26 February 2009

GBC Research Labs awarded CCI funding

The GBC Research Labs proposal to the first round of the NSERC College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program has been approved. Read the NSERC press release.

The program and the award were announced last night at a special event as part of the ACCC Applied Research Symposium (I'll post a full report on this later.)

We are looking forward to initiating our work as outlined in the proposal, and continuing our capacity development for applied research complementarity in the Toronto region.

Here is our proposal summary:
George Brown College (GBC) is developing its applied research, innovation and commercialization capacity by creating the GBC Research Labs to serve the needs of industry and community partners. Our core areas of research are health & information technologies and health promotion, which are well-aligned with GBC's Strategic Plan and the needs of these significant local sectors. Continuing and proposed projects emphasize multidisciplinary problem-solving and opportunity development for industry in our region, and investigate: health systems change management, utilization and human services; health promotion; medical devices, prosthetics and aids; and, prototyping for health technology development and health informatics. We conduct research in collaboration with SMEs, larger companies, health care agencies and other research institutes. We help foster adoption of new devices and systems, better patient outcomes as well as adaptation and integration of new technologies/practices into health care and health promotion. CCI funds, most importantly, will enable us to more adequately release faculty to work on current/new projects and engage with industry partners. It will also provide for student stipends, the development of a Research Partnerships Portal and the implementation of our SME Engagement Plan. Local industry will benefit from a suite of Innovation Support Services to help accelerate the innovation-to-market cycle, including: Innovation Receptor Support Services (Problem/ Opportunity Identification, Faculty/Industry Brokering, Concept Development, Market Research, and Team Mobilization); Multidisciplinary Collaborative Problem-Solving (multidisciplinary assessment on design and prototype development, validating usability and testing market potential); and, Innovation-Market Assessment Services (evaluating usability/market demand and strategic fit with potential investors). Our motivated faculty and students, various unique facilities, strong industry partnerships and leadership in applied research capacity development at the national and provincial levels position us well to strongly leverage CCI program support to further the growth of applied research, innovation and commercialization at George Brown College.
As I noted during my presentation at the symposium, I will be making our full proposal publicly available as part of our website. Please contact me if you would like a copy in the meantime.

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