Rethinking the role of social sciences and humanities to help drive innovation and productivity

Canada’s strong research capacity and resources are critical in addressing global challenges including climate change, housing shortages and food insecurity. And yet Canada lags behind G7 countries on several measures of innovation and productivity, with lower expenditures in R&D, commercialization and intellectual property protection. We spoke to Ted Hewitt, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada about how social science and humanities research can help solve the innovation paradox.  

University Affairs: Investment in R&D has been largely focused on science and technology. How can research from the social sciences and humanities (SSH), enhance Canadian productivity? 

Ted Hewitt: Science and technology are essential to the process of invention, particularly for the new products and processes that we increasingly rely on. Innovation, however, involves much more than invention. New products or ideas do not find their way to the marketplace on their own. This is where research in SSH plays a critical role as the principal force enabling innovation. By helping to identify the value of new technologies, providing insights into production processes and marketing as well as the conditions underlying social acceptance, SSH research helps remove barriers and create efficient and effective pathways to accelerated market success and, thereby, enhanced productivity. This is to say nothing of the foundational value of creativity in our workforce, something that SSH programs, particularly the humanities, are well-suited to foster, and something that’s a top priority for employers, according to the [World Economic Forum’s] 2023 Future of Jobs.

For example, in the last fiscal year alone, SSHRC invested over $102 million through its Research Partnerships program to fund collaborative projects with a variety of industry partners. One such project helped a major airline find ways to balance environmental sustainability and financial performance in the aeronautics industry.  

Another example is the partnership led by researchers at the University of Ottawa, in collaboration with the university’s Inclusive Innovation Hub, which involved a range of major industry partners such as Microsoft and TD Bank. You can also look at examples like the new Dalhousie University-led project on sustainable diets, in partnership with industry and civil society, as well as a recent [Canada First Research Excellence Fund] project led by Memorial University on clean shipping in the Arctic. 

SSH research is also critical to the development of new evidence-based policy options for government, business leaders and decision-makers seeking to enhance productivity and innovation. The 4POINT0 partnership at Polytechnique Montréal is an excellent example of this in action, bringing together the private sector, government and academia to better understand the dynamics of innovation in Canada.  

UA: What can be done to encourage and incentivize SSH academics to transform their research into solutions for the public?  

Dr. Hewitt: University researchers in Canada are among the best in the world. And many researchers have become experts in mobilizing the knowledge they produce for the common good. Some of them, in turn, have become leading entrepreneurs, while others have focused on working in partnership with existing companies. When last measured by Statistics Canada in 2008, the value of contract research that universities conduct with industry in Canada and worldwide was approximately $1 billion, demonstrating real value to private sector partners.  

At the same time, many researchers are primarily focused on generating new knowledge and exploring pathways to developing concepts and ideas that extend beyond current conceptions. This is their passion. These researchers also have a crucial role to play in innovation as some of the highly specialized work they do today may someday help transform their disciplines, their communities or perhaps the entire planet. One need only look at the history of the development of artificial intelligence as validation of the importance of curiosity-driven research.  

Here’s a novel idea that may help us to bridge the gap between these two tendencies in the service of innovation: instead of attempting to transform curiosity-driven researchers into product innovators and entrepreneurs — a role many may neither wish nor be equipped to assume — perhaps we should encourage them to do exactly what they do best: pioneer the development of new knowledge and ideas. The trick then becomes working through other means and with other actors in the innovation system to uncover the real value of work done in university offices and labs and guide it, where feasible, toward the service of society. However, this requires completely new ways of thinking about how best to maximize novel discoveries.  

UA: What should university administrations do to encourage those tangible outcomes? 

Dr. Hewitt: To support this model, [university] administrations are key, primarily through the vehicle of their tech transfer offices. TTOs require the knowledge and resources to take on a much more direct role in working alongside researchers to identify promising technologies and ideas in real time as they evolve, then act as proxies for their application. This is in contrast to waiting for researchers to bring discoveries to the TTO’s attention, then helping the researchers move through the complex process of commercialization. The “discovery monitoring” approach already in fact exists in a number of labs and institutions in Quebec and elsewhere.  

In the case of SSH research specifically, administrators can help by making companies better aware of opportunities that currently exist for collaboration with SSH researchers and leveraging government programming and industry funding through contract research and licensing. In this way, institutions help promote the value of SSH for identifying solutions that are specific and respond to the unique characteristics of the Canadian business sector. Efforts then also need to be made to mobilize such knowledge into the hands of leaders and decision-makers.  

UA: TTOs often have cumbersome processes for patenting, licensing and supporting spin-offs, which can slow down or discourage commercialization efforts. How can these and other disincentives be addressed to make it more worthwhile for academics to commercialize their knowledge? 

Dr. Hewitt: Currently, our understanding and expectations of university research impacts are heavily weighted towards showing value quantitatively through royalty income or start-up counts. In either case, processes can be heavy, costly and time consuming and rely on the active participation of academic inventors. More often than not, such attempts at commercialization can fail to deliver the expected monetary outcomes.  

Here is another opportunity to think differently about how we measure and report impact. Certainly, there are examples of discoveries that are indeed best protected through patenting and best exploited commercially in the usual manner. But in cases where up-front commercial value may be less evident, institutions could encourage low- or no-cost transfers of intellectual property directly to end-users in the service of community development. Such transfers could be counted as community contributions in their own right and may result in further returns to both the institutions and the communities they serve.  

Thinking differently might also mean making greater efforts to recognize, promote and better measure the more qualitative contributions of university research to community practice, social services, government policy and health and well-being, to name just a few impact areas. This would help demonstrate the value of SSH research and may also play an important role in developing the very impact measures needed to fully demonstrate the real value of university research as a whole to the university’s community, region and Canada more broadly.  

UA: How can universities in Canada create opportunities for collaborative R&D, industry funding and mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs? 

Dr. Hewitt: Universities are deeply embedded in their communities and examples of collaborations, such as business incubators housed within postsecondary institutions (e.g., Creative Destruction Lab, District 3 Innovation Hub, MTLab), already exist. Building relationships is hard work, but it can lead to excellent payoffs by generating a true exchange — a virtuous cycle — where universities and academics gain a deeper understanding of real-world issues, and businesses and communities benefit from creative and careful reflection.  

UA: Is there anything else you would like to add? 

Dr. Hewitt: The impact of SSH is so much broader than the quantifiable monetary value of an invention. Over time, insights from SSH permeate the public’s thinking, behaviour and culture and can have an immeasurable impact on quality of life. One example is interest rate adjustments by the Bank of Canada, which are based in economic theory and have immediate practical application and real impact. Confidence is needed to make such decisions. SSH brings the necessary rigour to such processes. 

SSH provides the fertile ground in which informed decisions can develop. Explaining the relational, human-to-human aspects of the economy and entrepreneurship is the domain of SSH researchers. SSH can help policymakers and entrepreneurs understand and affect the social and cultural contexts – as well as the legislative and regulatory frameworks – in which businesses operate. Such research is a public good that can only flourish with proper investment and support. Its reach and impact, meanwhile, can only be expanded by putting adequate effort into disseminating findings to decision-makers. In Canada we have a deep pool of SSH talent and strong postsecondary institutions to match. It’s just a matter of harnessing that talent and effectively mobilizing knowledge to address the challenges facing society — both today and into the future.