Innovation Agency Case Study: Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP)

Abstract

Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) is a longstanding program under the National Research Council; its primary mission is to increase research and development and technology commercialization by Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although it has a relatively small number of instruments for intervening in the private sector to improve technological research and development, it has highly effective frontline agents (Industrial Technology Advisors - ITAs) that are able to deploy those instruments well. The ITAs discretion allows them to adapt flexibly to changing economic and technological conditions, even if the IRAP more broadly has not been more experimental or evolutionary. This case study of Canada’s IRAP is based on the analytical elements developed in the accompanying methodological document, “Innovation Agencies: The Road Ahead.” (Breznitz and Samford 2016).