The Centres of Excellence for the Commercialization of Research

Speeding commercialization

In its Budget 2007, the Government of Canada praised the NCE program's efforts in translating knowledge into products, policies and services. It also announced plans to foster more “partnerships between research institutions, government and industry.”

The same year, the Government released Mobilizing science and Technology to Canada's Advantage, which called for the creation of new private-sector-led networks.

Operating as the secretariat for this important national initiative, the NCE launched the first Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) Competition – worth $165 million – in June of 2007. This competition sought out applications from groups and organizations capable of speeding the progress of commercialization – especially for research underway in health, information and communications technology, the environment, and energy and natural resources.

More than 100 groups submitted letters of intent; the NCE invited 25 of these to make full proposals. A private sector advisory board evaluated each proposal, paying close attention to the applicant's ability to:

• Create, grow and retain Canadian companies that can capture new markets with breakthrough innovations; and
• Accelerate the commercialization of leading-edge technologies, goods, and services.

The full slate of 11 CECRs was unveiled in February of 2008. Each is funded for five years.

CECR	Host site	Fundings	Goal
Advanced Applied Physics Solutions Inc. - AAPS	TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vancouver	$14.95 million	To collaborate with academic, government, and industry stakeholders in developing promising technologies emerging from worldwide subatomic physics research to the commercially viable stage.
Bioindustrial Innovation Centre - BIC	University of Western Ontario's Sarnia-Lambton Research Park, Sarnia	$14.95 million	To enable Canada to become a global leader in green energy by taking renewable resources, such as agricultural and forestry by-products, and turning them into energy and chemicals for use in applications ranging from construction to automotive parts.
Centre for the Commercialization of Research - CCR	Ontario Centres of Excellence, Ottawa	$14.95 million	To generate economic benefits for Canada through the successful commercialization of technologies originating in Canadian universities, colleges and research hospitals.
Centre for Drug Research and Development - CDRD	University of British Columbia, Vancouver	$14.95 million	To advance promising medical discoveries from academia to a commercially attractive stage, and to build a collaborative research infrastructure to increase research and development capacity in British Columbia.
Centre of Excellence in Personalized Medicine - CEPMed	The Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal	$13.8 million	To lead in the optimization of personalized treatment. The integration of pharmacogenomics and biomarkers into drug development will enable the proper drug to be prescribed to the proper patient, at the proper dosage, right from the start.
Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization - CPDC	McMaster University's Innovation Park, Hamilton	$14.95 million	To ensure that Canadian efforts to create the next generation of probes to target a wide range of diseases are translated into products that will provide more effective diagnosis and treatment options.
Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer - IRIC/CECR in Therapeutics Discovery - IRICoR	Université de Montréal, Montreal	$14.95 million	To accelerate the development of new targeted cancer therapies by supporting the discovery portfolio and technological platforms developed at the Unit for the Discovery of Medicines at the Université de Montréal and linking them with partners.
MaRS Innovation - MI	The MaRS Centre, Toronto	$14.95 million	To help turn research strengths of the downtown Toronto MaRS Discovery District – anchored by major teaching hospitals, the University of Toronto and several research institutes – into economic opportunities through collaboration on commercialization.
The Prostate Centre's Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development - PC-TRIADD	Prostate Centre at Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver	$14.95 million	To integrate critical components of translational research under one organization, allowing seamless management of the complex processes involved in discovery, preclinical development and clinical research.
Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise - PREVENT	University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, Saskatoon	$14.95 million	To strengthen the global competitiveness of Canada's vaccine industry by partnering with Canadian stakeholders in early-stage vaccine development and accelerate the rate at which essential vaccines successfully reach the marketplace.
Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF Centre)	University of British Columbia and the iCAPTURE Centre at St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver	$14.95 million	To find practical solutions to vital organ failure and its impact on Canadians and our health care system, improving the standard of care and quality of life for patients faced with heart, lung and kidney failure.