Movers and shakers of Canadian innovation policy – recognizing the influence of university vice-presidents as policy advocates

Abstract

This paper examines the growing influence and impact of university Vice Presidents (VPs) Research on coordinating Canada’s innovation policy. As universities have become increasingly entrepreneurial, the institutional responsibilities go beyond policy implementation and have shifted towards shaping national level policy debates. By utilizing multi-level governance framework, the paper demonstrates how non-governmental stakeholders navigate the multi-level, multi-actor and multi-issue landscape of innovation policy. The findings provide evidence on the role of VPs Research in advocating and mediating complex inter-jurisdictional relationships between the private sector, and the federal and provincial governments. Policy coordination is viewed as an issue-driven functional process that assumes individual learning capacity and is influenced by the interdependence of stakeholder interests.

Keywords:

• Vice presidents
• policy coordination
• innovation policy
• Canada
• university leadership
• multi-level governance