More federal money has been directed to Northern Ontario as an investment in the Innovation Hub. Northern College announced in June it was one of 17 institutions that received funding from the $12 million in total funding being provided from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) College-Industry Fund.
More than $190,000 in federal funding was invested in the Innovation Hub at Northern College’s Timmins Campus, said a news release from the college.
“Dedicating a wing for research and innovation will allow the college to meet the high demand for innovative technology development in the mining sector and beyond,” said Amy McKillip, the Manager of Applied Research, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northern College.
“This space demonstrates the commitment that Northern College has to community growth and economic development in Northern Ontario and beyond.”
McKillip said that funding initiatives like this help to attract students to schools like Northern, offering them opportunities to further their learning through hands-on, industry-specific experiential learning opportunities. This perspective is one that is shared by the federal funding agency.
“The power of research is exemplified when it is applied to tackle real-world problems. Whether addressing the development of novel agri-food products or expanding the frontiers of aerospace and manufacturing technologies, researchers at colleges and polytechnics are well equipped to partner with industry to help boost Canadian innovation,” says Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President and CEO of the CFI.
Northern College applauds the Federal Government’s focus on innovation and research at the institutional level, allowing Colleges the opportunity to provide students with a learning environment that better fosters the creativity and imagination that will fuel the next wave of industry progress and innovation.
“In conjunction with industry, much of the applied research that we have undertaken over the past 5-years seems to have naturally gravitated to issues present within the mining sector. By choosing to make mining related applied research the focus for the Innovation Hub, we will be assisting the sector to promote technical innovation while giving our students further valuable, transferable skills,” said Northern College President, Dr. Fred Gibbons.
The 24,000 square foot space will include two manufacturing labs, a carpentry lab, a virtual reality lab, a simulation lab, and a mining exploration lab, said the release.
