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Colleges have a history of working closely with employers in their community to provide highly-skilled,
work-ready graduates. Building upon these strong community partnerships, colleges have expanded
their services to include a new level of support for business and industry -- applied research, development (R&D), and commercialization services.
We appreciate the real world challenges you encounter in your day-to-day operations. We are committed to providing
R&D and commercialization services that directly address these needs. In doing so, we can help your organization
meet its goals and objectives, and maintain competitive positioning.
At CONII, we are responsive to market pull - addressing your needs and your financial and service
goals, and helping find solutions to your problems. CONII colleges are available to provide innovation
and commercialization support to regional partners in the form of:
 Access to expertise and resources of Ontario colleges for R&D and commercialization activities.
Assistance in product, process, and service enhancement and incremental and larger scale innovation, prototype development, testing and evaluation and proof of concept.
Enhancement of your organization's capacity to meet goals, solve problems, and contribute to your economic and competitive prosperity.
Assistance in identifying and preparing funding applications for R&D assistance, including tax credits.
CONII Industry Engagement Process
College Resources Available - expertise, labs, and facilities
How is CONII different from universities?
If you think of research, development and commercialization as a continuum see ACCC Flowchart
research undertaken at universities often (although not exclusively) lies at the research end of the continuum.
This type of research is also referred to as "discovery" or "basic" research. The research is often curiosity
driven and directed by the principal researcher at the university. Research is undertaken and the results
are "pushed" out into the public domain in the form of scientific journals articles, conference presentations,
public/policy reports, or inventions available for license.
Research undertaken at colleges (although not exclusively) approaches research from the opposite end of the
Continuum and focuses on the development and commercialization of products, processes, and services.
The research is undertaken to solve a particular problem, develop/modify a product, or meeting an
organizational goal/objective. The research is brought to the college and driven by a community partner (known as market pull).
How long will the research take? We understand the time pressures business faces, and the impact this can have on
their operations and productivity. Most CONII projects are done in less than one year, with the majority being completed
within the 6 month to one-year time frame. There are several models of R&D that can be explored including direct research
contracts with faculty as principal investigators (most expedient) to using students in course-based research projects (may take
longer as the projects must be mapped to the academic calendar). Member colleges will work with you to develop a timeline that meets your schedule.
Who will own the research? We understand the importance of ownership of know-how and
intellectual property. Each college has developed its own research policies and would be
happy to share these with you. The CONII members support the following common intellectual property principles:
We support the exploitation of intellectual property to support a strong Canadian economy and improve the quality of life of Canadians.
Intellectual property will be owned according to college policy.
Access to IP should be awarded to sponsors in recognition of, and in proportion to, the sponsor's contribution to the collaboration. As a minimum, funding partners may expect advanced knowledge of research results and/or licensing opportunities.
Researchers and colleges must be free to use the research results for academic purposes; students must be able to publish their research.
What about confidentiality? Member colleges have experience negotiating and executing confidentiality agreements that
protect the interests of the community partner, the college, researcher(s) and student(s).
Unlike university researchers, College researchers are under no requirement to publish the results of research.
As publicly funded institutions, colleges can not conduct "secret" research, but we will work with you to ensure
that your intellectual property rights are protected. However, should you wish to access government funding for R&D,
please note that many government funding agencies do not fund contract research and may have some regulations regarding
disclosure of the results of publicly-funded projects.
Where will the research be conducted? Depending on your research, equipment and facility needs,
we can conduct the research at one of our campuses or at your facilities.
How do I learn more / get started?
Contact the CONII college nearest you
CONII Industry Engagement Process
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