At the 6th Annual OES, an initial dialogue was started around the subject of how to enhance business-academia collaborations. Participants identified the need to create a more effective framework to help sustain a creative and innovative spirit in Ontario, essential if we are to remain globally competitive. The result: the launch of “Connect to Innovate”.

The OES partnered with the Council of Ontario Universities, VPs of Research and local chambers to develop a series of workshops aiming to bridge the gap between universities and the business community. London, Sudbury and the York Region were targeted for the pilot workshops this spring.

Key issues addressed included:

• Primary point of contact at universities: To whom should business reach out?
• Timelines: What can business expect in terms of getting an answer of yes or no about a research collaboration with the university?
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): How universities negotiate IPR – who owns what?
• Fees: What fees should a company expect to pay for university research and how are fees calculated?
• Long-term benefits of collaboration: What has been the upside in terms of growing the business?
• Key recommendations: How can the landscape be improved so that universities and businesses partner more effectively and improve collaborative activities?

Please read the Connect to Innovate final report* to learn more.

* The report includes similarities and differences between regions/cities, key findings and recommendations.

Tags: commercialization, Ontario economy

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 11:36 am and is filed under Summit Sizzles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.