Innovation Guelph has now been operating one full year in the City of Guelph. Located in St George’s Square, two floors up from the Downtown Guelph Business Association, on the same floor as the Guelph Wellington Business Enterprise Centre, Innovation Guelph adds innovation support services to Guelph’s business district.
The first year of operation had Innovation Guelph operating as a project of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber will continue to provide connections into Guelph’s business community and look for opportunities for Guelph’s businesses to take advantage of the programs of Innovation Guelph. Innovation Guelph has just been registered as a stand-alone community benefit (not for profit) organization with its own Board of Directors. As a part of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE), Innovation Guelph connects to 14 similar organizations across the province funded by the province’s Department of Economic Development and Innovation. The suite of services offered fall into two groups: Business Acceleration Programs (BAP), and Industry Academic Collaboration Programs (IACP), Programs offered under BAP include complimentary entrepreneur in residence support services, connections to entrepreneurship training through MaRS in Toronto, mentorship opportunities, and connections to angel investor and venture capital markets. The intention is to help early stage innovation companies to commercialize their ideas, and accelerate their growth. IACP programs include connecting research from within businesses to research at any of Ontario’s colleges or universities to form collaborations between business and researchers. These programs apply to all types of businesses, from startup to multinational, and provide financial support for researchers through Ontario Centres of Excellence or federally through NSERC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Innovation Guelph has worked with over 100 businesses in its first year, and has assisted in attracting over $1.5m in funding for support of business development in Guelph. Most of the early success has been though support of clean technologies, focused on development of water conservation or treatment. The Walkerton Clean Water Centre has opened an office within Innovation Guelph due to these early successes. Other projects include advanced manufacturing, IT development, and biotechnology. Much of the work is under confidentiality agreements, so flies under the radar. If you have an idea you think is worth exploring, that involves innovation, potential patents, job creation and economic development of an Ontario based business, Innovation Guelph would love to hear from you. For more information, drop a note under the Contact Us section of the website www.innovationguelph.ca or call the office at 519-265-4495.
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