Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Through the Copyright and Invention Policies, the Vice-President, Research and Innovation supports the dissemination of new knowledge, innovations and research outputs for improved social, health, environment, and economic outcomes

Innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship are thriving at U of T.

The University supports and encourages the translation and mobilization of knowledge and has expanded its campus-based programs and initiatives to assist and encourage the growing number of entrepreneurial faculty and students. In addition, the University has strengthened existing partnerships and built new alliances to further enhance our ability to bring U of T innovations to the world and turn ideas and intellectual property into new companies, products, services and jobs.

Our goal through the CLA ecosystem is to harness our critical mass of talent and research excellence through entrepreneurship education to create opportunities for our students and to lead in the translation of new knowledge for social and economic good

U of T’s vibrant innovation ecosystem includes the Innovations & Partnerships Office (IPO), the Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (BBCIE) and 9 campus-led accelerator programs.

IPO assists the U of T community by communicating and supporting the various invention disclosure and commercialization processes and options for the assignment of intellectual property ownership in order to support entrepreneurship success resulting from all IP routes (both inventor- and university-owned).

Innovations created at U of T have a rich and impressive record of making an impact on the well-being of the world and its inhabitants. Each year, U of T faculty and students continue to bring novel ideas to the world.

U of T’s 9 campus-led accelerators (CLAs) are connected and supported by BBCIE, which helps coordinate our support programs for University-based entrepreneurs and recent graduates, while its buildings host 19 UofT start-up companies and 5 commercialization support agencies.

start-up-map

Banting & Best Centre Impact Centre Creative Destruction Labs Health Innovation Hub The Hub start at UTIAS UTest iCube The Entrepreneurship Hatchery DCSIL

 

Led by BBCIE, U of T received more than $3M in support from the Province of Ontario’s Campus-Linked Accelerator Program in 2014. The overarching goal of the CLA project is to provide entrepreneurship programs that harness U of T’s critical mass of talent and research excellence and create opportunities for our students to lead in the translation of new knowledge for social and economic good. In 2014-15, the University’s incubators and accelerators worked with over 225 student-led start-up teams and produced 90 new companies that attracted more than $19M in investment and generated $2.5M in sales. The University also offers more than 68 programs and courses in entrepreneurship.

In addition to its campus-based activities, the University deepened its strategic partnerships with the MaRS Discovery District and MaRS Innovation to provide an even greater range of programs and partners for our research community. U of T worked with the provincial and Federal governments to bring the first JLABS incubator to Canada and to substantially enhance and expand the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), the Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB), and SOSCIP. These hubs enable U of T researchers to make new connections, building a critical mass that is putting U of T and Toronto on the global radar as a top-tier innovation centre.  

Meet two of our newest great research hubs

JLABS @ Toronto

In partnership with the Government of Ontario, the MaRS Discovery District and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, U of T helped establish the first JLABS incubator in Canada, a 40,000-square-foot facility that will serve as a platform for enabling our researchers to transform discoveries and innovations in the healthcare field into market-worthy products and, in so doing, further propel the creation of new companies and new jobs, and ultimately new healthcare solutions that will benefit individuals and society for years to come.

Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics

With support from the Canadian Government’s Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research program, U of T established the Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics (CCAB), which will enable the creation of an internationally-recognized and world-class centre for biologics development and commercialization within Canada that provides the business infrastructure, personnel and intellectual property expertise to help meet the international demand for clinical trials with biologics.