National Research Council Canada Leadership Award

Technology Transfer Award

For leadership in creating and executing a market-driven approach to the development, transfer and commercialization of leading-edge technology

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Strong leadership is as precise in execution as it is bold in vision. When researchers at the National Research Council Canada’s Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT) created a text analytics technology called Factor in 2005 they recognized the potential to elevate customized digital fact-finding to the next level. The challenge in a rapidly changing market was to find the perfect public partner to commercialize and enhance the technology. The proactive campaign devised by the inventive NRC-IIT team to conduct that search and close the deal broke the mould of traditional, more reactive, technology transfer approaches used in the past.

Borrowing from models of a high-tech startup company, the NRC-IIT team applied private-sector best practices to identify a niche with market pull and then design a sales-oriented proposition with the best return on investment. Leveraging each other’s skills, team members divided the responsibilities of sales, market analysis and research and development according to individual strengths. Among a series of innovative approaches, the team compiled a list of potential partners and, during a road show of several cities, tailored presentations to each company they visited.

Finding its perfect match in 2006, NRC-IIT signed a 10-year technology license agreement with Nstein Technologies Inc., a Montreal-based leader in text analytics. The partnership, valued at more than $7.5 million, is one of the largest commercialization deals in NRC-IIT’s history. 

Team Members

Chengbi Dai
Joel Martin
Michel Mellinger
Randall Milburn
National Research Council Canada