1. Introduction
Toronto has an area of approximately 641 square kilometers and a population of about 5.928 million in 2016. It is the largest city in Canada, the national economic center, and one of the world-renowned financial centers. It is also a well-known Chinese community in North America with a population of over 400,000. Toronto has been named one of the most livable cities in the world by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) for many years. The automotive, electronics, and financial industries play an essential role in Toronto's economy, with 90% of foreign bank branches in Canada located in Toronto. By trading volume, the Toronto Stock Exchange is the third largest in North America and the seventh largest globally. In addition, Toronto has the highest concentration of information service industry enterprises in Canada. It is North America's third-largest information service industry cluster after San Francisco and New York. Toronto is home to numerous world-renowned and first-class universities, gathering high-quality innovation resources nationwide. It is also a hub of innovation in Canada, with its high-tech products accounting for 60% of the country's total. According to the 2019 global Innovative City Rankings by Australian consultancy 2thinknow, Toronto scored 54 points on the Innovation Cities Index, ranking 10th.
Photo by Avijit Singh: https://www.pexels.com/zh-cn/photo/11289197/
2. Overview of Innovative Development
(1) Canada's and Toronto's Innovation Strategy
A. Canada's Innovation Strategy
In February 2002, the Canadian federal government issued Canada's Innovation Strategy, with the overall goal of making Canada the most innovative country in the world, and set out plans in four areas: knowledge effectiveness, talent skills, innovative environment, and community innovation.
First, regarding knowledge efficiency, they significantly increase investment in knowledge infrastructure and improve the national research and development capacity so that more and more enterprises can benefit from the commercialization of knowledge. Second, in terms of talent skills, they build the most skilled workforce in the world and ensure that the country gets the skilled immigrants it needs to make the most of their role in Canada. Third, Canada needs to ensure that its management system and market policy framework are globally recognized regarding the innovation environment. The government should improve its policy incentives for innovation, making Canada a globally recognized innovative country. Fourth, in terms of community innovation, the policy calls for collaboration at all levels of government to create more community innovation clusters to stimulate and unleash local innovation potential based on an objective assessment of regional strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.
B. Sidewalk Toronto project
Sidewalk Toronto is a collaboration between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., to build a future community in the Eastern Waterfront area of Toronto. With the five aspects of intelligent transportation, public domain, low-carbon buildings, community sustainability, and community data, the project integrates the most cutting-edge urban design ideas and the most advanced scientific and technological ways to carry out urban innovation, establish a complete and people-oriented future community, and strives to build into a model and benchmark of intelligent communities in Toronto and even the world.
Photo by Avijit Singh: https://www.pexels.com/zh-cn/photo/11289197/
(2) Specific Projects of Innovative Development
MaRS Innovation and Technology Campus, located in the heart of Toronto, covers an area of approximately 140,000 square meters and was officially launched in 2005. The campus is a platform for incubating projects, talents, and funds jointly built by the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Science, the University of Toronto, and other investors. MaRS is adjacent to Toronto Hospital and the University of Toronto, and it gathers innovative small and medium-sized enterprises by integrating and utilizing innovative resources from universities and governments. This high-tech campus has attracted multiple entrepreneurial companies in the medical, pharmaceutical, and technology fields, with tenants including iconic brands such as Samsung, PayPal, Airbnb, and JLABS. The campus has mastered advanced core technologies in artificial intelligence, stem cell research, biomedicine, data science, complex computing, network security, clean energy, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. In addition to providing workspace, the campus also provides state-of-the-art laboratories, such as the Cancer Research Building, which offers advanced Wet Labs for research institutions and seeks to create a model for future industrial clusters.
B. Institutions of Higher Learning
The University of Toronto, founded in 1827, has become one of Canada's top public research universities after nearly two centuries of vigorous development and adhering to the academic spirit of rigorous inquiry into knowledge. It is recognized as one of Canada's most prestigious institutions of higher learning and one of the world's top institutions of higher education. The number of research papers published by the University of Toronto each year is second only to Harvard University, and its citation count ranks among the top five in the world. According to the Association of American Universities, it is also one of only two members outside the United States among the 62 leading research universities in North America. In 2019, the University of Toronto ranked 18th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 19th in the Times Higher Education World University Reputation Rankings.
C. Scientific Research Institutions
UTIAS, located in the north of Toronto, is one of the important research institutions in the aerospace field in Canada. The institute is mainly dedicated to academic research in aerospace engineering and designing and manufacturing spacecraft, satellites, and related electronic equipment. It has a good reputation in subsonic aircraft design, flight simulators, space robots, microsatellite technology, fluid dynamics calculation, and nuclear fusion power research.
UTIAS's prominent international cooperation institutions include ESA, NASA, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Research, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
Photo by Vincent Albos: https://www.pexels.com/zh-cn/photo/1750754/
(3) Innovation and Cooperation Platforms
A. Collision
Collision is the fastest-growing technology conference in North America, initially held in Las Vegas, USA, and moved to Toronto, Canada, in 2019. Politico has dubbed it the Olympics of the tech industry. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 conference was held from June 23 to 25 as a video conference, attracting over 2,000 technology leaders from more than 153 countries. The main focus of the forum is health technology. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, gave a speech on the importance of health-related technology in the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also attended the meeting and spoke. The 2021 Collision Conference is scheduled to be held in Toronto from June 21 to 24.
Discovery is Canada's most significant innovation exhibition, with an area of 20,000 square meters.
The exhibition brings together the best talents from industry, academia, investment, entrepreneurship, and government departments and is Canada's leading technology showcase platform, providing a platform for technology practice and exploration. The 2019 Discovery Innovation Exhibition was held in Toronto on May 13-14, showcasing cutting-edge technologies and best practices in energy, finance, clean technology, environment, healthcare, digital media, information, and communication technology.