Valorizing Canadian Innovation: How Labs4 and Labs+ Turn Research into Economic Value

Valorization is an approach to innovation that turns publicly funded research into real-world value. It succeeds by building market feedback, applied validation, and clear adoption pathways from discovery to use.

It’s also an intellectual property strategy: identifying research-derived IP with commercial potential, protecting it and validating it against real industry need. Done well, it keeps Canadian IP in Canada — translating public research into new companies, good jobs, manufacturing and supply-chain activity, productivity gains, tax revenue and solutions deployed in Canadian sectors.

For decades, Québec has led Canada in valorization, investing in applied research capacity and industry-facing supports that help teams protect IP early, test it in real-world conditions and make the manufacturability, durability and scale-up decisions that determine whether a discovery becomes something the market can adopt.

Labs4 and its Québec hub, Labs+, are designed to extend that momentum across the country. A Canada-wide network of 38 colleges and universities, Labs4 works through 11 hubs — eight regional and three Indigenous entrepreneurship hubs — that tailor nationally standardized programming to local sectors, communities and innovation ecosystems.

Working through Québec’s well-established applied research ecosystem, Labs+ helps teams move from research promise to practical readiness through applied testing, prototyping and early decisions about manufacturability, durability and scale-up — the work that determines whether an idea becomes something the market can use.

This approach is increasingly reinforced at the policy level. In late 2025, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Axelys announced a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the valorization of public research — a signal that translating discovery into economic and societal value requires intentional support across the innovation continuum.

“Canada doesn’t need more isolated commercialization programs; it needs stronger, connected pathways that reflect how innovation actually moves,” says Dr. Jolen Galaugher, chair of the Labs4 executive committee. “Models like Labs+ show that when you build on ecosystems that already know how to translate ideas into practice, you can scale impact while leveraging local strengths and build confidence to invest where innovation already thrives.”

From IP to industrial use

Across Canada, applied research centres already play a direct role in moving public research into industrial use. In Manitoba, RRC Polytech’s Advanced Composites Development Centre — operated by the Technology Access Centre for Aerospace and Manufacturing (TACAM) — has worked with the National Research Council of Canada and Magellan Aerospace to advance and validate NRC-developed composite forming technology by applying it in an industrial production context.

Labs4 is built to scale this pathway nationally. It embeds market feedback, applied expertise and commercialization guidance earlier, when design choices still shape outcomes. One of its core programs is Technology Readiness Level-Up (TRL), which supports researcher-entrepreneurs at the prototyping, demonstration, and pilot-ready stages.

Two TRL examples show what valorization can unlock:

  • Pirouz Kiani, a chemistry researcher at the University of Calgary working with SAIT, shows valorization in practice by turning a patented nanobubble discovery into a pilot-ready cleantech system. His NanoStrip technology removes ammonia and sulphurs from agricultural, wastewater, mining and tailings pond streams. Through Labs4’s TRL program, he scaled the unit 40 times, validated performance at larger scale, and resolved key engineering issues with applied experts and lab facilities. That applied validation moves the work from “promising research” to “industrial-ready solution,” positioning NanoStrip for pilot deployments with partners — including a planned full-scale system for an Alberta biogas producer.
  • Lucas Monter is developing a spray-on electroencephalography (EEG) electrode system,NeuroSpritz, that aims to reduce diagnostic delays by making EEG setup faster and more flexible. With routine EEG waitlists of more than six months in 73 per cent of Ontario clinics and hospitals — and setup times of about 50 minutes per patient — reducing setup time by up to 80 per cent could expand diagnostic capacity and improve access where staffing and infrastructure are constraints. Through TRL, he is advancing the system toward lab or simulated-environment validation and pursuing ethics-cleared pilot opportunities.

This is the point of valorization: not just proving an idea works, but building the pathway so Canadian IP can be protected, validated, adopted and scaled to create lasting value.

Québec’s advantage: an ecosystem built to connect

Québec is one of the few jurisdictions in Canada where a connected pathway from research to application operates at scale. Cégeps, universities, Technology Access Centres (TACs) and College Centres for Technology Transfer (CCTTs) link academic research to applied testing and industry-facing problem-solving.

Labs+ is guided by an advisory council that helps align Québec’s research, commercialization and entrepreneurship supports so projects move through the system without duplication or stalled handoffs. Members include Axelys, the Réseau des CCTT, Université de Sherbrooke, Concordia University and innovation hubs such as V1 Studio and District 3.

“Many support programs are available to assist innovators from the beginning to the end of their journey to commercialization. The key is to ensure a seamless transition, and that’s where the connections within the ecosystem become so important,” says Chantal Piché, associate director of innovation and research at Cégep de Thetford and executive lead for Labs+. “Labs+ adds value by strengthening and complementing these connections — bringing early-stage researchers into contact with applied expertise and commercialization partners at the right moment and helping projects move through the system with greater speed and clarity.”

As projects demonstrate technical and applied readiness, commercialization expertise becomes essential — particularly around intellectual property strategy, market positioning and investor readiness. In Québec, that role is anchored by Axelys, the province’s commercialization organization focused on accelerating the development and transfer of high-potential innovations from public research.

One of the most common reasons promising research stalls is timing: teams connect with real market need too late, after key technology decisions are already locked in. Labs4’s market-pull approach tackles that problem by pairing early market validation with entrepreneurship training, prototyping and demonstration — bridging the gap between technology development and product development and shortening the path to market. In Québec, Axelys helps make that approach practical through commercialization guidance, project review and connections to mentorship, training and, where appropriate, funding.

“Québec innovation is strongest when the ecosystem is built to connect,” says Jesse Vincent-Herscovici, president and CEO of Axelys. “When public research is supported with strong intellectual property strategy and commercialization coaching, knowledge turns into solutions that deliver lasting value. By collaborating with Labs4 and Labs+, we’re helping teams strengthen their IP, connect through our matchmaking platform, and build competitive technology portfolios so Québec innovations can reach the market.”

Under its mandate to mobilize Québec’s innovation and entrepreneurial support ecosystem, Axelys is helping Labs+ and Labs4 build that market-pull approach through commercialization guidance, project review and connections to training, mentorship and, where appropriate, funding opportunities for technology maturation and industrialization. Axelys has committed in-kind support valued at $40,000 per year to the TRL program.

What comes next

Valorization doesn’t happen by chance. Québec’s Labs+ hub shows what’s possible when market readiness is built in early, with applied validation and commercialization supports working as a connected system. Labs4’s role is to extend that way of working across Canada, adapt it to regional strengths and embed it consistently across programming — at a moment when Canada cannot afford for publicly funded IP to stall between discovery and adoption, or be commercialized elsewhere.

“TRL confirms what we already know: valorization is strongest when it’s built into the research journey early — and it shows this approach can be delivered at a national scale,” says Jolen Galaugher. “That’s the principle we’re building into every new Labs4 program. When we protect promising IP early, validate it against clear market need and surround R&D teams with applied expertise, more Canadian research gets tested, adopted and scaled here — and that’s how Canada turns public research into a repeatable engine for growth and impact.”

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