President David Naylor discusses research and innovation

When the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation asked President David Naylor for his expertise and insight on innovation hubs and what makes them successful, he was happy to use Toronto as a prime example. The president was recently featured in a ministry online video talking about what it takes to be a hub of innovation and why Toronto has an advantage.

“Innovation hubs around the world all have a few things in common,” said Naylor in an online video created by the ministry. “One is, they have talent, and that means you have to have universities and colleges in the area to feed into the hub in terms of the raw talent, the creativity. They’re also important from the standpoint of ideas, so hubs thrive on new ideas.”

He noted that the new economy will be more about convergence and bringing different disciplines together to create new areas of economic activity. For this to occur, he said, synergy, critical mass, talent and ideas are important.

“The other piece – and here Toronto has a huge advantage -- is, of course, finance. You need to have risk capital in play so that people are willing to make educated bets on these new companies to help keep that whole cluster moving, with startups maturing into young gazelles and then those gazelles maturing into global giants to play their role creating prosperity for us all.”

Recently the University of Toronto launched the Techna Institute, an innovation hub poised to integrate and fast track research, development and commercialization of new healthcare technologies. It’s a partnership between University Health Network and the university. The new institute – formally The Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health – is housed in the university’s Frederick Banting Building at 100 College St., across the street from the MaRs Discovery District complex – a symbolic location that epitomizes the very heart of Canadian world "firsts" in healthcare research (the discovery of insulin) and innovation in Toronto.

Naylor says innovation hubs are complicated and there’s no one thing that drives them. However, he views Toronto as a an excellent example.

“It’s a host of factors coming together, and certainly Toronto has emerged as an amazing hub across a range of economic sectors, and it seems to be getting more active every day. I’m amazed by the activity.”