Innovate Manitoba and its partners, which includes Red River College, accomplished its mission of increasing the connections between Manitoba’s world-class academic researchers and their industry counterparts at the final part of its inaugural IndustryCONNECTS program on April 23.
“With the outcome of several innovative collaboration opportunities, I found the IndustryCONNECTS event extremely rewarding,” said Dean Staples with MTS Strategic Planning, Emerging Technology Research and Innovation.
The event also linked researchers and their industry counterparts with federal granting agencies. With a partnerships officer from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and a business development officer from Mitacs on hand, at least one funded academic/industry research partnership was initiated.
“Innovate Manitoba really hit the mark with this event,” said Douglas Reeson, President and CEO of Gossan Resources.  “We were able to sit down with an NSERC partnerships officer and are excited about the possibilities of getting federally-funded, world-class research assistance.”
“With my prospective partner in attendance at IndustryCONNECTS, we took the first steps in initiating an NSERC funded collaborative R&D project,” said Hamid Mumin, Professor and past Chair of Brandon University’s Department of Geology.  ”The IndustryCONNECTS program has proved to be immensely valuable from start to finish.  It helped me quickly expedite my industry research proposal to the formal application stage.”
For the rest of this story, and photos, visit: http://www.innovatemanitoba.com/news/researchers-industry-and-funders-collide-at-innovate-manitobas-industryconnects/