Winnipeg Free Press: ‘Boot camp’ for grad students fosters entrepreneurship
As the Winnipeg Free Press reports:
Universities in Canada are becoming increasingly aware that technologies originating from the academic institutions are not making it into the commercial realm, despite the fact that the actual research is world class.
In the latest effort to buck that trend the first cohort from the University of Manitoba showed off its work in a program that is in the process of going national, called Lab2Market.
The U of M joins Dalhousie, Memorial and Ryerson universities in this 16-week “boot camp” for graduate students who believe the research they are engaged in has commercial potential.
Darren Fast, director of the U of M’s partnerships and innovation office (formerly called the technology transfer office) said the program has been in the works since 2016 and recently received funding from PrairiesCan (formerly Western Economic Diversification).
Of the 13 teams that presented — the teams include a full-time graduate student involved in tech-based university research and an associated faculty member — 10 were connected to the U of M.