Global Advantage Consulting Group President and CEO David Watters and Associate Partner Omer Kaya presented at the Re$earch Money 19th annual R$ Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 21 on Canada’s R&D and innovation performance and what Canada can do to improve in those areas.
This was a return of Global Advantage to the conference. This year’s presentation was titled “COVID-19: Emerging Changes in the Supply and Demand for Canadian R&D”.
The theme of Re$earch Money’s conference was “Prospering in the Post-COVID Economy: Building a Cooperative Model for Success”, featuring speakers discussing lessons learned from the current pandemic crisis and what steps are needed for Canada and the world to move forward sustainably. The conference was supposed to have taken place in April 2020, but was moved to October because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the format was changed to a virtual platform.
Some of the main arguments presented by the Global Advantage team during the conference were:
- Canada is lagging in our ability to turn innovation inputs into outputs, as evidenced from the Global Innovation Index 2020.
- The key impacts of COVID-19 include:
- Record high unemployment
- Record contraction of global GDP
- Piling up debt
- Economic shutdowns restricted trade
- Travel restrictions within Canada and globally
- Expanding role of big government
- Accelerated a digital economy
- Restructuring of education
- Rise of economic nationalism and angry populism
- The Economic Strategy Tables could be made permanent and used as the key mechanism to support the integration of four strategies:
- Sustainable Industrial Strategy
- Trade Strategy
- R&D/Innovation Strategy
- Skills Strategy
The depth of analysis, graphic visuals and quality of arguments put forward by Global Advantage engaged the audience in questions and discussions on how Canada can develop strategies to improve Canada’s top R&D performance.
Global Advantage Consulting Group offers a variety of services customized to your organization’s needs. To see more about how our products can help shape your organization’s understanding of Canada’s research and develop innovation ecosystem, visit our portfolio of work here.
