Focused on water related technologies, this event will introduce McMaster University researchers and local businesses to each other with the intent of starting research collaborations that address a company-specific problem. Collaborations will be eligible to apply for up to $25,000 funding from the NSERC Engage program.

Creating New Water Resource Technologies

Water research is an area of excellence for McMaster University and an area of interest to many local businesses. During this event, McMaster researchers will introduce their areas of water expertise in short (two minutes, one slide) presentations. Afterwards there will be a "speed dating" type session to introduce the university researchers to the business representatives. The goal of these introductions is to find areas of common interest and to initiate research collaborations. These collaborations would then apply to the NSERC Engage program for seed funding.

The event will also feature  two short presentations about the Engage program. The first, by John Jackson, from NSERC’s Ontario Regional Office, will outline some of the key details for the grant and offer ‘insider tips’ on how to prepare a successful application. The second, by Professor Jim Cotton, will explain how he was able to use an Engage grant to kick-start a successful collaboration with Pizza Pizza.

About NSERC Engage

In 2010, NSERC introduced two new industry/academic partnership grants: ‘Engage’ and ‘Interaction’.  These new grants provide funding for first-time research partnerships involving a university researcher and an industry partner, and form the leading edge of a new NSERC initiative called 'Strategies for Partnership and Innovation’.  Both grants are aimed at the creation of new research collaborations; that is, projects where the academic and industry partners have never formally worked together.   

Unlike some comparable funding programs, including NSERC’s well-established ‘Collaborative R&D’ grant program, no cash contribution is required from the industry partner.  Success rates for applications are high and, so far, almost 400 grants have been awarded to Ontario researchers alone.