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Wild Salmon Program
Concept and white paper by Simon Haworth
Returning Talent. Scaling British Columbia.
BC graduates mature in the world's biggest innovation ecosystems. This is the river that brings them home — with the technologies, capital networks and scale-up capability they built out there. Explore the proposal below; the water responds to you.
explore the school below · click or tap to send one home
Concept author / living program
Simon Haworth is driving the Wild Salmon Program forward.
BC + AI is publishing this as an interactive companion to Simon’s draft white paper: a work-in-progress returnee initiative focused first on AI Life Sciences founders, scale-up talent and the ecosystem conditions that would help them build in British Columbia.
Simon approved launch inclusion on 2026-07-02 with clear attribution and work-in-progress framing.
His May 2026 Vancouver AI talk connects drug discovery, life sciences infrastructure, data security and community trust.
The Life Sciences & AI room gives this program a real BC ecosystem lane instead of a standalone policy artifact.
The problem, reframed
BC doesn’t have a brain drain. It has a salmon run.
British Columbia generates internationally competitive graduates, then watches many of them leave for Boston, San Francisco, London and Singapore. The Wild Salmon Program treats that outward migration the way a river treats its smolts — as the first half of a return journey.
Theory of change
The gap is not raw talent.
A globally distributed network of future returnees, cultivated on purpose — like wild salmon maturing at sea before the run home.
The gap is not raw talent. It is the later-stage river system: capital, commercialization, lab access and trusted paths home.
Framing lens
BC already has
Source waters
- University research capability88
- Early-stage startup creation78
What is missing
Later-stage channel
- Scale-up & commercialization38
- Late-stage capital depth42
Wild Salmon builds
The run home
The gap is not raw talent. It is the later-stage river system: capital, commercialization, lab access and trusted paths home.
Ecosystem pulse
One comparison meter, not an index
38/100 illustrative
Scale-up & commercialization
38 illustrative strengthBC’s key structural weakness: comparatively weak scale-up and commercialization performance. This is the gap returnees close.
Select a marker to read the program implication. Strengths are illustrative signals from the white paper’s framing — not an ecosystem index.
Pilot rationale
Why AI Life Sciences first
- 01Artificial intelligence leadership
- 02Biotechnology and healthcare innovation
- 03Exportable intellectual property
- 04High-value employment generation
- 05Strong university research capability
- 06Long-term strategic economic value
The diaspora
Where the school swims — and what it carries home
Click a hub to see what BC graduates gain in each ecosystem, and what a returnee brings back up the river.
Migration current
BC to Boston
United States
Ocean years add
- World-leading biotech cluster
- Translational research pipelines
- Pharma partnership experience
Return current carries
- Life-sciences commercialization depth
- Clinical and regulatory know-how
- Exportable IP
The program thesis is not to stop this journey. It is to make the return leg credible once founders have built mature networks, scars and commercial judgment elsewhere.
The lifecycle
From egg to ocean to the run home
Six stages of a wild salmon, six stages of a BC founder. Step through the journey the program is designed around.
Stage 5 / 6 · The run home
Returnee
The Wild Salmon Program builds the river back: relocation support, matched investment, fast-track visas, lab access, mentorship.
This is the program moment: after the ocean years have created seniority, capital relationships and scar tissue, BC needs a visible river back.
The fish, up close
Five returnees who don't exist — yet
Composite portraits of the people this program is built for, drawn from the white paper's framing. Select a tag to read their run.
Case index
Composite archetypes, not real people. Select a dossier to inspect the run, carried assets, friction, and unlock.
Case file 01 / 05
The Translational Builder
- Home river
- UBC Biochemistry → Vancouver genomics startup scene
- Ocean years
- 11 years in Boston biotech
- Diaspora hub
- Boston
Composite dossier
Not a real person. Modelled against Boston so the program questions feel concrete.
The run
From hatch to home water
Composite path
Hatch
UBC biochem with a co-op term at Genome BC. Graduated curious about what happens after the paper gets published.
Out to sea
MSc at Harvard, then a research scientist role at a Kendall Square spinout. Watched three platform companies go from bench to Phase II.
Ocean years
VP Translational at a Series B AI diagnostics company. Ran the IND submission, built the clinical-ops team, closed a $40M pharma partnership.
The run home
Her father is aging in Victoria. She has a daughter who has never lived in the same city as her grandparents. The platform is licensable. She's ready — if the lab space exists.
What they carry
Assets coming back to BC
- Carry 01
Clinical-stage regulatory know-how from three IND submissions
- Carry 02
Relationships at Flagship, Third Rock and Mass General Hospital
- Carry 03
A validated AI diagnostic platform ready for a Canadian cohort study
What blocks the run
Friction to solve
No GMP-adjacent wet lab space available for lease in Vancouver at the stage she needs — BSL-2, -80°C capacity, and a cold-chain loading dock within walking distance of a university hospital.
What unlocks it
Program lever
University-linked translational infrastructure access
Illustrative composites drawn from the white paper’s framing and common BC diaspora patterns — not real individuals. Real returnee case studies (white paper §10) require interviews and consent, and are on the roadmap.
Pilot scenario lab
Shape the pilot with your own hands
The white paper sketches a 3-year pilot of 5–10 returnee-led AI Life Sciences companies with public/private co-funding. Move the levers and watch the success metrics respond.
Scenario instrument / illustrative model
A pilot shape you can interrogate, not a forecast.
Illustrative only. The white paper explicitly defers economic impact modelling, pilot costs and funding structure to future work — this lab exists so you can feel the shape of the program, not forecast it.
Current scenario summary
7 returnee-led companies over 3 years
Modelled with a 2x private-capital match against the white paper pilot envelope.
Dominant illustrative readout
168
High-value jobs created
jobs
- Private capital attracted
- $105M CAD
- M CAD
- Patent families filed in BC
- 32
- filings
- Commercial partnerships
- 21
- deals
Scenario vs. maximum pilot envelope
Baseline note
Baseline starts from the white paper pilot shape: 7 returnee-led companies, 3 years and a 2x private-capital match.
Caveat remains attached to every scenario
Illustrative only. The white paper explicitly defers economic impact modelling, pilot costs and funding structure to future work — this lab exists so you can feel the shape of the program, not forecast it.
What the program would actually provide
- Relocation support for returning founders and senior technical leaders
- Matching investment funds alongside private VC investment
- Fast-track support for incorporation, visas and lab access
- University-linked translational infrastructure access
- Innovation fellowships
- Commercialization and IP support
- AI Life Sciences cluster integration
- Mentorship and investor introductions
The constellation
Who has to swim together
Government, universities, investors and industry — rendered as the bioluminescent field the program lights up. Click a node for its role.
Coalition architecture
Five sectors, one return path
A map of potential counterparties and program questions. Listing does not imply endorsement, funding or participation.
Provincial government
Turns the returnee idea into a public mandate with accountable owners.
Innovation & economic development
Converts policy intent into a program a founder can actually navigate.
Universities
Makes the research and talent base visible to returning founders.
Private sector
Tests whether the coalition can become a market, not just a policy proposal.
Federal alignment
Connects the BC concept to national innovation and research instruments.
Innovate BC
Commercialization and talent program delivery precedent.
Sector contribution
Converts policy intent into a program a founder can actually navigate.
- Incorporation
- Packages landing support, intake, commercialization help and investor-facing materials.
- Lab access
- Routes founders toward cluster partners, commercialization infrastructure and technical support.
- Capital
- Connects investment attraction, matching-fund design and qualified private deal flow.
- First partnerships
- Convening power for first customers, ecosystem partners and regional anchors.
Program question
What would a counterpart like this need to contribute before returning founders could move from interest to incorporation, lab access, capital and first BC partnerships?
Open water
This is a draft. Help shape it.
The white paper deliberately leaves hard questions open — economic modelling, selection criteria, Indigenous partnership opportunities, governance. That’s the invitation.
- Economic impact modelling
- Estimated pilot costs and funding structure
- Comparative analysis versus international returnee programs
- Selection criteria for returnee companies
- Immigration and visa pathway analysis
- Governance structure
- Indigenous partnership opportunities
- Gender and diversity considerations
- Risk analysis and mitigation framework
- Success metric methodology
Bring a missing piece into the draft.
If you have lived returnee experience, policy context, life sciences infrastructure knowledge, or a better question, route it to BC + AI so the next version has more signal in it.
For Government
“Bringing Global Innovation Home to British Columbia”
For Universities
“A Global Career. A Path Back to BC.”
For Venture Capital
“Importing Proven Founders, Technologies and Scale-Up Capability”
Concept and white paper by Simon Haworth. Based on the Wild Salmon Program white paper draft (Vancouver, May 2026) — a foundational discussion document for a BC returnee innovation and scale-up initiative focused initially on AI Life Sciences. A work-in-progress initiative that Simon Haworth is continuing to drive forward, published by BC + AI as an interactive companion for discussion and updates. All projections on this page are illustrative.