Foundry Program helps get research to market
From SCAN's Print Edition
Carleton University freshmen hearing the term “Foundry Program” could be forgiven for thinking it is a course in advanced metalwork, shops with glowing forges hidden in some dark recess of the school’s bowels. In fact the program has little to do with primitive means of fashioning metal; it is not concerned with older technology but producing for the moment and the future.
The program recently awarded two $10,000 prototype development grants for projects with strong commercialization potential. One was given to Mobilab Technologies to support the company’s research into a bioelectric solar cell. Mobilab’s founders, Edward Chouchani and Cory Centen, are investigating the power-generating potential of a bacterial protein called bacteriorhodopsin, which is capable of converting light into metabolic energy. The second was awarded to Professor Junjie Gu for another project with commercial potential in the medical device field. Start-up Artenga Inc. is now working closely with Carleton University graduates and Professor Gu to develop technology using microbubbles, which can be used to deliver cancer-fighting drugs.
Begun in April 2002, the program has since awarded 13 grants to outstanding projects, a number of which have been parlayed into successful start-ups that have received considerable interest from the venture capital community.
Francis Bordeleau, founder of Québec-based software company Zeligsoft Inc., was the first program graduate to secure major VC funding. In January 2005 his company landed $2.5 million in Series A financing. To date, Zeligsoft has received almost $3.5 million in funding, including the Foundry Program’s initial grant in 2002.
“The program put us on the path of commercialization,” says Bordeleau, a Ph.D graduate from Carleton’s faculty of systems and computer engineering. “Carleton students should know there’s an industrial direction [for their research. The program does] concrete things, and the professors there are grounded in reality, as they have contact with industry.”
Foundry Program candidates are students (graduates or undergraduates), faculty or staff with innovative ideas that have potential commercial application. The program then provides guidance and, in the case of projects with particular merit, pre-seed money to launch them into the early entrepreneurial business stage.
The program consists of three core elements, explains Luc Lalande, Foundry Program head and director of Carleton’s Innovation Transfer Office.
1) Student Internship
By giving students part-time jobs that allow them to assist researchers develop business cases for selected technology, the Foundry Program provides “real-world” experience and training for students interested in learning how to make innovation happen. Benefits include training in technology commercialization, opportunities to develop professional networks in the business community, and support in finding a job after graduation.
2) Volunteer Review
Volunteer reviewers represent the true nature of the Foundry Program as an “innovation community”. Giving of their time to evaluate submitted proposals, volunteers include angel investors, retired senior tech executives, current CEOs of tech companies, lawyers, marketing consultants, electrical engineers, senior managers in large tech companies and accountants. Their input can lead to important new customer contacts, funding opportunities, etc.
3) Innovation Grants
Proposals can receive up to $15,000 in grant money, with no strings attached, so that they might leverage this funding to find further financing should the given project move towards commercialization.
