What Does Innovation Actually Mean? (talking research, the academy and AI with Joel Blit) @cigi

Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

What does innovation actually mean, and how should we be thinking about it?

In this episode, Vass and Paul welcome Joel Blit, an expert in innovation and innovation policy. Joel is a senior fellow at CIGI, and an associate professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, where he chairs the Council for Innovation Policy and Strategy. They discuss the mix of art and science that comprises innovation, the tensions surrounding it, and the different approaches — inside and outside the academy — that Canada and other jurisdictions are experimenting with to best generate and capture commercial and societal benefits from emerging technologies, in particular artificial intelligence.

In-Show Clips:

• 00:06:26: TVO Today, “Evaluating Performance-based Funding” (youtu.be/VoTFHA402nI) (YouTube, October 3, 2019)
• 00:46:40: BBC News, “How could AI affect jobs globally and worsen inequality?” (youtube.com/watch?v=Gn6ptv0zWZ4) (YouTube, January 15, 2024)

Mentioned:

• “Sigma 2” in education: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem

Further Reading:

• Joel Blit’s bio: uwaterloo.ca/scholar/jblit

Credits:
Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our technical producers are Tim Lewis and Melanie DeBonte. Fact-checking and background research provided by Reanne Cayenne. Marketing by Kahlan Thomson. Brand design by Abhilasha Dewan and creative direction by Som Tsoi.

Original music by Joshua Snethlage.

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault.

Special thanks to creative consultant Ken Ogasawara.

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