Our Principles and Guidelines

• The department does not compete with the Canadian private sector.
• As an organization within the Government of Canada, the department does not generate any profits from cost-recovery projects but is obligated to recover its costs arising from this work.
• The department works with its stakeholder community in an equitable and open manner, while preserving commercial confidentiality.
• Projects in Canada need to comply with and contribute to the achievement of the sectors program objectives.
• The department’s projects are fully documented using written legal agreements.
• With collaborative projects, results and outcomes are publicly accessible. With cost-recovery projects, the department seeks to make results and outcomes available to the public while respecting the need for commercial confidentiality.
• With some exceptions, the department cannot directly endorse the products or services of our partners in either collaborative or cost-recovery projects.  Under no circumstance will it accept any form of compensation for endorsing any project, product or service.
• The department provides Canadian companies with opportunities to commercialize its Crown-owned intellectual property rather than undertaking commercialization itself.

Principles of ethics, fairness and transparency are respected in all of the department’s business undertakings.