L to R, back: Jeff Tekavcic (MaRS Discovery District, Toronto), Debra Jonasson-Young (Asper, UM), Darren Fast (TTO, UM), Teresa Dukes (North Forge, MB), Brian Mark (Science, UM) L to R, front: Elke Schattka (Science, UM), Stefi Baum (Science, UM), Christina Weise (Research Manitoba)
Making an impact
U of M delegation learns how U of T provides innovation and entrepreneurship skills to promising young researchers
On Friday, March 22, a delegation from the University of Manitoba visited the University of Toronto. Their mission? To learn how Canada’s largest university promotes innovation and commercialization of new discoveries. The team visited the Impact Centre, where the Centre’s Director, Dr. Cynthia Goh, discussed ways to mentor promising young scientists to be more entrepreneurial.
The Impact Centre takes researchers with promising ideas and provides them with some basic training care of the Entrepreneurship 101 course in order to set them up for new ventures. Each year, about 15-20 lucky future entrepreneurs get a chance at their own start-up company thanks to Impact.
The delegation also met with Dr. Derek Newton, Vice-President of Innovation, Partnerships & Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto. Newton explained how UofT manages their intellectual property and research collaborations in order to turn ideas into products and services, companies and jobs.
Lastly, the Manitoba delegation met with Mr. Jeff Tekavcic, Senior Manager, MaRS Discovery District. Canada’s largest urban innovation hub, MaRS provides start-up companies with business support and access to resources such as financing and mentoring to launch and grow their companies, ultimately bringing innovation to society.
Armed with this new information, the delegation will apply what they learned in Toronto to their work with stakeholders in Manitoba. Their goal? To promote entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Science and help interested researchers commercialize their ideas.