Ontario Centre of Innovation marks World Innovation Day and hosts panel highlighting innovation across Ontario over the past 3 decades

April 21, 2022

OCI celebrates how far innovation in Ontario has come in its 35 years

For the past three decades the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) has played a key role in the innovation ecosystem, from catalyzing innovation through programming and supporting industry-academic partnerships to connecting players across the province, with the vision of increasing prosperity through innovation.

“Today, we celebrate 35 years of serving Ontario’s innovators and entrepreneurs. Since 1987, OCI has worked with Ontario’s businesses, post-secondary institutions, and all levels of government to accelerate the commercialization of new technologies. We have had the honour of supporting some of Ontario’s leading tech companies, helping them start-up, scale-up, and succeed, and we look forward to continuing to support the next generation of innovators,” says Dr. Claudia Krywiak, OCI’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

April 21 is declared World Innovation Day by the United Nations and OCI is marking turning 35 on this special day by hosting a Founder’s panel discussion to highlight and showcase made-in-Ontario success stories over the past three decades.

The panel of Founders across these decades will speak to their achievements from their initial engagement with OCI, and the importance of early-stage support in enabling the development, commercialization, and adoption of advanced technologies.

The panel will be moderated by OCI’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Claudia Krywiak.

“Congratulations to the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) on celebrating 35 years of connecting innovators and entrepreneurs to markets, capital and customers to help them succeed,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “Commercializing innovation is vital to our economic growth and, in partnership with OCI, we remain committed to ensuring Ontario’s vibrant and dynamic innovation sector continues to create good jobs for people across the province.”

About the Ontario Centre of Innovation

The Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), maximizes the commercial impact of research developed in Ontario’s colleges, universities, and research hospitals, and accelerates the commercialization of Made-in-Ontario technologies. A pan-provincial collaboration platform, with a broad and deep network across industry, academia and government, OCI initiates unparalleled partnership opportunities, develops and manages successful industry-academic collaborations, supports high-potential SMEs in commercializing ground-breaking research, and provides hands-on training and skills development opportunities for the next generation of highly-skilled talent. For more information: https://www.oc-innovation.ca

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Contact:

Alicia Pereira
Director, Communications & Strategy, Ontario Centre of Innovation
416-888-4088