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Kate Lee may have a PhD in reproductive development biology, but she looks on herself as a bridge builder. Not in the bricks-and-mortar sense, but as one of the first scientists in Canada professionally trained to make that vital link between the research laboratory and commercial markets.

Thanks to a substantial scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in Ottawa, she is just about to complete a master's of business administration at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto.

Nor is she alone; for the past three years, the federal agency has supported 28 men and women with doctorates in the sciences to take their MBA at the Rotman School, Simon Fraser School of Business in Vancouver, the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and, this year, the University of Alberta's Business School in Edmonton. Total cost has been $1,365,549.

"Part of our mandate is to encourage commercialization of research being done in Canada," says Dr. Kelly VanKoughnet, vice-president of the research portfolio at CIHR.

"To do that you need people with training in both the sciences and the skill sets and abilities to translate research into marketable products. We want to see the research we support put to practical use," she says.

Dr. Lee, 35, was one of the first scientists to take advantage of the scholarships. She applied three years ago, the first year the "Science to Business" program was introduced. She was awarded her doctorate from McGill University in 2001 and had worked in various roles for both the public and private sector, most recently for the Ontario Centre for Cancer Research in Toronto.

Her job there was to oversee grants of up to $500,000 a year to researchers hoping to demonstrate proof of concept for new drugs, the important first step before licensing drug companies to develop them for commercial markets.

"I wanted to find a way to help see that the discoveries I was dealing with went somewhere," Dr. Lee says. "I thought that with an MBA, I could play a vital role in getting those discoveries from the laboratory bench to the commercial marketplace. A friend of a friend told me about the CIHR scholarships; I applied and here I am. I graduate this spring."

Dr. Lee receives full tuition — half paid by CIHR and half by Rotman itself — and a stipend of $13,333 to defray living expenses for the eight months of the school year. CIHR allots a stipend of $20,000 maximum for each MBA student and the amount actually paid out is pro-rated according to the school term, says Dr. VanKoughnet.

"We believe this is an extremely important initiative," says Rotman's Dr. Brian Golden, who holds the Sandra Rotman Chair in Health Sector Strategy and heads the business school's MBA course in health sciences. "We very much need scientists who can understand the value of research being done and, either as entrepreneurs or working for others, have the skills to turn those discoveries into new commercial products."

Rotman has eight CIHR scholarship students, three of whom are women, taking its health sciences MBA right now. There are a total of 40 students in the course. All those funded by CIHR must be Canadian; all must have completed doctorates at Canadian universities within the past seven years and all must show the necessary skills in communications and mathematics needed to successfully complete the two-year course.

"It has proven exceptionally popular," says Rotman research associate Rosemary Hannam. "The first year we received about 30 applicants; the second year about 40 and for this fall we may reach 60."

Although the program is designed to create scientists with business skills needed to help them become entrepreneurs and managers for commercial enterprises, CIHR is willing to accept those whose eventual goal is to work in public policy, Third World health, or administration, says Dr. VanKoughnet.

Dr. Lee says that returning to school, after so many years since she was a graduate student in the more relaxed atmosphere of biology, has proved a challenge.

"It had been five years since I graduated and business school is much more high pressure than my graduate work," she notes. There was also the challenge of learning an entirely new vocabulary — the language of business jargon, such as EBITDA and GAAP.

"What the course has done, though, is given me a much greater insight into what is necessary to move a new discovery from the lab into the commercial market. Frankly I think we need a lot more people with that combination of scientific and business training," Dr. Lee says.

"It is the key to the future for scientific development in Canada."

While CIHR is now in the midst of developing its blueprint for the next decade, the scholarship program will continue for the foreseeable future, says Dr. VanKoughnet.

"Whether we expand it depends on whether we can find the money. For the next few years we will track the men and women graduating with MBAs and see what impact they have had," she says. "This year we will be graduating the first class, so much will depend on what they achieve."

SCHOLARS AT WORK

The 28 men and women now supported by Science to Business scholarships from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research are a diverse group. What ties them together is a desire to create new opportunities for Canada by being able to bridge the gulf between laboratory research and commercial products.

• At Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, for example, there is Kenneth To, who earned his PhD in neuroscience last year. Dr. To is no stranger to entrepreneurship: as a graduate student he started Wax-It Histology Services Inc., which enjoyed 250-per-cent annual growth while he was completing his doctorate.
• There is also Sonya Cressman, who received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular science from the University of British Columbia last year. Along the way she worked as a senior research associate at a start-up pharmaceutical company where her work produced a drug whose rights were sold for $150-million.
•  At the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, the three original CIHR scholarship winners in 2006 included Imtiaz Mawji, whose PhD was in laboratory medicine and patho-biology with a major in genetics; Mira Ray, a graduate from the same discipline with a major in biochemistry; and Josh Silvertown, a PhD in biomedical sciences with a major in physiology.

Special to The Globe and Mail