Innovation UBC is pleased to announce the appointment of Ian Bell as Associate Director, Innovation Partnerships, effective June 1, 2026. With more than 25 years of international experience across academic technology transfer, industry, and government, Ian brings deep expertise in partnership development, research commercialization, and IP strategy.
In this Q&A, Ian shares his background, his perspective on UBC's research partnerships landscape, and what he's focused on as he builds out the Innovation Partnerships function at Innovation UBC.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
I have had a varied and interesting career over the past 25 years, which has always had technology transfer and business development at its core. I would say a defining characteristic has been being open to new opportunities as they presented themselves.
This openness to new opportunities has given me diverse experience to draw from, having managed a broad, pan-technology field at multiple Canadian universities, worked in the Provincial and Federal Governments, the private sector and formative experience from living internationally for close to 7 years co-leading the valorization team at an oncology institute funded by the Dutch government.
You've worked in technology transfer and partnerships across Canada and internationally. What are UBC's biggest strengths when it comes to research commercialization and external partnerships?
UBC is an incredibly rich place to work. I still remember walking back onto campus when I recently returned to Innovation UBC and feeling a sense of the gravitas of UBC. The size and scale of the university provides an environment where there is a tangible feeling of support behind all facets of our activities. UBC is a top 40 global academic institution and you feel that the moment you are on campus. The strengths of this university shine through in its people and the quality of the research being undertaken.
UBC is on the bleeding edge in a number of fields and is continually sought out for its research, partnerships, technology licensing opportunities and spin-off companies. Innovation UBC in particular has fostered a culture of knowledge and support to ensure UBC faculty can achieve success in the mobilization of their research. My experience elsewhere has been that not all institutions have set their innovation offices up in such a proactive way and with the autonomy that Innovation UBC has. It is this structure which allows the office to provide informed and expert support, compared to many peer institutions.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities in how UBC connects its research with industry, government, and other partners?
UBC is exceptionally positioned to deliver impactful research results for the public benefit. We have world-class research infrastructure, faculty and a leadership team with a clear mandate to advance UBC’s research output in strategic areas which not only position UBC for continued success as a world-leading research institute, but which is poised to help position Canada to deliver on its goals of transforming its knowledge economy.
What are the most significant challenges or headwinds facing research partnerships in Canada right now?
Access to capital is a continual challenge for researchers and research institutions in Canada. I believe good technology will always find a home (and funding), however, with the current economic and political climate, funding institutions are stretched, and the follow-on impact has been a much more competitive landscape. This not only impacts funding available to support basic and applied research but especially impacts junior faculty as they start to build their labs.
I would also say that access to pre-seed and seed funding continue to be difficult for UBC spin-offs to access, with the impact felt in the size and length of time to attract financing which is critically important at the early stages of a spin-off company’s growth.
On the partnership side, the impact is felt in how companies choose to deploy their capital, and so this highly competitive nature is felt as companies decide on how and where to deploy their funds.
The good news for us is that UBC is a globally recognized institution undertaking groundbreaking and transformative research and it is this reputation for science and delivering results which makes UBC an attractive partner for industry, government and community partners.
As you step into this role, what opportunities are you focused on for Innovation Partnerships and what does early success look like?
Having gone through the establishment and build-out of Oncode Institute in the Netherlands, I have a lot of experience to draw from. Focusing on a top-down understanding of the infrastructure and expertise at UBC, identifying cross-departmental linkages that can be leveraged and identifying relevant industry and government funding calls where UBC’s value can be leveraged into successful public-private partnerships will be a key focus.
Telling the UBC story in a compelling and relevant way to our stakeholders will be critically important and success will of course be the level of engagement with our private and public partners in the near-term and ultimately the amount of multi-year high value partnerships that will be formed.
Learn more about Innovation Partnerships.
