@new era...excellent point. I have been working in the innovation space in Alberta for over 15 years and there are two sides to the innovation story. There has been a decent amount of effort put into diversification of the Alberta economy. However, it is a tough slog because the culture of oil and gas makes innovation difficult, to oversimplfy the problem "When the price of oil is high...we don't need to innovation. When the price of oil is low...there is no money to innovate".
There are lots of examples of innovation, but Alberta is punching well below its weight class. We could do SO much more if there was a larger tolerance for risk, a different understanding of the economic peril we face and if industry was intrinsically motivated to innovate more (rather than responding to pressure). Another issue with innovation in the oil and gas sector is the mantra of sub-contracting projects to the lowest bidder, this makes adopting innovation challenging...
If you (or anyone else) is interested in hooking into the innovation ecosystem I would suggest checking out a group called "
The Rainforest" or PM me. I can hook you up...
If anyone is interested I am attaching a
link to my thesis on the Alberta Innovation system
Here is the abstract...
There are government created organizations with a mandate to affect the subnational systems of innovation. These ‘innovation agency’ organizations provide functionality that enables additional innovation activity; this functionality may be delivered by organizations external to the innovation agency. The Alberta Oil Sands Science and Research Authority (AOSTRA), Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), and the Alberta Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE) are three innovation agencies that exemplify significant innovation policy investments by the Alberta government. This thesis uses historical analysis and case studies to examine these three innovation agencies. The historical analysis examines Alberta’s complex coevolution of institutions, policy leadership and technically challenging natural resources that set the stage for these innovation agencies to emerge. Case study techniques are used to explore the emergence, operations, and impact of the innovation agencies.The findings are then positioned in the system of innovation literature.It was found that the Alberta system of innovation was highly influenced by institutional control over natural resources and that the oil sands were particularly important, given their value and the scientific challenges that they presented. Peter Lougheed’s role in entrepreneurially shaping institutions was a contingency for the emergence of the cases. It was found that the innovation agencies generally acted to subsidize research activity in other organizations, although there were significant exceptions(e.g. AOSTRA’s IP policy and Underground Test Facilities). Finally, the instrumentality of the organizations was significant, leading to development and adoption of technological systems by industry and enhanced research capabilities at Alberta universities.