WINDSOR - Local businesses could receive up to $30,000 toward research and development through a provincially funded program available at St. Clair College.

Scott O'Neil, director of the new research and development department at the college, said local industry can use the school as a resource for solving short-term R&D challenges.

"I like to call it Windsor's best kept secret," he said. "There's a lot of expertise here at the college and a lot of opportunities to help leverage a business's research and development spending through the college."

In 2006, St. Clair was one of the founding members of the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation - a network of 22 colleges across Ontario that offer applied research and expertise to businesses through funding from Ontario's Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation. But a research and development department wasn't formalized at St. Clair until October.

Professors lead the projects but O'Neil said a key criteria for accepting proposals is the amount of student engagement the project will provide. He said most projects allow opportunity to hire students to work toward the solution.

"So through working on these projects, you get students working on real world issues for their particular industries," he said. "The win is that we end up producing higher calibre graduates at the college."

At an open house Tuesday, O'Neil said he talked with local business owners, including members of the Windsor Construction Association, interested in proposing projects in the near future.

Projects six to eight months in length are typical and can focus on issues in any field, O'Neil said. Currently in the starting phases are three projects within engineering and health sciences that will be launched within the community as early as February.

O'Neil said he hopes to see job creation as a result of the new department.

"What I like to see is creating more jobs here in Southwestern Ontario and I think the only way we're going to do it is through research and development," O'Neil said.

"So this gives me an opportunity to identify where the research and development needs are within our community and identify what the college can do to help these local companies solve them, grow new technologies and hopefully hire more people."

Scott O'Neil, director of St. Clair College Applied Research & Development, left, speaks with Wen-Tsung (Alex) Tai, a recent immigrant searching for employment, during an open house at St. Clair College on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012

By Rebecca Wright, The Windsor Star January 11, 2012