OCE partners with industry and Academia to commercialize innovation originating in the province’s
publicly funded colleges, universities and research hospitals. At WIMTACH, OCE supports Early-stage
projects with substantial probability of commercial success and potential total return on innovation. All
these activities contribute to Ontario’s economy by helping create new jobs, technologies and
businesses.
NSERC has the vision to make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators; benefiting all Canadians
in the process. The agency has been supporting Applied Research at Centennial College over the past
several years. In 2010, Centennial College received $200,000 (2010-2012) from an NSERC entry level
Innovation Enhancement (IE) grant for Healthcare Technologies that augmented the number of industry
partners served and the quality of projects. Another five year IE grant worth $2.2M was received in 2011
for “Technology Solutions for Healthcare Management and Health Research and Promotion”, which, by
2014, had supported 60 industry partners to develop 40 digital healthcare products that integrated
software engineering, interactive simulation and gaming applications for patient education and self-
management of chronic conditions. 30 of these have been commercialized and successfully brought to
market. In 2012, Centennial received a five year IE grant of $2.3M for projects in the Renewable Energy
sector.
NRC-IRAP is Canada's premier innovation assistance program aimed at helping small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Being a vital component of the NRC, this program is a cornerstone in Canada's
innovation system and is regarded world-wide as one of the best programs of its kind. IRAP actively
funds projects at WIMTACH, helping SMEs on the path to commercialization.
To meet mobile application development needs, a partnership has already been established with
WaveFront, a Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE)-approved Centre of Excellence for
Commercialization and Research (CECR), which provides WIMTACH with a library of the latest mobile
devices to develop and test on mobile applications.
