Ontario colleges get innovation boost with $10-million in provincial funding

Ontario is taking a major step in support of college-based innovation with a $10-million investment in a network along the Ottawa-Windsor corridor which it hopes will eventually include all 24 colleges in the province. The Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII) is expanding at a time when Ontario's small businesses are feeling the bite of the recession — a time many consider to be ideal for getting a long-term leg up on the competition.

The provincial investment announced in the recent Budget extends CONII beyond its $3.5-million, three-year pilot phase (ending October 31/09). With its sights firmly locked onto eight broad areas of technology, CONII has already generated considerable industry feedback and collaboration, with 143 projects fully completed by the end of its second year (Oct 31/08). With the recession taking hold since that time, it's anticipated that demand will only increase.

Nearly 250 faculty and 740 students have been involved in CONII-funded projects since its inception and ties have been established with 14 colleges and universities outside the Network. Negotiations among the colleges and with the Ministry of Research and Innovation should result in the development of strong operational and sustainability plans by the fall.

Applied R&D was made an official component of Ontario college mandates in 2002.

Katherine Jenzen, VP research and innovation at Toronto's Seneca College and chair of the CONII steering committee, says the concept of pooling resources and developing niche expertise at individual colleges constitutes a powerful case for collaboration with industry.

"Colleges have a long and strong association with SMEs and they need technical assistance. The problem is that operating budgets are for teaching only. We need to find other sources of revenue," says Janzen. "The NSERC college program is a huge help but it's hard to move quickly to address SME problems and SMEs typically have no resources to innovate."

The NSERC College and Community Innovation program also started as a pilot in 2004 and was fully funded in 2007, with the first competition held last year (R$, March 26/07 & February 8/08).

Under CONII, each participating college is required to establish an industry innovation centre to serve as a point of entry for companies seeking applied research assistance.

The Network also supports researchers and students with proof of principle and fellowship funding. CONII worked with the S&T sub-committee of Colleges Ontario — an advocacy organization for the province's colleges of applied arts and technology — to negotiate with the provincial government and develop the latest funding proposals. Janzen says that while the government fully funded the group's request, it was scaled back from $35 million during negotiations.

"Each innovation centre can do due diligence and assessments (of project proposals) and then a college can either do the project itself or turn it over to another college that can," says Janzen.

Different levels of membership are being explored and there are requests from five or six more colleges to join the Network. The aim is to have another four or five join CONII in the coming months.

"This is fabulous," says Mark Hoddenbach, director of applied research and innovation at Ottawa's Algonquin College. "The province for 30 years has not considered colleges in the innovation agenda so this is the first step in redressing that fundamental error. The $10 million is to expand CONII to all provincial colleges. It will take time to get there."

In recent months, Algonquin has received $70 million in federal and provincial funding to build a Centre for Construction Trades and Building Sciences, propelling it into the forefront of applied research underpinning environmentally sustainable construction technologies and techniques.

R$