About Elizabeth Lance

Elizabeth Lance

Elizabeth Lance, MA, MASc

About Elizabeth Lance

Elizabeth Lance is a systems researcher and strategic advisor. Over nearly two decades, she has applied analytical and computational methods to complex governance and compliance problems — building independent, evidence-based resources across three fields where the stakes of getting it wrong are high.

In R&D tax policy, she has developed what is recognized as the most comprehensive independent analysis of Canada’s SR&ED program available. In public education, she is conducting an AI-assisted province-wide audit of Ontario school board compliance with Ministry directives. In resource extraction, she provides active strategic leadership to companies navigating the intersection of environmental remediation, innovation funding, and public accountability.

The subject matter changes. The methodology doesn’t: map the system, find where it’s failing, build the evidence.

SR&ED Consulting

Elizabeth is the Managing Director of The Ingenuity Group®, a boutique SR&ED and innovation management consultancy she co-founded in 2008. Her practice serves science and technology companies across Canada and the United States — spanning mining, drilling, hardware, pharmaceutical, software, and manufacturing sectors.

Her clients maintain a 99% claim success rate, and many have gone the better part of a decade without a CRA review. Every claim is constructed to withstand scrutiny — the possibility of audit shapes every technical and financial decision made along the way.

In addition to client work, she has presented her SR&ED research at the SR&ED Stakeholders Annual Webcast six consecutive times, contributed formally to the Department of Finance’s 2024 national review of the program, and was invited by TMX Group to the Innovation Investment Roundtable as one of the only SR&ED practitioners at the table.

“It’s like buying insurance for your SR&ED claim. Our first SR&ED application was reviewed, assessed and approved without revision or questions in less than 60 days. I know this is a direct result of Elizabeth and her team.”

— Dan G., P.Eng., VP Operations & Strategy, Epixus Inc.

SR&ED Research and Program Authority

In 2011, Elizabeth founded SR&ED Education and Resources (SREDucation.ca) — an independently maintained analysis of the entire SR&ED program, synthesizing all 14 CRA policy documents and more than 200 legal rulings into a single, continuously updated resource. It is free to use.

Maintaining that resource over more than a decade has deepened her understanding of how the program has evolved through litigation, administrative guidance, and policy revision — and where it is heading.

That research has led to ongoing involvement in the forums where the program’s future is debated:

  • Presented at the SR&ED Stakeholders Annual Webcast in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025
  • Contributed to the Department of Finance’s formal 2024 consultations on SR&ED program reform
  • Invited by TMX Group to the Innovation Investment Roundtable as one of the only SR&ED practitioners present
  • Taught the first SR&ED introductory course offered by AJAG Professional Development for Accountants
  • Moderates Canada’s largest SR&ED professional community on LinkedIn, with over 2,500 members

Innovation Management

Sustainable innovation requires the right processes, planning, and organizational frameworks to turn ideas into fundable, defensible R&D. Elizabeth works with organizations to build that infrastructure — from long-term planning documentation and financial modelling to positioning their R&D within the regulatory and funding frameworks that govern it.

As a Prosci Certified Change Management Professional, she recognizes that the human and organizational dimensions of innovation are as consequential as the technical ones, and structures her engagements accordingly.

Her enterprise background in this area includes contributing to the review and alignment of financial models underpinning billion-dollar software replacement programs. She is also a Certified FinOps Practitioner who built cloud expenditure monitoring infrastructure for a major Government of Canada department, delivering real-time visibility into millions of dollars in annual cloud spending where none had previously existed.

Strategic Advisory: reOsiris and Cornell Metals

Elizabeth holds an active strategic role at reOsiris Inc., a Toronto-based environmental engineering company developing proprietary solutions to legacy mine site remediation and zero-waste mining. Her engagement spans grant strategy, long-term planning documentation, financial modelling, ongoing advisory, and SR&ED eligibility assessment. She is currently managing millions of dollars in active grant applications on behalf of the company.

She holds a parallel strategic role with Cornell Metals, an ethical critical metals streaming company focused on recovering value from historic mining waste while restoring degraded land and waterways.

Both roles draw on nearly two decades of authoring technical reports across mining, drilling, hardware, pharmaceutical, and software sectors, and on direct experience navigating the public and private innovation funding frameworks that govern these industries.

Emerging Technologies & AI

Elizabeth is completing a Doctorate in Education in Emerging Technologies and AI, examining how artificial intelligence can detect systemic patterns of policy non-compliance across large, complex institutions — applied currently to Ontario’s publicly funded school system.

This work is operationalized through SchoolBoardResearch.ca, an independent database tracking every Ontario school board’s adherence to Ministry of Education directives on student safety, bullying prevention, progressive discipline, and medical protocols. She contributes research and commentary to the Hold Schools Accountable parent network, where her findings inform province-wide public accountability advocacy.

Her formal teaching credentials — including a Professional Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Strathclyde and a Master of Arts in Music Education from the University of Toronto — give her a practitioner’s grounding in how education systems are designed to function, alongside a researcher’s capacity to measure whether they do.

Academic Credentials

Each of Elizabeth’s credentials reflects a domain she has since examined analytically at a systems level — from education policy to innovation management to computational research methods.

  • Doctorate in Education, Emerging Technologies and AI (in progress)
  • Master of Applied Science, Technology Innovation Management — Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University
  • Master of Arts in Music Education — University of Toronto
  • Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (minor: Communications) — University of Strathclyde
  • Bachelor of Music — Queen’s University
  • Certificate in International Studies — Queen’s University

Professional Certifications:

  • Certified FinOps Practitioner
  • Prosci Certified Change Management Professional

Research

Master of Applied Science in Technology Innovation Management (Carleton University). Thesis: using semi-automated methods (specifically, latent Dirichlet allocation) to explore the evolution of topics in Management Science over a 60 year period. 

Doctorate in Education, Emerging Technologies and AI (in progress) —  Dissertation focus: using artificial intelligence to detect systemic patterns of safe schools policy non-compliance across Ontario’s publicly funded school system.

Awards

Elizabeth has won multiple awards, including, but not limited to:

  • 2021 Influential Businesswoman Awards (2021) SR&ED Champion of the Year. “Elizabeth Lance, Co-Founder of The InGenuity Group, tells us more about her approach and why she is flying the flag for women everywhere in order to help them achieve a positive work/life balance.”  2021 Influential Businesswoman Awards.
  • Forty Under 40 by the Ottawa Business Journal / Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. (2013) “The annual awards program recognizes accomplished industry leaders who are under the age of 40 and also give back to their community. Nominations were assessed according to a 40-point system: 20 points for business achievements, 10 points for expertise and 10 points for community involvement.”
  • Named  one of Ottawa’s 100 Rising Star CEOs by Invest Ottawa (2012) “To be chosen as a Rising Star, the key criteria included creativity, growth of the operation, and overall impact in the community.”
  • Recognized as an “Amazing Woman” in the Business category of CelebrateHER.org (2012). Featured in a week week-long photography installation at Alpha Soul Cafe, 1015 Wellington St. W., Ottawa (March 3-10, 2012) & publicly recognized at the 2nd Annual Celebrate HER Charity Soirée.

Community Engagement

Print & Website

    Speaking Engagements

    Misc

    • Judge. TechLinks Technology Company Showcase. 2013.
    • Next Big Thing. Vanity of the Waltz: Top Business Women. 2013.
    • AVV Biz Talk Radio (Podcast). “We talked about Heineken’s great positive travel disruption, wearable technology and the latest technology, funding, tax credits and more! If you are a company that has technology (everyone) or a technology company looking to raise funds or get tax breaks, listen in.” July 24, 2013.

    The above list is not comprehensive – contact me if you have any questions.

    You may also find current professional development and interactions on my LinkedIn Profile.