T

he Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship (BII+E) was made possible by the vision of two prominent Canadian leaders: Sheldon Levy and Jack Cockwell.

As a former President of Ryerson University, Sheldon had overseen an explosion of innovation and entrepreneurial talent within the university. He saw the need to continue translating these successes to a larger, national stage. The Insititute is inspired by best-in-class examples like Nesta in the United Kingdom and the Kauffman Foundation in the United States.

As a long-time collaborator of Sheldon and a strong supporter of Ryerson, Jack Cockwell, along with the Brookfield Partners Foundation, helped turn this vision into reality by providing a generous $16 million donation to seed the institute.

The new Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship was announced in early 2015. Since then, executive director Sean Mullin and the leadership team have been building a multi-disciplinary roster of economists, researchers, policy professionals, communicators, program managers and administrative staff to activate BII+E’s mission and build upon Sheldon and Jack’s vision for the institute. In June 2016, BII+E released a first-of-its-kind report measuring the impact that automation is likely to have on Canadian jobs, which garnered national media attention and influenced government policy. In July, the inaugural State of Canada’s Tech Sector report measured the size and economic impact of technology companies and technology related jobs. Since then, a steady stream of ground-breaking BII+E research has informed the innovation policy debate in Canada.

Acting on Sheldon and Jack’s shared commitment to helping young people succeed, BII+E has also partnered with government and community groups to explore ways of promoting and disseminating digital literacy across Ontario, with a focus on underserved communities to support broad-based inclusion in the innovation economy. While the institute focuses on all aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship, it endeavours to provide special attention to youth-focused opportunities, educational partnerships, programs and initiatives.

BII+E is continuing to partner and collaborate with various levels of government, community organizations, private-sector enterprises, Indigenous groups and a wide network of researchers and experts who share an interest in the institute’s work.

The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship tests assumptions with credible research to ensure Canadian governments and businesses are focusing on the most relevant issues and opportunities for Canada.

Our multi-disciplinary teams focus on forward-looking work streams which we believe are critical to Canada’s future economic success. They build collaborative relationships with our partners to generate rigorous research, propose unconventional approaches and pilot ideas to explore how Canada’s innovation economy can include people of different ages, incomes and backgrounds.

Skills for an Innovation-Driven Economy

We seek to understand future skill demands across Canada to help companies and people gain the skills they need to thrive in an innovation-driven economy.

AI + Society

We explore the opportunities enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) while investigating the social, political, and ethical challenges of current and future capabilities and applications.

An Innovative + Inclusive Economy

We examine the distribution of risks and benefits in Canada’s innovation economy and explore how to improve equity and broaden participation.

Entrepreneurship Ecosystems

This work stream maps entrepreneurship, start-up and scale-up activity across Canada to better understand the areas of growth and opportunity, and to inform policies aimed at helping entrepreneurs succeed.

The Brookfield Institute proudly engages a diverse group of funders to support, inform, and catalyze our work, consistent with our values, and subject to a thorough internal review. As a non-partisan, public-interest institute, we only accept funds from organizations that support our mission and enable us to undertake work independently with full editorial control. The names of all financial supporters are publicly and transparently displayed on all online and printed material. 

We are always looking for new partners. Interested in working with us? For more information, contact Mark Hazelden, our Director of Business Development, mark.hazelden@ryerson.ca.