is the gap where many Canadian technologies stall.

So the question is not, “How do we grow private sector investment into emerging innovations from Canadian Universities?”

 It is, “How do we prepare university inventions to become private sector investable innovations?”

There is no shortage of researchers eager to commercialize their work, and national programs like i2I and Lab2Market are building crucial talent pools, transferable skills and awareness. But interest and education alone are not enough.

To advance innovation and enable the scale up of Canadian technologies ”in Canada” —  I offer three recommendations:

Recommendation 1: Establish a Standardized National Framework for Technology Validation 

Canada lacks a consistent, evidence-based way to assess the commercial feasibility of early-stage technologies. Without a shared framework, researchers, investors, industry, and regulators often operate without clear communication surrounding risk mitigation and potential incentives. That disconnect is a major contributor to the ‘valley of death.’

Canada already has an international standard — ISO 14076, the enviro-technoeconomic assessment (e-TEA), to which RXN HUB was one of two Canadian contributors on the ISO Standards Committee.  e-TEAs translate scientific inventions into metrics that matter for economic and industrial decision-making.

To accelerate adoption, federal programs like IRAP, NSERC, ISED, and NRCan can fund qualified providers to deliver e-TEAs, integrate them into federally funded research and commercialization programs, and expand existing training programs so researchers can apply these assessments early.

Recommendation 2: Facilitate Early and Structured Engagement Between Universities and the Broader Innovation Ecosystem

Innovation happens within a community of stakeholders; not single institutions.  We must establish consistent practices for engaging with ecosystem partners earlier, to limit late-stage surprises due to insufficient analysis, prolonged timelines due to poorly planned commercialization projects, and stalled technologies due to incorrect budgeting practices. 

Establishing new KPIs and reporting metrics for funding programs that promote early engagement between academic researchers and ecosystem partners will help align incentives and minimize unforeseen roadblocks.

Recommendation 3: Fund National Programs That Connect Fragmented Provincial Innovation Efforts

Across Canada, government investments are underleveraged because our funding programs operate in regional silos. 

National mandates delivered through provincial frameworks often lead to duplicated programs, gaps for mid-stage development, barriers to accessing infrastructure across provinces, and a patchwork of funding strategies that make national coordination difficult.

Canada needs true connection funding — programs that link research outputs from Universities to pilot facilities, demonstration sites, service providers, and industry partners across the country. These programs should build on experienced agencies and existing infrastructure, not create new layers of competition.

Since ecosystems generate retained operational knowledge, each subsequent project that an ecosystem works on advances more efficiently and with lower risk than the last.

Canada is a world leader in invention — but invention alone does not build companies, industries, or national competitiveness. This is a global challenge, and if Canada wants to lead, we must evolve our systems to enable innovation by preparing university inventions to scale, support the ecosystems that de-risk them, and align national policies with the full commercialization pathway.

Global estimates suggest more than $275 trillion would be needed to reach net-zero by 2050 with existing technology development systems — a sign that the world’s innovation models are not working fast enough.  In this moment of nation-building, we can strengthen domestic supply chains and build critical infrastructure, but we can also build the processes and policies that turn Canada's research excellence into a global competitive advantage.

Thank you. I look forward to your questions."

Morgan’s remarks highlighted a critical gap: Canada’s strength in invention is not matched by its ability to turn those discoveries into scalable innovations. Her three recommendations—standardized validation frameworks, earlier ecosystem engagement, and nationally connected programs—offer a pathway to close that gap. RXN HUB looks forward to working with partners across government, academia, and industry to build the infrastructure and policies required to move Canadian technologies from lab bench to market impact.