ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIPS:
What is it: Local businesses need applied R&D (research and development) support to bring new ideas to life. Academic institutions need “real world” experience for their students (4th year undergraduates to PhD level technical and business students).
“Capstone” undergraduate projects at UBC Okanagan, and Mitacs R&D support programs help fund technical/business students from academic partners such as UBCO (University of BC Okanagan in Kelowna) to work on your local R&D opportunities, so that local businesses and entrepreneurs can validate their ideas and bring products/processes to market faster.
Value: local businesses/entrepreneurs can access mad brains at academic partners (students, instructors, PhDs and their labs) for free, or at highly subsidized rates, to complete research and product development. This saves money, adds incredible growth potential to companies, and also works as an attraction retention strategy — making others aware of our region’s entrepreneurial opportunities.
Have a business that needs specialized R&D? Academic institution looking for industry partnerships? Contact us!
Case Study: Capstone project Sept 2015 – April 2016: a local business needed specialized mechanical engineering and lab access. Through a Capstone project the business was assigned five 4th year mechanical engineering students, an overseeing professor and lab access (MIDAS and UBCO) to complete tests on a manufacturing process. If successful this process will significantly reduce costs and waste, improve process efficiency and introduce a significant industry process advancement. The company retains the Intellectual Property (IP), can commercialize (profit from) the findings and the academic partner has offered the required project to graduate students and will publish a paper.