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Florida promote a drawback on new capital investments in such traditional creative staples as ballet, opera, symphony and museums. Although these are necessary public entertainment options to maintain, studies show the majority of university students and young to middle-aged professionals who make up the bulk of the emerging creative class, in fact, prefer more accessible venues.

Florida is not saying the city should fund the construction of all these venues, but should support them with entrepreneurial assistance, specified tax-cuts and governmenttools to ease operation, like streamlining the bureaucracy behind applying for liquor licences and permits for musical events and public attractions.

The MaRS centre, located at College St. and University Ave. in downtown Toronto, is a fantastic first step in better integrating the city’s creative talents in the technology and science fields. But more buildings and communities like this need to be developed to take advantage of all of Toronto’s creative economic potential.

Real Tech

Skymeter

Vicicog

MaRS Discovery District is a large scale, mission-driven innovation center focused on building Canada’s next generation of technology companies.

MaRS Discovery District (auditorium) at 101 College Street,

The Let's Talk Science All Science Challenge in Toronto

The All Science Challenge was developed in 2004 by Let's Talk Science outreach volunteers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and is currently being held at 7 universities across Canada this month. The competition tests students in the subject areas of biology, biochemistry, chemistry, earth and environmental science, engineering, mathematics, psychology and physics. The top teams of students will go head-to-head to win the final elimination round, which will also feature guest judges from Pfizer Canada and the British Consulate.

The technology – invented by Mount Sinai scientists Dr. Ian Rogers and Dr. Robert Casper – offers a proprietary method to create multi-potent stem cells (MPSCs) from human umbilical cord blood.

With MaRS Innovation's participation, we are optimistic we will succeed."

Our partnership with MaRS Innovation on developing methods for using stem cells for diseases such as diabetes will allow us to work towards advancing care for these critical conditions." With the launch of this first exciting opportunity, MaRS Innovation has embarked on a journey to transform the Toronto-based research enterprise into a successful commercialization cluster.

MaRS Innovation is building its own internal infrastructure to support intellectual property and market due diligence to identify the most promising commercial opportunities. MaRS Innovation is dedicated to converting the outstanding science of its member institutions into products and services, making a significant contribution to Canada’s future economic outlook and the quality of life for Canadians and others around the world

“We are deeply committed to creating a powerful engine for commercialization that brings together an experienced team to identify and validate market opportunities, develop technologies to market requirements and build the linkages that will advance the exceptional research of all of our institutional members,” added Dr. Hofstein. “We look forward to announcing additional technologies to add to our pipeline over the next several weeks.”

This is one of many new commercilization ventures that will be initiated by MaRS Innovation, our partner in commercialization of research with 13 other academic institutions across the Greater Toronto Area,” said Paul Young, U of T’s Vice-President, Research. “We at U of T are delighted that this innovation from Dr. Lee will be taken to the marketplace to the benefit of society and the economy of Ontario and Canada.” 

With the launch of this second commercial opportunity, MaRS Innovation will continue to aggregate the exceptional science of its institutional members by being a one-stop commercialization centre for industry, entrepreneurs and investors. MaRS Innovation is expediting the transformation of the Toronto-based research into a powerful commercialization engine. 

“MaRS Innovation is deeply committed to facilitating strategic research collaborations with industry partners, strengthening the innovation capacity of Canadian industry through adoption of new technologies, and launching a new generation of robust, high-growth Canadian companies that will become global market leaders,” added Dr. Hofstein. “We look forward to working closely with all of our institutional members and to continue to jointly announce exciting commercial opportunities.”

MaRS Innovation is dedicated to bringing brilliant discoveries to market by converting the outstanding science of its member institutions into outstanding economic results for Canada and the world.

"Everyone knows piezoelectricity works," he said. "The question is whether it's cost-effective."

Rand said, in the next 10 years he expects to see this type of technology springing up all over cities like Toronto."I think it will happen simply because the optics are great," he noted. "It looks good to power a checkout at a supermarket with the cars that are rolling into the parking lot. But whether or not it's a serious player in energy production, I have my doubts ... I don't think it's a game-changer."

"MaRS Innovation is a unique global initiative, and I must commend the institutional leaders in Toronto for pulling this innovation powerhouse together to strengthen commercialization output. In my experience, good science is the single most important ingredient for success in this business. Toronto is already known as one of the strongest science cities in the world, and it continues to grow. Leading MaRS Innovation is a wonderful opportunity to do something remarkable."

Dr. Tim McTiernan, assistant vice-president (research) and executive director of The Innovations Group (TIG), U of T's research commercialization operation, said Mars Innovation will provide significant benefits to U of T.

And he said that MI's role as a resource "is like putting a turbo charger on an engine. Having MI working with us and the other member organizations is a huge step in taking advantage of the enormous potential in the Toronto research community. Commercialization offices acting independently will not be able to manage in nearly as effective a manner as will be possible with the expertise of MaRS Innovation."

W. Geoffrey Beattie – Deputy Chairman & President, Woodbridge Company Limited, Thomson Reuters Corporation, Toronto Christopher C. Capelli – Vice President, Technology Based Ventures, Office of Technology Commercialization, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX Ron Close – Information technology entrepreneur, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, MaRS, and Executive Entrepreneur-in-Residence, The Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON Nicholas Darby – Formerly Director of Physical Sciences, Corporate Venture Capital, Dow Chemical Company, President, Darby & Associates Consulting LLC, Midland, MI  Mary Jo Haddad – President & CEO, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Jacqueline H.R. Le Saux – Former General Counsel, North America and Corporate Secretary, Patheon, Inc., Toronto David A. Leslie - Chair, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Former Chairman & CEO, Ernst & Young, Toronto Michael H. May – President & CEO, Rimon Therapeutics, Toronto Chandra J. Panchal – Founder, President & CEO, Axcelon Biopolymers Corp., Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC Ilse Treurnicht – CEO, MaRS Discovery District, Toronto Donald A. Wright – President & CEO, The Winnington Capital Group Inc., Toronto

MaRS Innovation serves as a business accelerator platform with a single point of entry for industry partners and investors.  It will increase the scale, scope and viability of IP offerings, and the quantity and quality of deal flow from partner institutions.  MaRS Innovation will also facilitate strategic research collaborations with industry partners, strengthen the innovation capacity of Canadian industry through adoption of new technologies from its member institutions, and launch a new generation of robust, high-growth Canadian companies that will become global market leaders.   The quality of the combined discovery pipeline will catalyze and attract sources of risk capital for translational research, market validation, company formation and growth.  “MaRS Innovation represents a unique and timely platform to contribute in a meaningful way to Canada’s knowledge economy, leveraging Toronto’s remarkable research excellence.  The vision and serious commitment of its members to work together to transform our commercialization results, and the support of the Federal Government, made this possible.  The announcement of this outstanding group of leaders to the Board of Directors for MaRS Innovation is an exciting step forward,” said Ilse Treurnicht, MaRS CEO and interim Managing Director of MaRS Innovation.