ÉTS and McGill collaborate to establish Montreal innovation district in former industrial area of Griffintown

Montreal engineering school École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) is teaming with McGill Univ to develop a unique innovation district that it hopes will become a successful model for holistic innovation. The Quartier de l'Innovation (QI) or Innovation District aims to combine industry-focused academic research with private sector, urban and socio-cultural components to establish an entrepreneurially based community in a former industrial area called Griffintown, just south of Montreal's main business hub.

Under development since 2009, QI goes beyond the models of science/technology parks and urban/science parks by incorporating social and cultural elements that will make the zone an optimal area for innovative contact. ÉTS has invested heavily in the area since its relocation there in 1997, with $2.5 billion in construction underway and billions more being planned.

The QI will build upon those investments to create a world-scale innovation ecosystem in which residents, companies and service activities blend into a coherent whole. It is working towards an official launch next spring with a business plan slated for completion this fall.

"Urban parks empty out at 5 p.m. The unique aspect of QI is the addition of living space which will attract other types of companies (than technology-based firms) and a new breed of urban workers," says ÉTS CEO Dr Yves Beauchamp. "There are seven universities in Montreal and we will work with McGill to start. We have two different cultures so it's an innovation to work together. The door is not closed closed to the others once we get going."

McGill Univ committed to the project in 2010 at the urging of its president, Dr Heather Monroe-Blum who visited the ÉTS campus several times and held strategic discussions with Beauchamp. As the largest post secondary institution in the region, McGill established a steering committee and selected Dr Phil Barker to lead McGill's internal management of the planning process.

"We scanned cities around the world and the ones that succeed are those with the ability to generate a sense of neighbourhood and sustainability," says Dr Phil Barker, a McGill professor and interim director of the Montreal Neurological Institute. "QI will allow a broad swath of SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) to participate in a concrete way as well as NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in social innovation projects. It will have a strong pro-entrepreneurship focus."

The ÉTS-McGill collaboration on QI is viewed as complementary rather than competitive, given their differing emphasis on research and education. The smaller ÉTS has a board of directors with strong industry representation and 75% of its research activities are linked with industry - far higher than the 15% national average. ÉTS students are trained to be hands-on-engineers with strong technical skills and professors must have industrial experience.

"McGill is upstream whereas ÉTS is downstream and we cover the full spectrum of innovation when we work together," says Beauchamp. "For McGill, they don't plan to move part of their campus down here. It's more of their playground to interact with SMEs and support innovation."

other models

Over the past year, McGill and ÉTS examined several other innovation districts in North America and Europe, including the Boston Innovation District along the South Boston waterfront, the MaRS Innovation District in downtown Toronto, Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute on New York City's Roosevelt Island, the GIANT project in Grenoble France and Silicon Valley. Beauchamp says that while these districts all have major strengths, none is as all-encompassing as QI.

The district that comes closest to the QI model is 22@Barcelona, a massive development that's been more than 12 years in development. Over the time 22@ Barcelona has attracted 1,400 companies and 40,000 jobs but it has a weak social and cultural co ponent resulting in a mass exodus at the end of each working day.

Six cities that have developed innovation districts have been invited to the second annual Montreal Summit on Innovation in late October (www.smi-msi.com), which has a specific focus on innovation districts.

"These are all areas trying similar initiatives to QI. We want to come up with a list of factors that make their projects work. There will be benchmarking and the creation of links with other districts to export expertise and vice versa," says Beauchamp.

To date, QI has received only modest public support. In the early stages, it received slightly over $1 million from the governments of Canada, Quebec and Montreal to conduct studies on governance and develop the vision for the project. Once QI establishes offices, it may approach governments to provide support for staffing. The bulk of funding will come with development as it occurs. QI will initially be situated in two buildings located on the ÉTS campus dubbed INGO 1 and INGO II.The first phase has already been completed and INGO II is being renovated.

"The Innovation Centre is just complete. It has 70,000 square feet available but limited to SMEs or the innovation arms of larger companies," says Beauchamp.

"Development in the area is already happening but we want to influence it to make it optimal for innovation. We are right on the edge of downtown Montreal (and) the timing is good," says Beauchamp. "We are in the sweet spot. It's our strength."

huge potential

QI's potential as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurial activity is immense. In addition to the presence of ÉTS, Griffintown is close to Cité du Multimédia, a major information technology cluster with an estimated 350 companies and 20,000 workers within a 1 km radius. It's also near the city's financial district and a growing concentration of artists and other creative types. With an infusion of new companies, professional services and retail are expected to follow.

Beauchamp says that property values are already climbing in the area, with an upswing in condo development that could threaten to swamp the area, forcing many to move elsewhere. To avoid the kind of massive gentrification that has plagued other innovation districts, at least 15% of apartments will be geared to lower incomes to ensure that a wide mix of people, professions and activities remains viable.

"It will be a place to live, work, learn and be entertained, which will establish the base for a creative community and ecosystem for innovation," he says. "Innovation is a contact activity to which we have decided to mobilize various players to develop a mixed-use area."

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