Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government made significant investment into public programs, including core funding for post-secondary education and funds for research and development (R&D). It was in the 1960s that the federal government established the first research granting councils. The Medical Research Council (now the Canadian Institutes of Health Research) was established specifically to provide public funds to support the newly formed not-for- profit medicare program funded by the federal government. In 1978, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) were created to "encourage excellence in research, provide a base of advanced knowledge in the universities,...maintain a basic capacity for research training, encourage curiosity driven research...".2

International Pressures and the Rise of Knowledge Ownership
Prior to the 1980s, universities rarely engaged in patenting and licensing. University researchers were available in an advisory capacity for industry and the government, but without the expectation to behave as fellow entrepreneurs. Economic and political shifts gradually led to increased pressure on public sector institutions to re-organise to increase "efficiency", "quality", and "value for money". As early as the 1970s, corporate leaders criticised public universities for being of limited value to industry. Similar criticisms have been levied by some members of government and senior university administrators.

The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act in the United States granted universities patent and licensing rights to federally funded research and encouraged universities to foster research partnerships with private companies. This contributed to the expansion of the technology transfer and commercialisation efforts of American universities which, in turn, shifted the international landscape for university intellectual property.3