Ryerson University

Purpose

A study to generate insights on targeted investments or policy and program changes, as well as to investigate and identify areas where critical opportunities, gaps or challenges exist with the view to make tangible interventions to further assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their ability to grow and scale up their business, including accessing new market opportunities in Canada and abroad. The Project will entail an accelerated and ongoing interview process with 10€“12 SMEs within the January-March 2019 period. Led by a Special Advisor to the Minister, the focus will be to identify concrete and actionable recommendations to further strengthen the ability of SMEs to scale up and become more export ready. The Special Advisor will be supported by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship who will provide supplemental external research and administrative support. The initiative is designed to tightly connect with the live work currently underway in the department. It is expected that once in motion; it will identify insights that could generate a continuum of real time recommendations.