By Tony Patterson

GreenCentre Canada, a Queen's U initiative, reaches a significant milestone as the number of invention disclosures it has received tops one hundred.
Founded by PARTEQ Innovations at Queen’s just 14 months ago year ago, GreenCentre Canada (GCC) has received more than $20 million from Ontario and from the federal government, which has designated it a National Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research. To date the centre has attracted a total of 110 technologies from chemists and researchers at 25 academic institutions across nine provinces.
GCC is trying to de-risk and commercialize early-stage green chemistry discoveries generated by academic researchers and industry. These technology disclosures are the first step in identifying promising new green chemistry innovations.
Technologies brought to GCC undergo a 90-day review process by an in-house committee of industry and commercialization experts. To date, 15 technologies have been recommended for further development. Three additional technologies have also been granted funding for further early development work under GreenCentre’s in-house Proof-of-Principle program, with five more funding announcements pending.
GCC maintains that its commercialization model is unique for the way that it involves industry partners in governance and in the decision-making process about which green technologies are selected for development. Its arguments in this regard appear to have been persuasive in attracting some impressive private sector sponsorship. Among the industry partners are Ford Motor, Nova Chemical and the Paris-based global leader in water treatment, Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies.