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Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District has combined the creative genius of science and technology with the drive of entrepreneurs and capital to create a marriage that will see more Canadian ideas commercialized in this country and for those efforts it has won the Canadian Urban Institute’s 2009 Creative City Award to be granted to MaRS on June 5 at the Urban Leadership Awards in Toronto.

“MaRS has found a creative way for science and business to collaborate rather than compete and to help Canada become a knowledge-based economy. This award recognizes them as a leader in stimulating the creative capacity of the city and advancing entrepreneurship, not only in science and technology but also in social ventures. 

Located in the Discovery District of Toronto, where billions of dollars of creative capital are created every year, the MaRS Centre first opened in 2005 in two new towers that bookend a heritage building that once housed the Toronto General Hospital. The three buildings, that total 700,000 sq. ft, house labs, companies of all sizes, business advisors and investors. Its professional services include hands-on advisory services, entrepreneurial programming and both structured and electronic networking. A second building phase of the MaRS Centre will add 750,000 sq ft and is planned to open in the next few years. “The underlining reason for creating MaRS is to capture the value of Canadian discoveries and to better commercialize these innovations at home in Canada,” said MaRS CEO Ilse Treurnicht. “Hub cities like Toronto are key drivers in shaping Canada’s innovation economy. MaRS works to strengthen the pull of that hub, acting as an accelerator and building the best ideas into companies that can compete on the world stage but are anchored here,” said Treurnicht.

MaRS is particularly honoured to be the administrator of the Premier’s Summit Award for Medical Research, one of the largest research prizes in Canada, and recognizing truly exceptional world leading accomplishments. Every Canadian should be proud that these pioneering science leaders live and work in Ontario.

Market research leader IDC Canada has featured MaRS client Mensante as one of its "Ten Canadian Health Companies to Watch" in 2009.

Leading international psychiatrists, family physicians, psychologists, work place mental health experts and mental health economists developed an innovative web-based mental healthcare system called FeelingBetterNow(R).

Dr. Ozersky, Mensante's CEO, was selected by the Canadian Association of Health Informatics as recipient of the 2008 Community Physician Leader and Innovator of the Year Award.