As many DEEP Centre followers know, our team spent much of last year conducting a Canada-wide evaluation of our business acceleration and incubation system. As part of the review we offered a number of recommendations, one of which was to suggest that Canada establish a national performance measurement dashboard for accelerators and incubators that would provide all stakeholders with the high-quality data they need to assess outcomes and make smart ecosystem management decisions.
We were delighted to see the new government make a commitment to move forward with a performance measurement framework, along with a number of the other recommendations we tabled. As noted in the 2016 Budget: “This framework will enable these organizations to benchmark their performance and drive improvement, help companies to choose their best options for support, and assist governments at all levels in increasing the effectiveness of public investments in this area.”
To help kickstart the performance measurement effort, the Government of Canada is now seeking candidates to form a balanced advisory committee (consisting of accelerator leaders, entrepreneurs, and early stage investors) to provide recommendations to the Minister of Small Business and Tourism on how the Government of Canada can most effectively support innovative growth-oriented firms through BAIs. In addition to helping establish a performance measurement framework, the committee will offer recommendations on how key stakeholders in Canada’s early stage ecosystem can better collaborate and coordinate efforts to help innovative growth-oriented firms scale-up, better engage with larger Canadian corporations, access executive mentors, engage with the right types of investors, and access international partners and markets.
The DEEP Centre is assisting the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development to identify potential members for the advisory committee. If this sounds like something you would be interested in and qualified for, please read the full notice on our website (en Français) and send us an expression of interest by May 23rd.