highlights report - springboard...

HIGHLIGHTS REPORT 2011-2012

ACADIA UNIVERSITY

CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY

COLLÈGE COMMUNAUTAIRE DU NOUVEAU-BRUNSWICK

COLLEGE OF THE NORTH

ATLANTIC

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

HOLLAND COLLEGE

MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY

MOUNT ALLISON UNIVERSITY

MOUNT SAINT VINCENT UNIVERSITY

NEW BRUNSWICK

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

NOVA SCOTIA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

NOVA SCOTIA COMMUNITY

COLLEGE

NSCAD UNIVERSITY

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER UNIVERSITY

SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY

ST. THOMAS UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITÉ DE MONCTON

UNIVERSITY OF NEW

BRUNSWICK

UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Accelerating Innovation in Atlantic Canada Springboard Atlantic is a not-for-profit corporation owned by its 19 university and college member institutions with a mandate to support a commercialization network. Springboard increases collaboration among its members in Atlantic Canada, facilitates industry partnerships and accelerates the transfer of research and development to the private sector. With access to virtually the entire post-secondary research capacity of Atlantic Canada, Springboard creates commercial value by working with the private sector, faculty and students to foster innovations that enrich our communities and benefit the Atlantic region. Springboard has an effective network of knowledge and technology transfer and business development professionals. Springboard excels at mobilizing innovation by working on the application of a broad range of knowledge and technology opportunities. Springboard receives core support from its members and from the Government of Canada through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).

Springboard Atlantic Board of Directors Dr. Chris Loomis - Memorial University (Chair) Dr. Katherine Schultz - University of Prince Edward Island (Vice Chair) Dr. Greg Kealey - University of New Brunswick (Treasurer) Dr. Kevin Vessey - Saint Mary's University (Secretary) Dr. Martha Crago - Dalhousie University Dr. Lise Dubois - Université de Moncton Brian Tobin - College of the North Atlantic Emad Rizkalla - BlueDrop Performance Learning Wes MacAleer - Wesmac Holdings Ltd. Brian Lowe - First Angel Network Barrie Black - Intelivote Systems Inc. Denis Connor – Angel Investor Michelle Carinci – MJC Group Ex officio Chris Mathis - Springboard Atlantic Inc. (President & CEO)

Central Office Springboard Atlantic Inc.

1344 Summer Street, Suite 125 Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 0A8

T: 902-421-5679

Message from the President & CEO Chris Mathis

It has been a real privilege to be in this new role in this last year. We are nearly halfway into our three year, third funded phase of Springboard Atlantic’s mandate. We have a lot to celebrate in terms of progress -and a lot of hard work ahead. Significant changes include the introduction of performance metrics, with increased focus on the actual deal flow outcomes and engagement with industry (which includes private sector, NGOs, etc.) We also changed the part-time executive management of Springboard to full-time. This along with a balanced board of industry/independent directors and academic Member directors, has allowed our corporation to take a stronger and more capable structure, with good governance and practice to support Member institutions and growing economic benefits from our R&D activities.

This year, we effectively transitioned the corporation from its role as a network manager and keeper of funds, to one which actively creates and runs programs for, and supports our network. This positions us to create programs which can sustainably contribute to maintaining the corporation independently from longer-term ACOA funding. This is a key change that reflects in part in what we see federally; there is a clear need to sustain our operations with less dependence from any one source, and hopefully over time, less dependence on our Member institutions’ operational budgets. This innovation business is a “contact sport” – you can’t address the needs of the Members and industry from afar or from a central location. Therefore, we have been on the road consistently, assessing our key regional strengths and opportunities to develop or support strong, unified programs and major projects. We are identifying barriers to increased commercialization, identifying ways to help support increased engagement and deal flow, and identifying major strategic partners to better align and associate with, complementing our offerings with theirs to improve the eco-system in the region. We do this as a team – a solid board of directors, excellent central staff and most importantly, the network ILOs and TTOs who work diligently to support pre/post business development, new technology developments, executing agreements, new spin-offs, etc. They work the double swinging door of commercialization and innovation in the region, by pushing and pulling the opportunities to engage our faculty know-how, technologies and capabilities. I look forward to our next year with anticipation of our continued cooperation, collaboration and solid socio-economic outcomes.

Message from the Chair Dr. Chris Loomis, PhD, Vice President Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland

SUCCESS STORIES 2 | SNAPSHOT 6 | SPRINGBOARD PROGRAMS 7 | MEMBERS DIRECTORY 12

As Chair of the Board of Directors of Springboard Atlantic Inc., I am pleased to acknowledge the success of the organization as we approach the midpoint of our current three-year funding cycle. This success reflects, in large measure, the committed leadership of Springboard’s President and CEO, Chris Mathis, the accomplished team he has assembled around him and, of course, the distributed network of ILOs and TTOs at our member institutions. Springboard has benefitted greatly from Chris’ past experience in technology development and the commercialization of research, as well as his understanding of both the academic and private sector communities.

Over the past year, Springboard Atlantic Inc. has implemented further enhancements to its governance, management structure, network operations, and engagement activities with industry. These include, but are not limited to the transition to a full-time President and CEO, the use of performance metrics to guide management and Board decisions, and important programming changes to better enable the bi-directional pipeline of ideas and opportunities between member institutions and industry/community partners. The organization continues to be guided by a committed Board of Directors from both the academic and private sectors, including Drs. Greg Kealey and Katherine Schultz. Both are completing their final terms as Vice-President (Research) at the University of New Brunswick and the University of Prince Edward Island, respectively, and as members and officers of Springboard’s Board of Directors. It has been a genuine privilege to work with them since the inception of Springboard Atlantic Inc. Their passion, good humour and thoughtful contributions to this organization will be missed. True to its purpose, Springboard is increasingly being recognized as an efficient, value-added enterprise propelling innovation and the commercialization of research throughout Atlantic Canada. Measures of performance continue to grow, and the organization is well positioned to report even further success in the year ahead. Our shared responsibility is to deliver on that expectation.

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“The opportunities that have come from our partnership with Acadia’s Office of Industry & Community Engagement and the Springboard network are going to be game-changing for this industry." – Janice Ruddock, Managing Director,

Winery Association of Nova Scotia

Pest Control Done Right Dr. Kirk Hiller, an entomologist and researcher at Acadia Univer-sity, is leading a $6.9M ACOA Atlantic Innovation Fund project to develop innovative insect pheromone products. This research uses insect pheromones to monitor pests and will develop non-toxic methods to control populations. The pheromones confuse the in-sects, which prevents them from breeding and can thus reduce overall management costs and pesticide use. Potential markets for these environmentally-friendly pest management products include municipal, provincial, federal, and state governments, as well as industry.

The Right Chemistry J & K Scientific has a valuable research relationship with CBU’s chemistry faculty and students, as well as the Office of Research and Graduate Studies and CBU’s Small Business Center. J & K Sci-entific selected CBU as their service provider for their $15,000 Pro-ductivity and Innovation Voucher award, which enabled further engagement with the chemistry department. J & K Scientific has developed a technology that provides a faster and cheaper way to do a chemical analysis of samples. A strong supporter of CBU stu-dents; the company currently employs two CBU graduates with plans to add another in the very near future.

A Bio-Chemical Powerhouse In addition to fostering commercialization relationships between researchers and industry, Springboard fulfills a unique role in fostering synergetic university-college collaborations. An excel-lent example of this is the pilot scale industrial fermentation re-search centre spearheaded by Springboard member, Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB) at its Edmund-ston campus. As the only facility of its kind east of Montreal, the centre focuses on applied research, technology transfer, com-mercialization and training within the industrial biotechnology sector. The centre also has a bio-refinery capable of producing large-scale fermentation tests, something not previously accessi-ble to academic and SME researchers here in Atlantic Canada.

A Fresh Take On Spuds Even though frozen French fries come from a potato, after proc-essing, freezing and packaging, fries have lost most of the po-tato’s nutrients and freshness. When Michael Campbell at Hum-ber Valley Potato Company in NL started looking for a way to package their fries so they don’t have to be frozen, he turned to the Office of Applied Research (OAR) at the College of the North Atlantic. Working with Sharon McLennon, Industry Liaison Officer and team members Leona Raymond and Cindy Morrissey at the Centre for Agrifood Development in Carbonear, their combined efforts resulted in a Modified Atmospheric Packaging (MAP) proc-ess. The process involves vacuum sealing the French fries without freezing, or adding preservatives. This new process extended the shelf life up to four weeks longer, thus Humber Valley’s Fresh Fry™ was created.

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Sky High Opportunity Ask an engineering professor about their favorite sort of work, and many will respond that it’s projects with industrial partners – those chances to tackle real world problems and, through collaboration, produce work that makes a tangible, direct difference. Many in computer science would share the sentiment. Thanks to a new investment from Boeing, faculty and students in those disciplines are being given a huge opportunity to engage in just that sort of research. In September 2011, Dalhousie an-nounced a partnership with the international aerospace company for applied projects in advanced materials, mobile graphics and visual text analytics – each addressing specific industrial needs that will create implications not just at Boeing, but beyond.

Heating Homes For Less Scott Costain is a progressive home builder in PEI who specializes in the construction of cost-effective, energy-efficient homes. In the fall of 2011, he approached Phyllis Duffy, Holland College’s Indus-try Liaison Officer, with a question. For some time, he had been adding extra insulation to the exterior walls in his homes which definitely lowered heating costs, but was increasing construction costs. Costain wanted to know if it was cost-effective to put extra material and labour into the walls. Rod Dempsey, a professional engineer with relevant experience at Holland College worked on this project to compare five upgraded exterior wall assemblies and a standard wall assembly to deter-mine which was most cost-effective. The results confirmed that the wall assembly Costain was using had the lowest total life-cycle cost and now he has the data to prove it. The project results have already been shared with students in two construction-based pro-grams at Holland College and have been shared with the PEI Chap-ter of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association.

Tech Starts Here Memorial University’s incubator for technology businesses was named 2011 Incubator of the Year by the Canadian Association for Business Incubation (CABI). The Genesis Centre is part of Genesis

Group Inc., the university’s technology commercializa-tion arm. “The Genesis Centre has a steady record of success and has had a solid reputation across the country since its inception. It’s also a model of business incubation best practices,” says Ed Hobbs, chair of CABI. “It’s very fit-ting that it should be recog-nized in this way.” Twenty-nine companies have gradu-ated from the Genesis Cen-tre. In total, they have

raised $18.7 million in private equity, 65% of which has come from outside Newfoundland and Labrador. The centre’s clients and graduates employ almost 400 people.

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Reducing Herbicides—Saving $ Dr. Qamar Zaman has developed a new agricultural sprayer technology for use in the wild blueberries production industry, which is a highly lucrative sector in eastern Canada and Maine. It is an export crop of great value to the regional economy, in particu-lar, its rural areas. Major players in the industry came to Dr. Zaman, of NSAC’s Department of Engineering, to produce a tech-nology that could precisely apply herbicides in order to reduce their environmental impact and production cost.

His team has produced a full size, tractor-mounted prototype sprayer that uses real-time digital imaging and rapid data process-ing to determine where a weed, bare patch or blueberry plant may be, based on color and textural analysis of the image ― all done while the tractor and sprayer are moving across the field and spraying the crop. The technology has allowed a 60% savings in herbicide use saving upwards of $200 per acre in a single spray application. With up to 100,000 acres in production, the savings to the industry are enormous. NSAC has applied for a patent for the software that drives the system and further enhancements are in development. NSAC is currently seeking a partner to license and construct the sprayer for the commercial market and is also seek-ing new uses for the sensor technology and algorithm.

“The Genesis Centre has a steady record of success and has had a solid reputation across the country since its inception. It’s also a model of business incubation best practices,” -Ed Hobbs, Chair of CABI

Elemental Pesticide Shows Promise In response to a growing demand for safe pesticides, two Mount Allison University professors have been working on a solution. As consumers well know, crops grown in Canada and abroad often contain chemical pesticides that can be harmful to human health and the environment. But food producers depend on pesticides, which ultimately protect crop yields and profits. SustainaChem Solutions hopes to offer a new pesticide derived from Boron, a non-toxic, naturally occurring earth element, that's safe for human consumption and the environment. The SustainaChem start-up team includes Mount Allison com-merce students Samuel Imbeault, Nicholas Savoie, Christine Schweitzer, Ryan Smith, and Kaila Thomasson, working with re-searchers Dr. Steve Westcott (chemistry and biochemistry) and Dr. Felix Baerlocher (biology). Their product is a new pesticide derived from Boron, a non-toxic, naturally occurring earth element that's safe for human consumption and the environment.

The Power Of Waste

Biologist Dr. Gavin Kernaghan at Mount Saint Vincent University, in partnership with Dr. Zhongmin Dong at Saint Mary’s University, is studying the feasibility of anaerobic digestion of wood-derived materials for biogas production. BioGas Energy Inc. (BEI) is a full service anaerobic digestion technology company bringing the most tried and tested waste-to-energy technologies to North America. Its current demonstration facility in Centreville, Kings County can extract methane from organic wastes such as dairy manure, pig manure, food waste and energy crops. This team of highly skilled experts will determine how wood-derived waste materials can be processed to create energy in an environmentally-sound way. The results of this study will provide BEI with critical information on the chemical composition of readily available wood-derived materials and their potential for biogas production. If the data is favourable, the partnership will advance to a prototype stage using a series of custom bio-digestors that could ultimately lead to the development of a plausible solution to a significant landfill prob-lem across North America.

Greater Research Potential New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) has been granted eligi-bility to administer funds offered by the Natural Sciences and Engi-neering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). “Obtaining NSERC eligibility is a significant milestone for NBCC,” said Marilyn Lus-combe, President and CEO, NBCC. “Through this and other initia-tives aimed at building our capacity to undertake applied research, all of our stakeholders – students, staff, industry and educational partners – will benefit.” Applied research initiatives will benefit the college community in a number of ways, including: enhanced learning experiences for stu-dents, professional development and training opportunities for staff, and the opportunity to work more closely with business and industry with respect to innovation, productivity improvement and commercialization. NSERC eligibility allows NBCC to apply for fund-ing under NSERC’s College and Community Innovation (CCI) Pro-gram which provides various opportunities for collaboration be-tween colleges, companies and universities, as well as funds to assist in the development or enhancement of applied research efforts and capacity.

Higher Performance On Land In November 2011, Captain Jeff Farwell of Murphy’s: The Cable Wharf approached Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) with a problem. Due to the hills in downtown Halifax, the brakes on the Harbour Hopper were wearing out far too quickly. The Harbour Hoppers are refitted Lark V amphibious vehicles which provide tours of downtown Halifax via land and water. They were originally manufactured for the Vietnam War, so extra parts are not readily available and replacing brakes is costly, time-consuming and re-quires custom machining. A team at NSCC was able to develop an updated braking system which blends the original system with modern technology to enhance usability and reduce wear. This new system has been tested and proven extremely efficient. Murphy’s is in the process of applying this technology to all its current Harbour Hopper vehicles.

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NSCAD + ILO = Solutions Nova Scotia College of Art and Design's (NSCAD) Industry Liaison Office (ILO) was established through a partnership with Saint Mary's University. The ILO team will facilitate collaborations be-tween NSCAD researchers and industry, and carry out technology transfer activities with partners who have a vested interest in the practical applications of NSCAD-born technologies. By mixing crea-tive right-brain thinking with left-brain analytical approaches of business, science and technology, there are opportunities to gen-erate new products, services, solutions to the big problems out there and, ultimately, economic growth.

Green Minds Think Alike Two Saint Mary’s University professors whose Green Chemistry breakthroughs have shown strong potential for industrial applica-tions have signed a license with GreenCentre Canada. Drs. Robert Singer and Jason Clyburne have both attracted international atten-tion for their research on ionic liquids. Both license agreements were negotiated with GreenCentre Canada in December through the Industry Liaison Office. The agreements create a unique part-nership between Saint Mary’s scientists and GreenCentre Canada experts. Together, they will advance these technologies from labo-ratory prototypes to large scale pilot site testing. This new phase of development will examine how these technologies perform ‘in the field’, and if successful, will move them closer to the market.

Catalyst For Innovation & Entrepreneurship The University of New Brunswick received $5 million from two of its prominent alumni, Gururaj (Desh) Deshpande and Gerry Pond, to establish an entrepreneurship and innovation centre. The Pond-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UNB will act as a catalyst to advance innovation and entrepreneurship in New Brunswick by facilitating collaboration among entrepre-neurs, young companies, and UNB students, faculty and alumni. The centre will work with UNB’s already established innovation and entrepreneurship programs to create courses and mentorship opportunities for students that will provide them with a sound foundation in technical and social entrepreneurship, and give them the opportunity to experience the entrepreneurial process and explore their possibilities for success. “Great ideas don’t go any-where unless an entrepreneur takes it and creates a viable enter-prise from it,” said Desh Deshpande. “We hope that the centre will create lots of experiential learning opportunities for students to become those entrepreneurs.”

A Pharma Spin-Off Is Born The University of Prince Edward Island has launched a new con-tract research company based partly on UPEI technology. Bio-valuation Outsourcing Solution (BioVOS) provides services to the pharmaceutical industry to test new drugs and treatments for neuro-inflammatory, metabolic, and cardiovascular disorders, including stroke and heart disease. BioVOS has exclusive agree-ments in place to use more than one hundred in vivo and in vitro research models and techniques developed by the Atlantic Centre for Bioactive Valuation (ACBV) and other partners. The research of ACBV was made possible by generous funding from Innovation PEI and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA). Three Oaks Innovations Inc., the commercialization arm of the University of Prince Edward Island, helped navigate the partners involved in BioVOS toward this business launch.

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Sustainable Marine Harvesting Fundy Dulse, a small, family-run dulse harvesting business in Digby County, N.S., wanted to expand its business through increased harvestable dulse resources, but only in a sustainable, ecologically-sensitive way. The solution to this was found through a partnership with St. Francis Xavier University’s biology professor, Dr. David Garbary, three students, Leah Beveridge, Andrea Flynn, Katie White, and StFX math professor, Dr. Ryan Lukeman. This research will provide further insight into how to increase the harvesting of the resource, while still making it sustainable.

Celebrating Old Age

‘Aging as a Celebration’ is not the typical view of most people in society. St. Thomas University’s Canada Research Chair in Narra-tive Studies, Dr. Clive Baldwin, is passionate about the role of nar-ratives in aging. Under a valuable research relationship with the Atlantic Institute on Aging and the York Care Centre in Fredericton, a component of Dr. Baldwin’s wider research program focuses on examining the uses of narrative (life stories) in health, social care and professional education. It is hoped that findings from this and other related work will help improve stakeholders’ (aged homes, professionals, practitioners, educators etc.) understanding of ‘aging’ and how to make it a celebration. Dr. Baldwin has received support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation for lab infrastructure and research assistantships respectively.

Enhancing Truck Driver Performance The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency has funded a three-year project to research and study health issues in profes-sional truck drivers. The goal is to commercialize a suite of health sci-ence-based soft-ware applications designed to help drivers improve their overall work performance. The Healthy Driver Toolkit project is managed by Dr. Michel Johnson of Université de Moncton (U de M)'s School of Kinesiology and Recreation with the Collège Communautaire du Nouveau Brunswick (CCNB)'s Dieppe campus as key collaborator. Jean Marc Picard, executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA) said, “This is excellent news for the trucking industry in Atlantic Canada. The APTA members realized the importance of this project immediately and gave their full sup-port on the proposal from U de M and the CCNB.” The funding supports the creation and staffing of a university-based research facility at U de M, along with a CCNB-managed mobile research unit to travel throughout Atlantic Canada, in order to gather indus-try-specific data from APTA’s membership regarding health and driving performance.

412

72

322

47

Industry Engagement Activity

Workshops with Industry

Achieved Projected

$1,366,795

$950,000

Achieved Projected

Industry Engagement & Tech Transfer Activities

Revenues from Assignment, Option & Licensing Agreements

Company Institution

Scenesharp Inc. UNB

Extreme Ocean MUN

Research Avenue MUN

Enterre Solutions St.FX

BioVOS UPEI

Sustainachem Mt.A

New Spin-off Companies

6

12

16

Achieved Projected

ACOA Atlantic Innovation Fund Projects

261

189

Tech Transfer Agreements

Year 1 — Expenditures

78%

5%

9%8%

FTE Program

Central Office

Network Support

IM Program

Total $3,186,527

FTE Contribution Program

Springboard helps support 26 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions at universities and colleges throughout Atlantic Canada. The funding for these comes from ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund and is matched by contributions from the participating Member institutions. Most Springboard Members receive salary and operational funding for Industry Liaison Officers (ILOs), Technology Transfer Officers (TTOs) and Intellectual Property positions under this program.

I-USRA Program (Pilot)

The Industrial Undergraduate Student Research Awards (I-USRA) Program offers support for Atlantic companies to work with undergraduate university students to conduct research activities. Springboard Atlantic, the Natural Sciences and Engineer-ing Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) have formed as a pilot, a partnership to increase regional opportunities for Atlantic companies. Springboard Atlantic will administer the reimbursements of these funds for NRC-IRAP.

Small and medium-sized Atlantic Canada companies can apply to work with undergraduate university, science and engineering students, on a 16-week research project and receive a reimbursement of up to $6,500 per student ($4,500 from NSERC and $2,000 from IRAP.) Students must be paid a minimum salary of $7,625 over the 16-week period.

Goal of 50 awards between April 2012 — March 2013

7

All members receive significant benefits by participating in the network.

Springboard members share best practices and case studies, have access to Frost & Sullivan market research reports and the Innovation Atlas. Springboard’s central office provides support to all members in a variety of ways and coordinates, quarterly network meetings.

$4,500,000

$3,405,500

$4,492,354

$130,000,000 ~

$436,500

$100,000,000 ~

$3,352,567

$1,739,020

$11,796,143

$1,515,651

$1,007,473

$4,078

$607,234

$7,434,472

$7,417,912

$8,181,818

$57,428,141 ~

$1,047,119

$18,000,000

Acadia

CBU

CNorthAtl

Dal

Holland

MUN

MtA

MSVU

NSAC

NSCC

CCNB

NBCC

NSCAD

StFX

SMU

UdeM

UNB

STU

UPEI

Year 1 — Total Research Revenues ($362,365,982)

Please note: the numbers for Acadia, Dalhousie, MUN and UPEI are estimates based on forecasted amounts.

Innovation Mobilization (IM) Program

The Springboard Innovation Mobilization Program advances as many technologies as possible and mobilizes the knowledge/skill--based expertise resident in Member institutions into industry, in order to help industry engage with researchers and commercialize institutional opportunities.

This program provides service to all Springboard Members to advise and advance knowledge transfer in any form, be it a push or pull activity and supports industry engagement, and awareness.

37%

42%

18%3%

Industry Engagement

Patent & Legal

Proof of Concept

Marketing Support

Innovation Mobilization Applications (Oct. 2011—Mar. 2012)

$69,566

$148,800

$105,500

$15,000

Industry Engagement

Patent & Legal

Proof of Concept

Marketing Support

Total $338,866

56% spent of $600,000 Year 1 Budget

$ Committed — Year 1

8

0

2

4

6

8

10

38 Applications

Springboard Industry Engagement Projects

Industry Engagement funding helps Members promote the development of effective regional part-nerships with industry. A maximum project cost of up to $15,000 per project is available (including matching funds). A maximum project cost of up to $50,000 may be awarded for projects involving the majority of Springboard Members.

Acadia — Digital Developers Forum - A list

of relevant IT companies and researchers

was created; planning broader ICT event for

fall 2012.

$2,186

CCNB — NB Provincial Composites Capacity

Development -Travel supplement for ILO to

join trade mission to JEC (European Compos-

ites Industry Association) show.

$2,000

CNA/MUN — Lunch & Learn—Getting Seri-

ous About Serious Gaming - A two-day gam-

ing and simulation workshop was held in St.

John’s, NL for researchers, companies and

other partners.

$8,230

DAL — Oceans Week – Eight Springboard

member institutions partnered to host a

workshop, gala, public lectures, symposium,

school visits and the launch of the Halifax

Marine Research Institute (HMRI). A round

table on industry-academic interactions for

several regional projects was held.

$15,000

DAL/SB — Dragon’s Den with GlaxoSmith-

Kline - Opportunity for researchers and ILI to

learn more about GSK $50M Innovation

Fund and to pitch opportunities/projects to

visiting GSK representatives.

$2,700

SMU — ILO Partnership Connections &

Networking Reception - Hosted the third

annual research EXPO with over 300 partici-

pants, researchers presented their work at

the Speaker’s Corner and over a dozen part-

nering meetings were held on-site.

$2,000

UPEI — Maximizing IP Value in your IT

Company – Three Oaks Innovations

hosted Anthony De Fazekas from Miller

Thomson, to deliver a workshop to IT

researchers and companies.

$1,750

UPEI — Veterinary Quality Assurance

Program (QAP) Business Development &

Marketing - A one and a half-day meeting

was hosted with key stakeholders/clients

to explore how to expand the QAP

services available at UPEI.

$5,200

SB Central Office — New Brunswick

Innovation Forum Event Support – A

premier IT pitching event in Atlantic

Canada; Plan to participate and also

expand this model to other industry

sectors and provinces.

$2,000

SB Central Office, MUN, UPEI, UNB, StFX,

Acadia — Atlantic Association of Universi-

ties/EDAC Conference - Hosted a forum

Making the Connection: Universities and

Community Economic Development to

explore cross-institutional collaborations

and economic development.

$3,000

SB Central Office — 2011 Progress

Magazine Insert – Springboard Central

Office highlighted our collective role and

six member institutions highlighted spe-

cific academic-industry collaborations in

the R+D supplement.

$15,000

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SB Central Office — New Brunswick

Innovation Foundation R3 Gala Event

Support – Branding and networking

opportunity for Springboard members.

$10,000

SB Central Office — Nova Scotia Industry

Network Holiday Reception – Branding

and networking opportunity for members

to meet with 14 industry associations

throughout Atlantic Canada.

$500

SB Central Office — BioNova Holiday

Reception - Partnered with Dalhousie

University and NSAC to provide support

and a branding and networking

opportunity for Springboard with NS Life

Science Industry Association.

$1,000

SB Central Office — Holiday Reception &

Start-Up Basics Workshop – Reception

and networking opportunity for key

stakeholders, Springboard network and

board members. An afternoon workshop

was also held: “Kick-Starting your Start-

Up” presented by First Angel Network.

$1,000

Springboard Patent & Legal—Proof of Concept

Patent & Legal funding helps Members accelerate the pre-competitive development of promising technologies and contributes to technology validation and early market connection. A maximum project cost of up to $15,000 per project is available (including matching funds). Proof of Concept funding helps Members analyze, establish or strengthen an early IP or patent position. A maximum project cost of up to $20,000 per project is available (including matching funds).

DAL—Disposable Cartridges for Protein

Purification – Dr. Doucette is working to

improve the cartridges that are used to

filtrate and isolate proteins for accurate

separation. These one-time, disposable

cartridges are simpler, faster and easier to

use.

Patent & Legal $10,000

DAL — Reducing Radiation Exposure –

Dr. Robar is working on a technology to

more accurately deliver radiation therapy.

His work to create a more accurate, 3-D,

high-quality image, allows radiation to be

delivered to a precise area, thus sparing

the surrounding tissue.


Proof of Concept $20,000

DAL — Using the Measles Virus as a

Cancer Vaccine – Dr. Richardson has iden-

tified a biomarker found on many tumour

cells that can be targeted with the com-

mon measles virus. The measles virus

could be used to target these cancer cells

and infect them, without damaging

healthy tissue.


DAL — Manufacturing Hollow Metal

Components- Dr. Doman has developed a

method to create metal components with

confined, hollow cavities. Once heat-

treated, these components have superior

strength-to-weight properties, compared

to solid components.



MUN — TranSPAR-Marine Craft to Access

and Service Offshore Wind Turbines –

Dr. Gifford and his partners have designed

a marine craft that can approach and

connect turbine foundations safely. They

are looking to eventually license or

manufacture TranSPAR for the commercial

market.


MUN — Double Layer Permanent Magnet

Rotor for Generators and Motors –

Dr. Saleh has developed a technology to

improve the performance of generators

and motors that may be of interest to the

wind turbine market.



MUN — Gene Mutations and Heart

Disease – Dr. Young has identified a new

gene mutation that causes a lethal form of

disease in the heart muscle. This could

lead to diagnostic tests to identify patients

who could benefit from an implanted defi-

brillator to regulate normal heart rhythms.


UNB — Digital Camera Improvements –

Dr. Zhang is combining software and sen-

sors to gain a three-fold increase in the

sensitivity and resolution of digital colour

cameras, including those used in un-

manned air vehicles. In addition, the cam-

era system can detect moving objects, as

well as measure the 3-D locations of mov-

ing objects.


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DAL —Gene Therapy to Treat Inherited

Blinding Disorders – Dr. McMaster has

identified a gene mutation that causes

blindness during childhood. His team is

working to determine if an injection of a

gene therapy vector has the potential to

cure patients of this disorder.



MUN — Scanning a Personal Genome -

Dr. Rahman is working to develop a chip

where an individual’s genome can be se-

quenced to identify if they are at risk of

genomic disorders such as cancer or learn-

ing disabilities in children.


MUN — Improving Energy Conversion -

Dr. Saleh is working on a technology which

could minimize energy loss and improve

the performance of inverters that convert

DC energy, from sources such as batteries,

to AC power when main power sources

are not available.


MUN — Extracting Images from Live

Videos – Dr. Gong is working on a technol-

ogy that allows users to extract an image

from a video in real-time, more easily,

with minimal user interaction. This work

could have practical applications in video

surveillance, TV broadcasting and/or video

conferencing.


UNB — Method and System for Computer

-Aided Analysis – Dr. Gerber has created

software to improve the speed of com-

puter-aided engineering (CAE) analysis

methods. CAE tools are used to analyze

the design and performance of compo-

nents by diverse industries. By modifying

the software architecture to efficiently use

thousands of parallel processors, calcula-

tions can be completed quickly.


UNB —Anti-Static Packaging Paper –

Dr. Ni is working to identify an economical

and environmentally-friendly replacement

for carbon black in anti-static coatings

used by the packaging industry.



UPEI — Improving Plastics – Dr. Shaver

is working on a technology which could

improve how both bio-degradable and

non-biodegradable plastics are pro-

duced; their properties, the process

time and ingredients used, thus reduc-

ing production costs.


UPEI — Drug Development for

Inflammatory and Metabolic Disorders

– Dr. Saleh has created a new, stable

molecule that holds promise due to its

anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative

properties. This compound holds poten-

tial for treating patients who have had a

stroke.


Springboard Marketing Support Projects

Marketing Support funding helps Members build and/or develop a prototype of a technology for marketing purposes. Supports marketing, market research, market demonstrations, consulting. A maximum project cost of up to $25,000 for market consulting, and $15,000 for prototypes is avail-able (including matching funds).

Acadia — Pheromones for the

Management of Insect Pests – Hiring of

a specialized consultant to do a market-

ing study for an emerald ash borer

pheromone lure. This lure effectively

catches invasive insects and poses less

risk to human health and the environ-

ment.

$15,000

11

St.FX/DAL — Glycerol-Based Surfac-

tants – Dr. Marangoni and Dr. Grindley

have been working on a glycerol-based

chemical surfactant that has “green”

potential for several industrial applica-

tions including detergents, paints and

coatings and cosmetics. Using glycerol

as a core for surfactants is more envi-

ronmentally-friendly and inexpensive,

which could lead to lowered costs for

industrial chemicals.


SARAH CONRODIndustry Liaison Officer 902-563-1842 [email protected]

LEIGH HUESTIS Director 902-585-1425 [email protected]

RICK SAULNIER Applied Research & Innovation Development Officer 506-856-3443 [email protected]

KAY GRAHAM Innovation Officer 709-891-5658 [email protected]

WAYNE QUILTY Industry Liaison Officer 709-643-0807 [email protected]

KEVIN DUNN Director 902-494-1648 [email protected]

DORIS GRANT Associate Director 902-494-6996 [email protected]

KEVIN BUCHAN Manager 902-494-3397 [email protected]

ERICA FRASER Manager 902-430-5175 [email protected]

ANDREA MCCORMICK Manager 902-494-1830 [email protected]

DAVID KING President & CEO, Genesis Group Inc. 709-864-2680 [email protected]

PAULA MENDONÇA Technology Commercialization Officer—Life Sciences 709-864-3048 [email protected]

MATTHEW GRIMES Technology Commercialization Officer 709-864-3048 [email protected]

BRIAN TERRY Technology Commercialization OfficerPhysical Sciences & Engineering 709-864-2674 [email protected]

TERRY COURISH Industry Liaison Officer Oil & Gas, Ocean Technology 709-864-3012 [email protected]

LINDSAY BOWMAN Knowledge Transfer & Partnerships Officer 506-364-2632 [email protected]

TANYA MOXLEY Administrator—Industry Liaison 902-420-5270 [email protected]

DIANE BURT Director of Applied Research, Saint John Campus (506) [email protected]

DAVID FULLERTON Industry Liaison Officer 902-896-2419 [email protected]

JASON BLACKBURN Coordinator 902-444-7221 [email protected]

SARAH COLLINS Industry Liaison Officer 902-491-7340 [email protected]

ANDREW KENDALL Manager 902-867-3660 [email protected]

GINA FUNICELLI Director 902-491-6297 [email protected]

TANYA MOXLEY Administrator 902-420-5270 [email protected]

JOSEPHINE ADDA Proposal Support Officer 506-452-0647 [email protected]

RÉJEAN HALL Directeur 506-858-4307 [email protected]

GISÈLE LEVESQUE Agente d’innovation 506-858-4454 [email protected]

CHRIS MATHIS President & CEO 902-476-1641

[email protected]

CATHERINE VARDYNetwork Manager

[email protected]

KATIE KUSHNEREvents Coordinator

[email protected]

KATHY LYNCH Office Administrator

902-421-5679 [email protected]

TANIA JONESFinancial Administrator

[email protected]

SHAWN MACDOUGALL Research Development Officer 902-566-9361 [email protected]

KELLY ASHFIELD Director 506-458-7188 [email protected]

SHANE NASON Manager, Intellectual Property 506-648-5995 [email protected]

ALISON KANEKnowledge Transfer Officer 506-447-3296 [email protected]

SOPHIE THERIAULT Director of Technology Transfer & Commercialization Coordination 902-566-6095 [email protected]

KURT LASKOW-POOLEY Industry Liaison & Business Development Officer 902-620-5115 [email protected]

KRISTA MACDONALD Office Manager 902-894-2878 [email protected]

CENTRAL OFFICE

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