CSJ Exclusive
For decades, Canada's innovation agenda has focused on a familiar set of priorities: increase research funding, strengthen commercialization, improve knowledge mobilization, and encourage collaboration between academia and industry.
These investments have undoubtedly advanced Canada's research ecosystem.
Yet despite billions of dollars in public investment, Canada continues to struggle with weak productivity growth, low business investment in research and development (R&D), and limited commercialization of homegrown innovations.
Perhaps the question is no longer whether Canada invests enough in research, but rather whether it has built a workforce capable of fully utilizing the researchers it already has.
Canada awards approximately 7,000 doctoral degrees every year (Statistics Canada, 2025), producing thousands of highly skilled experts in engineering, health sciences, artificial intelligence, social sciences, environmental science, business, and many other disciplines. These graduates possess advanced analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills that organizations increasingly need to navigate growing complexity.
Yet relatively few doctoral graduates work in the private sector compared with many OECD countries. Most remain employed within universities, healthcare organizations, government, and publicly funded institutions, while others pursue careers that make only partial use of their research training.
At the same time, Canadian businesses continue to report challenges finding specialized expertise to support innovation, technology adoption, evaluation, and evidence-informed decision-making.
This disconnect suggests a labour market problem rather than a talent problem.
The challenge becomes even more apparent when examining Canada's innovation system.
Canada invests approximately 1.8% of GDP in R&D, below the OECD average of roughly 2.7% (OECD, 2025). Unlike many leading innovation economies, a substantial share of Canada's R&D investment comes from governments and post-secondary institutions rather than business. Business expenditure on R&D remains among the lowest in the G7 as a share of GDP, leaving Canada increasingly dependent on public funding to sustain its research enterprise.
To bridge this gap, governments have created numerous initiatives designed to connect research with industry. Organizations such as Mitacs, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, the Lab-to-Market initiative, Canada's Innovation Superclusters, regional innovation hubs, and many sector-specific research networks have made important contributions by supporting internships, collaborative research, commercialization, and innovation partnerships.
These initiatives create valuable opportunities and have strengthened Canada's innovation ecosystem.
However, they should not become permanent substitutes for a labour market that naturally employs research talent across the economy. Their continued expansion reflects a deeper structural issue: Canada has invested heavily in developing researchers without developing a long-term workforce strategy for where those researchers will create value.
This raises an important question.
Canada routinely forecasts workforce needs for physicians, nurses, engineers, teachers, and skilled trades. Why do we not forecast the research expertise our economy will require over the next decade?
A National Research Workforce Strategy could fundamentally change how Canada approaches research talent by shifting the conversation from research funding to research utilization.
Such a strategy could:
- Forecast future demand for research expertise across priority sectors, including health, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, clean technology, agriculture, and public policy.
- Better align graduate education with emerging labour market needs while preserving the importance of discovery-driven research.
- Create stronger incentives for businesses to employ researchers directly rather than relying exclusively on external collaborations.
- Improve national visibility of research expertise so organizations can identify and engage researchers beyond their existing networks.
- Measure success not only by publications, patents, or research grants, but also by the number of researchers employed in roles that fully utilize their expertise and the organizational impact they create.
Canada has no shortage of research talent. The challenge is ensuring that our most highly educated workforce is positioned where it can generate the greatest economic and societal value.
Research funding will always remain essential.
But if Canada wants to improve productivity, strengthen innovation, and remain globally competitive, our next national conversation should not simply focus on how many researchers we train.
It should focus on whether we have built an economy that knows how to use them.
Stephanie Hanna
Founder, NuanceEdge Inc.
Advisory Lead, Wilson&Wilbur
Visiting Professor, University of Ottawa
Sources:
Statistics Canada. Postsecondary graduates, by detailed field of study and International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) [Internet]. Ottawa (ON): Statistics Canada; 2025 [cited 2026 Aug 4]. Table 37-10-0276-01. Available from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710027601
OECD. OECD Economic Surveys: Canada 2025. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2025. Chapter 4.3.1, Making R&D support more effective. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2025/05/oecd-economic-surveys-canada-2025_ee18a269/full-report/raising-business-sector-productivity_443bcd88.html