Topic: Commercialization

Medical cannabis entrepreneur donates $1 million to CETAC-WEST

Medical marijuana pioneer Brent Zettl has donated $1 million to Calgary-based Canadian Environmental Technology Advancement Corporation (CETAC)-WEST, a private, not-for-profit corporation that helped the Saskatoon businessman co-found the plant biotechnology firm Prairie Plant Systems in 1999. Prairie Plant Systems was later awarded Canada’s first contract to produce medical cannabis. Zettl also served as CEO of…

Five CECRs receive $78.9 million in new funding in competition geared towards existing centres

The federal government has finally announced the results of last year’s competition for existing Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR), with five returning centres sharing $78.9 million over five years. The successful CECRs were chosen from a field of 25 letters of intent and 10 full applications, all of which were previously or are currently receiving funding through the program.

TRIUMF business arm looking into broader industry collaborations

Can science and business fruitfully cohabitate? It’s possible. And it’s happening in a Vancouver university campus where physicists can be found hard at work on their cyclotron particle accelerator in one room while industry people are in another room testing for radiation particles. These are common-day activities in TRIUMF, one of Canada’s large-scale research facilities, which is home to hundreds of researchers from academia, other research institutes and industry from across Canada and around the world.

Study to review national model for offering start-ups free IP advice

A Waterloo policy think tank founded by former Blackberry executive Jim Balsillie is funding a new study that will examine how start-ups can get access to free intellectual property legal services across Canada. The one-year project is examining the success of the Innovation Clinic at York Univ’s Osgoode Hall Law School, with a view to replicating the model nationally.

Leveraging ocean science as an innovation engine for Atlantic Canada

RE$EARCH MONEY editor Mark Henderson recently spoke to John Risley, Nova Scotia’s widely-recognized seafood baron and one of the province’s most influential corporate citizens, about Atlantic Canada’s strategy and prospects for becoming a global innovation hub of ocean-related science.