Visual Tour of Centennial Science and Tech Centre

The Applied Research and Innovation Centre, located at Centennial College’s Morningside campus, opened its doors in 2004 with funding received from an Ontario Innovation Trust infrastructure grant. Since its inception, the Centre has worked to foster a culture of research and innovation throughout the College community by supporting faculty and staff research projects and work with Ontario Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to help design, develop and launch market-ready solutions in partnership with Centennial’s faculty, staff and students.

Colleges Bring Market-Pull Innovation to Canada SMEs

Collaborations in applied research between Ontario (Canada) colleges and businesses are stimulating new R&D activity and spending by businesses—
and leading to actual innovations— that would not have occurred without college expertise and funding, according to a study by The Conference Board of Canada.

Moreover, the Board reports, “Ontario colleges are helping businesses and other organizations create new and improved products, services, and processes much more quickly, and with greater quality, than they otherwise would have been able to achieve without college support.” Currently, 20 out of 24 publicly funded colleges in Ontario incorporate a network of innovation centers called CONII–Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (http://www.conii.ca). The centers provide one-stop assistance for innovators. Their unusual innovation model was described to CIMS Sponsors at their Fall 2010 meeting by Trish Dryden, AVP Research and Corporate Planning at Centennial College, one of CONII’s founding colleges.

Call for FedDev Proposals: Industry Outreach Events

To raise awareness among small and medium-sized Ontario businesses about an opportunity to gain competitive advantage through joint pre-commercialization projects with Centennial, the Applied Research and Innovation Centre (ARIC) hosted two industry outreach events on February 24 and March 3, 2011. These workshops were information sessions on the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative sponsored by FedDev Ontario. Centennial had received $525K to fund ten partnership projects through FedDev.

2011 Biotechnology Lecture Series

On March 8th and 9th 2011, Centennial College presented a Biotechnology Lecture Series in collaboration with Bioscience Education Canada. This lecture series hosted a dynamic group of speakers from all areas of the biotechnology industry in Canada, as well as some nationally recognized bioscience educators, to speak about cutting-edge research and the latest breakthroughs in the field of biotechnology.

OCE Discovery 2011

As part of the OCE Discovery 2011 focus on technology transfer partnerships, Centennial College’s Trish Dryden, and Blue Heron’s John Tuerk, participated in a panel discussion highlighting successful business partnerships with Ontario’s innovation network, a network which includes colleges, universities and research hospitals. Centennial College and Blue Heron have worked together on a number of innovative projects and continue to partner in the development of cutting-edge green technologies