Sales from companies that can be traced from the Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC) amounted to $1.61 billion dollars in 2005 according to a comprehensive study conducted by Doyletech Corporation.

The recent study examined two major areas of CRC's economic impact - company formation and the effect of technology licensing and sponsored research and development (R&D) activities in generating corporate sales and employment.

Using the extensive Doyletech database augmented by new research, the Ottawa-based consulting firm tracked the creation and growth of 62 start-up companies that are still in existence. In over 40 years, these companies were either formed around CRC technology or by CRC employees leaving the laboratory to establish a start-up firm. In 2005, these spin-off companies had collective annual sales calculated at $1.61 billion and 6,378 employees. The estimated tax revenues returned to the federal government in 2005 from this activity was about $320 million. The resulting CRC family tree (viewable at http://www.crc.gc.ca/files/crc/home/info_crc//publications/crc_familytree_2006_e.pdf) depicts more than 100 companies and organizations whose origins can be traced to CRC and its spin off companies.

"This is a pretty good return to the Canadian taxpayer for an establishment that has an annual operating budget of well under $50 million," said Denzil Doyle, chairman of Doyletech Corporation and chief consultant for the study.

The study also quantified the economic impact of CRC's technology licensing and collaborative research agreements. CRC clients generated $33.7 million in licensing and contracting revenue over a 15-year reporting period, of which $17.3 million came from Canadian companies. Doyle examined CRC licensing fees and revenues earned from sponsored R&D dating from 1990, the beginning of the agency's formal technology transfer program. The data were aggregated at five-year intervals between 1990 and 2005.

Using CRC's records, Doyletech developed a formula to compute sales and employment based on the type of company and the usage it made of the CRC technology. The impact of CRC's 961 licensing and sponsored research agreements is attributed by Doyletech to have generated $520 million in sales and created 2,602 "person years of employment" over 15 years.

As part of it technology transfer program, CRC has been actively working to increase commercialization of its laboratory-developed intellectual property - through Canadian companies and other institutional receptors that are in a position to convert CRC innovation into products, services or processes.

The Doyletech study is the first of its kind to quantify CRC's economic payback based on laboratory-reported royalty streams and contract revenues. Doyle developed a methodology which assigned multiplier ratios to the different company types to compute sales and employment as a result of the technology transfer.

In 2003, CRC was honored through a special award from the Federal Partners in Technology Transfer for being the best federal laboratory in technology transfer.