Kingston's innovation hub
Posted By DON CURTIS
Posted 1 year ago
Innovation Park at Queen's University opened in June 2008, but I only had a vague idea of its purpose and involvement in alternative energy and environmental research fields.
I was also intrigued by the growing presence of alternative energy enterprises locating in Kingston and the area -- the $475-million Wolfe Island wind farm, the announcement Everbrite Solar had selected Kingston as the site for a new state-of-the-art, high-efficiency photovoltaic manufacturing facility, plus a host of smaller startup companies in the green energy field locating in Kingston.
All of which, when added to the Innovation Park concept, are forming the beginning of a "cluster" that can have a significant impact on the image and success of our city. In his book Who's Your City? Richard Florida writes, "Because of the clustering force (certain) cities and regions have become the engines of economic growth."
I called Janice Mady, the director of Innovation Park in the Novelis (former Alcan) site on Princess Street, and in conversation with her I was heartened by the intent, work and success of the park in its short life to date.
Innovation parks have existed in Canada for 30 years, with the first and most successful one being in Saskatoon and focusing on bioscience and agriscience. Innovation parks bring together the intellectual capital of a university with industry partners to work together. The ultimate objectives of the partnerships are to bring new ideas and new companies to market, to encourage the spinoff companies to find permanent homes in the city of origin, to create high-end employment and to add to the growing business cluster.
The Kingston Innovation Park, developing under the leadership of Queen's University, is the 26th innovation park in Canada and is focused on environmental and alternate energy, as well as advanced materials. It is the first organization in Kingston actually mandated to grow ideas and products through the union of academia and industry. And it has brought together our universities and colleges, the city and the corporate world and given them a common focus. It is a big idea that we all need to embrace and promote.
That said, who is there and what are they doing?
Major companies
* Novelis, with its Global Technology Centre as the anchor industry partner for the park.
* Procter & Gamble, with global manufacturing operations located within 40 minutes of the park.
Small and medium companies
* Acumetrics Canada, a developer of innovative solid oxide fuel cell systems.
* Kingston Metals & Materials, a producer of specialty materials and winner of the first edition of the First Capital Challenge business plan competition.
* Kingston Process Metallurgy, a process development company with a variety of international commercial clients.
* MEGS Specialty Gases & Equipment, a growing company specializing in pure and specialty gas mixtures.
* Pathogen Detection Systems, a spinoff company from the university that has recently been purchased and is now expanding operations in Kingston -- exactly the purpose of the park. Pathogen Detection Systems is housed in Innovation Park's satellite wing in the Biosciences Complex on Queen's main campus.
Research and commercialization organizations
* CMC Microsystems, which connects 45 universities and involves more than 750 faculty and 2,500 other researchers across Canada.
* GreenCentre Canada, a national not-for-profit commercialization centre dedicated to developing, and advancing to market, cleaner, less energy-intensive solutions for traditional chemical and manufacturing processes.
* The High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory, co-located at the park and one of the fastest and most advanced computer clusters in the world, with the capacity to handle vast amounts of data.
* PARTEQ Innovations, the technology transfer office of Queen's University. PARTEQ is located in Innovation Park's satellite wing in the Biosciences Complex on Queen's main campus.
* the Queen's-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre, Canada's leading university-based centre for research critical to the commercialization of fuel cell applications.
* The Sustainable Bioeconomy Centre, which focuses on bioenergy and other biomass opportunities within the Great Lakes region.
Innovation Service Providers
* ELORIN -- The Eastern Lake Ontario Regional Innovation Centre.
* The Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce
* KEDCO -- the Kingston Economic Development Corporation.
* NCR-IRAP -- The National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program.
* OCE -- Ontario Centres of Excellence.
* SWITCH -- Kingston's Alternative Energy Cluster.
All of this represents only the start of phase 1 of the park in its 85,000-square-foot facility. Phase 2 of the park will develop the entire 50-acre site.
Innovation Park is, and will be, a major player in developing new ideas, products and processes in the environmental and alternative energy fields. It is a lightning rod for academics and corporations engaged in these focused fields, and it will bring further notice to Kingston as a place to invest intellectual capital and financial capital. It is, I believe, the convergence of the right entity in the right place at the right time, and it is very exciting and, potentially, hugely important for Kingston.
Innovation Park has the potential to solve several of Kingston's long-term problems by helping retain our key graduates, attracting more businesses and more highly qualified workers, creating the focus around which to build an industry cluster, and, of course, increasing the commercial tax base. It is a lot to ask, but the park is obviously off to a great start.
A tip of the hat should go to former Queen's principal Karen Hitchcock and the university for pioneering the innovation park concept here in Kingston. It now encompasses more than 300 people across the various companies and projects mentioned above, and it is obviously just the beginning.
Innovation Park is truly at the centre of the city's future. And the future looks bright.
Don Curtis is a retired communications professional. He has lived in Kingston for eight years and is involved in numerous community projects.
