Group items tagged

Canada has always had to fight hard to attract talent and investment

MaRS Vital to Toronto's life sciences vision is MaRS (derived from Medical and Related Sciences) a non-profit organisation and business centre located in the heart of the city. Its core function is as a biotech incubator and business park, known as MaRS Discovery District. The venture was first established in 2000 to help foster and accelerate the growth of successful Canadian businesses and, after some uncertain times, it is now gathering momentum. A separate technology transfer office, MaRS Innovation, has also been established that, it is hoped, can be a world beater in its own right (see Turning good ideas into world beaters below). The location of the MaRS building in central Toronto is important, as it is just a stone's throw away from an existing cluster of universities and academic hospitals. MaRS has many links with other research-based organisations, including collaborations with three local universities, 10 academic teaching hospitals and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. MaRS occupies the Old Toronto general hospital, where insulin was first discovered by Best and Banting in 1921 and then developed for use in human trials. The 21st Century organisation can build on this heritage in patient-focused discovery and development. Formerly the head of venture capital firm Primaxis, Ilse Treurnicht is chief executive of MaRS Discovery District. She acknowledges the crisis in venture capital funding, and says Canada's sector has always had less access funds through this route than other countries. This is one of the drivers behind the search for a new approach. Treurnicht says the old models of building biotech and life sciences businesses have to be discarded, as they have failed to build companies with critical mass. She says MaRS' new 'Convergence Innovation' strategy of bringing science, capital and business together will pay off.

"We call our strategy 'Convergence Innovation' and what we are trying to do is move away from the old linear model of academics struggling in their spare time to build companies or entrepreneurs doing this in a very incremental way."It takes time and it has many risk points along the way. So using this Convergence centre model to create a much more dynamic organisation which can help accelerate good ideas towards the commercialisation." But she says Canada's geography and demographics are always going to be a challenge. "This is a very large country with a small population. If you think in terms of clusters and hub regions, Canada's business hubs are separated geographically, and there is not much in between in terms of people."That means we can't try to be a little United States, because we just won't show up on the radar. We have to take a different approach. We have to think about collaboration as our potential competitive advantage - that means using networks and associations to solve problems and build businesses."So as new opportunities emerge, we can take them to market faster and hopefully with a higher success rate." The centre currently accommodates numerous start up companies, as well as those providing legal and financial services to them. AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline also have offices on site. In all, MaRS provides mentoring for over 200 different companies across Ontario, and runs courses on entrepreneurship and preparing products for market.

MaRS aggregates the discovery pipelines of its member institutions, which include three universities, 10 academic teaching hospitals, and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

MaRS is another good example. Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, the MaRS facility is less than a mile from five major teaching hospitals, the Ontario legislature, and the University of Toronto. More than two dozen research institutes and Toronto’s financial district are also nearby.

Consequently, MaRS is a vertical incubator, with a wide variety of companies and stages of development. That mix helps companies better understand the conditions that foster growth. MaRS is home to more than 65 organizations, including The Hospital for Sick Children, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Merck Frosst Canada, the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Celtic House Venture Partners, AIM Therapeutics, and AstraZeneca Canada.

with self-belief and a preparedness to adapt to the new economic situation, social enterprise will thrive

Social enterprise, in many ways, is about generating value: for both society and business. What could be more important when facing difficult times?

leverage their natural resources for the betterment of both society and their bottom line

Studio Earth. The youth workshop hosted by Social Innovation Generation -- a working group at the University of Waterloo -- is designed for young people interested in environmental issues.

Cullis-Suzuki said she's looking forward to speaking about social innovation. Innovators are badly needed to build a sustainable economy, she said.

The social technology workshop will be on using the internet for social purposes. It will be led by Joseph Dee of the MaRS Centre, a Toronto centre for scientific research, and Sam Ladner, a York University sociologist.

MobileMonday Toronto and MaRS are delighted to announce a partnership to develop and host a range of dynamic events for the city’s mobile industry professionals. MobileMonday at MaRS will offer thought leadership and critical industry perspectives – most recently from a senior manager at Research in Motion – while connecting top-tier professionals and boosting the profile of one of the fastest-growing sectors of communications technology.

“MaRS is a fantastic environment for sharing ideas and industry knowledge, two key building blocks of the MobileMonday community,” said Jim Brown and Alexander S. Bosika, co-founders of the MobileMonday Toronto chapter. “MaRS and its network of business advisors and capital providers are also of great benefit to many of our members who are developing business plans and seeking capital.”

For MaRS, the partnership is a natural fit with great potential to benefit the hundreds of start-up clients from across Ontario who are working hard to turn their innovative concepts into viable, thriving businesses, and come to MaRS for advice and connections to potential customers and investors. 

MARS DISOVERY DISTRICT has appointed businessman and philanthropist Richard Ivey to its board of directors.

"Richard Ivey has a strong track record of community involvement and commitment to research and innovation, most recently through his continuing role as chair of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research," said John Evans, founding chair of the board at MaRS. "His integrity and dedication to building a strong foundation for Canada's innovation economy will be of tremendous benefit to MaRS"

MaRS is a Toronto non-profit centre linking science, technology and social entrepreneurs with business skills and capital to stimulate innovation and the creation of successful Canadian companies.

Ontario is launching a new fund to attract and retain world-leading genomics researchers in the province. The CAD$100-million (£56.1-million) Global Leadership Round in Genomics and Life Sciences will support globally-significant, collaborative research projects that are headquartered in Ontario, Canada. This fund will create high-skilled jobs in research and technology, and brings Ontario`s commitment to funding science since 2003 to a historic high of $1.4 billion (£785 million).

A 2006 study (see http://tinyurl.com/bv8xk6) concluded that if the university disappeared, 77,000 local jobs and a net value in the region of £21 billion (US$29.5 billion) would go with it.

universities in the United States have similarly become important generators of local and national economic growth.

Canada's economy is outperforming the rest of the developed world

willingness to embrace a strong role for public investment in innovation,

Another example of public, private and university collaboration is the MaRS discovery district, a nonprofit innovation center that brings together biotech researchers, VCs, and social entrepreneurs in the same part of downtown Toronto with several research hospitals.