IBM Canada is deepening its commitment to Ontario with a multi-faceted project that leverages its investments in the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) and ties together 14 academic institutions and at least five incubators across the province.

The IBM Innovation Incubator (I3) project will receive $22.75 million from the province through the Strategic Partnerships Stream of its Jobs and Prosperity Fund while IBM is making an in-kind contribution of equipment and expertise valued at $24.75 million.

OCE officials calculate the project will leverage $410 million in additional investment and up to 2,600 new jobs by assisting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in four key areas: commercialization support and programs; direct support for SOSCIP projects including post-doctoral fellows; partnerships to create innovation ecosystem support and programs and access to IBM technology platforms; and, skills development and training.

"It's definitely a large program. There's a need for platforms that are cross-sectoral that support any type of applications," says OCE president and CEO Dr Tom Corr. "This project will provide access to artificial intelligence technologies and cognitive computing which is growing rapidly. We need to move the sector forward or be left behind."

In the area of commercialization, the I3 project will provide SMEs with smart computing resources for products and services development and demonstrations, a data analytics internships program for adopting and implementing technologies and a soft landing program.

The DMZ at Ryerson Univ is the first announced incubator under I3 with at least four more to be announced in the coming weeks.

IBM has established several similar initiatives globally but the I3 project is the first of its kind in Canada. For its part, the province describes its contribution as the largest investment in public infrastructure in Ontario's history.

"The project will provide unique access to these resources like IBM Watson and IBM Extreme Blue," says Claudia Krywiak, OCEs VP corporate planning and development who negotiated the agreement with IBM. "It will be a network and virtual incubation platform that runs province-wide platforms … The allocation of funding will go to participating institutions and accelerators and as many as 500 SMEs."

The I3 project is part of the Ontario-IBM-backed SOSCIP consortium. It was launched in 2012 linking several high performance computing installations for advanced research, and cloud and agile computing to stimulate the development of new industries in key areas of the provincial economy (R$, April 17/12).

"This is a stream within SOSCIP and a continuation of that but it provides more options," says Corr. "This plays to OCEs strengths. We've funded 11 incubators through the Campus Linked Accelerators program and the SmartStart Seed Fund."

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