Government of Canada Invests in Commercialization Centres Support to Ensure More Ideas Get to Market

KITCHENER, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 13, 2013) - The Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology, today announced the results of a recent competition held by the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) program. Three centres, including the Canadian Digital Media Network, will receive additional funding to advance commercialization in digital communications and environmental related technologies.

"The Government of Canada invests in federal R&D to support jobs, growth and the long-term prosperity of all our communities right across Canada, including right here in the Waterloo region," said Minister of State Rickford. "The Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research program helps bridge the gap between ideas and the marketplace, providing funding for product and business development early in the innovation process, when it can often be more difficult to attract the private investment needed to secure the development of products to that next stage of growth."

Grants totalling $22.2 million over five years have been awarded to centres across Canada, which also include GreenCentre Canada and the Ocean Networks Canada Innovation Centre.

The CECR program matches clusters of research expertise with the business community to share the knowledge and resources that bring innovative products and processes to market faster. The program invests $30 million per year in Canadian innovation, through a portfolio of 21 active centres across the country. Since 2008, CECRs have helped launch more than 100 new companies and have leveraged $420 million in partner contributions.

"One of the strengths of this program is the high level of private sector involvement, both in the operation of each centre and in the peer review process," said Janet Walden, Chief Operating Officer of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. "This helps ensure that the program will bring Canadian research breakthroughs to market in the short term, and that the centres will sustain their impact after the government funding period has ended."

The centres receiving additional funding through this competition were launched in 2009. The Canadian Digital Media Network, based in Kitchener, connects entrepreneurs, companies, and research institutes together to speed up the delivery of digital solutions to the marketplace.

The Networks of Centres of Excellence, which manages the CECR program, operates a suite of national funding programs on behalf of the three federal granting agencies-the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-in partnership with Industry Canada and Health Canada. NCE programs support large scale, multi-disciplinary collaborations between universities, industry, government and not-for-profit organizations, which focus Canada's research capacity on economic and social challenges, help commercialize and apply research breakthroughs, increase private-sector R&D, and train highly qualified people.