News Release: Colleges are calling for the Ontario government to make upfront investments of $30 million into market-driven research to promote industry clusters throughout the province.
“Colleges play a central role in real-world research to help businesses become more innovative,” said George Burton, President and CEO at Canadore College. “We strongly feel that a commitment to enhance innovation in Ontario should be a priority in this year’s provincial budget.”
In order to support competitiveness and job creation in key industry clusters, colleges are urging Ontario to establish a new $30-million, multi-year competitive fund for college-based industry cluster experts. This will allow colleges to work with key industry clusters on a sustained basis to solve industry-defined applied research challenges.
It is well-recognized that Ontario has a poor innovation track record compared to international leaders. Indeed, only three per cent of Ontario businesses perform any research, and the record suggests their performance on other innovation indicators is also lacking.
The federal government has increased funding for college applied research. However, there is a need for increased provincial support. Providing advance investments will ensure that research gets started immediately to strengthen innovation, particularly in small and medium-sized businesses.
Colleges are increasingly playing a critical role in encouraging more small businesses to innovate. Each year, Ontario colleges work with more than 750 companies to pursue market-driven applied research activities and with about 80 organizations on projects which address provincial socioeconomic priorities.
At least half of these businesses plan to pursue further applied research with colleges, and significant numbers report higher sales and new job creation, due to new and improved products and production as a result of their college collaboration.
Participation in applied research also enriches students’ experiential learning while supporting commercialization work at small and emerging businesses.
By requiring industry partners to match funds, colleges will be able to bring firms together to collaborate on new innovations. Investments in college-specific applied research projects will also strengthen the province’s export opportunities.
