How can Canada
compete for the future?

In 2017, the Government of Canada sought to respond to intensifying global competition and the rise of dominant multi-national firms by confronting an overarching economic challenge for Canada, its legacy industries, and its nascent sectors – how to harness its innovation strengths and convert them into lasting productivity gains and sustainable economic growth.

An ambitious step for Canada

The Government of Canada acted boldly in 2017, launching a multi-pronged Innovation and Skills Plan, which featured a flagship new program – the Innovation Superclusters Initiative.

The Government committed nearly CAD$1BN to the Superclusters over the program’s first five years, all aimed at accelerating Canada’s national competitiveness and economic transformation.

The program’s multi-stage national competitive process yielded five Superclusters in areas of economic opportunity: Ocean Economy, Digital Technologies, Plant Protein, Advanced Manufacturing, and AI for Supply Chains.

Once selected, the five Superclusters began rapidly scaling up, building up their member services, innovation portfolios, and aggressively investing in new technologies and partnerships, while securing matching private sector investments.

Evaluating, learning and adjusting

In 2021, leading up to the end of the first five-year program budget, Chris Rangen and the team at Strategy Tools provided advice and support to ISED – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada – to assess the program and develop actionable next steps.

Over a series of months, Rangen and the extended team concluded a global study of best practices in national cluster program design, supported a Canadian expert review group, and helped explore opportunities to strengthen the second phase of the Superclusters program.

Globally-oriented clusters

The program was successfully renewed in 2022, with a further investment of CAD$750M over five years in the rebranded Global Innovation Clusters program.

These Clusters have evolved from supporting pilot initiatives to catalyzing company scale-ups, and from early partnerships to capturing global value chains.

Over the decade from 2018 to 2028, the Global Innovation Clusters are on track to meet and exceed program objectives, be drivers of economic growth, and significantly strengthen Canada’s competitiveness on the global stage.