Ontario colleges form innovation network

Ten of Ontario's colleges have joined forces to create the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII) to accelerate technological innovation and the movement of products and services toward the market. The colleges –—Algonquin, Centennial, Conestoga, Fanshawe, George Brown, Humber, Niagra, St Clair, Seneca and Sheridan — are located along the Ottawa-Windsor technology corridor. Each college will have an industry innovation centre and will link into a central database so that companies can be directed to an appropriate expert regardless of location. CONII is funded by the Ministry of Research and Innovation's Ontario Research Commercialization Program, with $3.5 million over three years including $609,000 for proof-of-principle R&D projects. CONII is also linked into the Ontario Centres of Excellence program. It is designed to encourage colleges to collaborate rather than compete and aims to complete 50 applied research projects by the end of 2009. It targets alternative energy, environmental technologies, construction, digital media, health and life sciences, hospitality and tourism, manufacturing and materials, viticulture and agri-business and information and communication technologies....