Ontario Centres of Excellence, now in its sixth year, is a non-profit corporation formed from the amalgamation of four pre-existing Centres of Excellence. The previous focuses were Communications and Information Technology, Earth and Environmental Technologies, Materials and Manufacturing, and Photonics, with the subsequent addition of Energy as a fifth department, and most recently, a federally funded Centre for Commercialization of Research (CCR).
The goal of the merger was for OCE to play a larger role in delivering the province’s innovation and competitiveness goals. An “Innovation Agenda,” set forth by John Wilkinson, the previous Minister of Research and Innovation (MRI), proposes to create a culture of innovation that fuels the creativity of people and successfully markets their ideas to the world. Above all, the agenda was designed to ensure that innovation related programs and activities extract value and create measurable benefits for the province.
As part of the Innovation Agenda, Minister Wilkinson announced in June 2009 the creation of the new Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE). Within this new Network, OCE will play a key role working with the Ministry, Ontario’s universities and colleges and other stakeholders to build an integrated, world-class and client-focused platform, providing greater access to programs, resources and expertise.
— Excerpted from OCE Chair David McFadden’s preface to the 2008-09 Annual Report
Excerpts from Minister John Wilkinson’s speech, June 24, 2009
Many new ideas emerge from the work of individuals within Ontario’s universities, who in the course of their research come across a better way of doing something and would like to take it to market. Networks have grown up around the province, of university departments, funding agencies and others to support that research, development and commercialization of innovation. OCE and the MaRS centre (see “Take your idea to MaRS, page 26) are the chief among them, supporting R&D at one end, and commercialization at the other, respectively. Former Minister Wilkinson, in a speech in June 2009, proposed the creation of a Network of Excellence to gather all such activities under one umbrella, to simplify matters for the entrepreneur seeking support for his or her innovation, at whatever stage is needed.
“A new, single, coordinated, and better-connected innovation Network would give Ontario’s home team a strong ‘coaching staff’ ... an advisory board of successful innovators and leaders from Ontario’s business, investment and research communities. An advisory board would make sure that the focus of ONE remains on the people that it is designed to serve: the clients.
“ONE would be far more strategic. Programs would be streamlined and developed centrally, making it easier for innovators – and service providers alike – to access, understand, navigate and collaborate.
“The idea is that there would now be one network and one place to go for information… but with multiple points of entry. And from a client’s perspective, what we are proposing means that there will now be four core programs – instead of twelve.
“First, there would be a program to support industry-academic collaborations across the province ... bringing together this province’s research and entrepreneurial talent to generate new business and new products. The Ontario Centres of Excellence has over two decades of success in building these kinds of collaborations ... and for that reason we’ve asked OCE to lead this program as part of the new, ONE network.
“Second, there will be a program to support innovative Ontario-based companies dedicated to bringing new technologies to market. That includes start-ups with a great idea... or larger firms with their sights set on conquering global markets. MaRS has a track record of success delivering entrepreneurial advice across the province through programs like their ‘entrepreneurs-in-residence.’ And for that reason we’ve asked them to take this success to the next level by leading the new Business Acceleration Program across Ontario, as part of the ONE network.
“Third, and equally as important, will be the regional organizations across the province that will deliver these core programs. The expert panel was clear in their advice: the regional innovation network is a tremendous strength, and one that we need to strengthen even further. They’re the folks who know who the innovators in their local communities are, and what they need to succeed. That’s critical for a client-focused network. And, that’s why this principle – central co-ordination and regional delivery – will be the mantra of the new ONE. The regional organizations would be the local face of ONE, delivering the core programs, building connections, and contributing to regional economic development. Working together, these organizations would form a ‘mesh network.’
“Fourth, and finally, the Ministry of Research and Innovation will continue to provide strategic funding through initiatives like our highly successful Innovation Demonstration Fund.”
Some OCE landmarks
In 2008 – 09 the Ontario Centres of Excellence:
• Invested $29.3 million in 635 projects and leveraged $44.7 million from industry partners in further investments
• Connected 4,500 researchers and students with 752 companies
• Engaged 713 researchers and co-investigators
• Involved 38 colleges, universities, research hospitals in OCE projects
• Launched 22 startup companies, bringing the total number of active OCE startup companies to 121
• Established 37 new technology licenses, with a total of 135 active licenses
• Counts 635 active projects, of which 64 are in energy technologies
• In 2009 the Connections program engaged 1,500 students from 20 universities and colleges across Ontario in more than 310 industry projects
— Excerpted from OCE’s 2008-09 annual report
OCE Programs
Under the Industry-Academic Collaboration Program (IACP), OCE has programs in three classes:
Collaborative Commercialization programs address technical industry challenges through collaborative research connecting industry with Ontario’s publicly-funded research institutions. These programs include:
• Technical Problem Solving involves short-term projects between industry and academia that address specific technical challenges identified by industry.
• Collaborative Research supports collaborative projects with emphasis on significant technical challenges with demonstrated market-pull and potential impact for market development on a provincial, national or international scale.
• Market Readiness supports projects where there is an opportunity for a new start-up company or a new division of an existing firm to create new jobs.
OCE’s Talent programs prepare college and university graduates to hit the ground running in business and in industry, developing tomorrow’s workforce from college and university undergrads to graduate students to post doctoral. The five Talent programs are:
• Connections partners undergraduate and college students in science, engineering, and other technical programs with technology-based industry clients.
• Value-Added Personnel (VAP) provides entrepreneurship and business-skills training to Ontario science, technology and engineering students.
• Outreach Scholarship increases the impact of Ontario’s research and provides industry clients and entrepreneurs with access to a wider pool of knowledge and expertise.
• Entrepreneurship Development supports Ontario academic institutions to develop and run specialized project-based graduate programs in Entrepreneurship. This program also supports the best new entrepreneurs to come out of academia through the Martin Walmsley Award.
• First Job is a salary-sharing program for new science and technology graduates starting R&D jobs with Ontario technology-based companies.
Currently under development, the Technology Transfer Partnerships component will offer programs designed to accelerate the two-way flow of people and ideas between the research environment and business sector.
For other articles in this feature, see the following related stories:
• Ontario research companies taking on the world
• Feature interview with Tom Corr, the new President of OCE
• Ontario Centres of Excellence - ready to respond
• Ontario’s burgeoning research infrastructure
• Stories on the MaRS centre , Making the grid even smarter and biomass work at Atikokan
• How to get more value out of a transmission line / Pushing the limits of what the grid can carry