BIOTECanada and Cognit.ca Launch Initiative to Help Biotechnology Industry Mobilize University and Hospital Research

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To help accelerate innovation in Canada’s biotechnology industry, BIOTECanada and Cognit.ca are partnering to launch the Biotechnology R&D Portal and the Biotechnology R&D Showcase webinar series. The goal of this initiative is to help Canada’s biotechnology industry more quickly mobilize university and hospital research into products and services that benefit Canadians.

The Biotechnology R&D Portal will give industry leaders unprecedented visibility into world-class expertise, research, facilities and intellectual property that exist at post-secondary institutions across Canada. The Biotechnology R&D Showcases will connect industry executives and researchers with cutting-edge discoveries.

“Academic research is a critical raw ingredient for innovation and company growth. In a knowledge intensive industry like biotechnology, getting quick and efficient access to that raw ingredient is a significant competitive advantage,” said Andrew Casey, President and CEO of BIOTECanada. “This partnership with Cognit.ca will help give our members that edge and help Canadians benefit from these discoveries more quickly.”

“Cognit.ca was designed to help businesses access expertise, research, facilities and intellectual property at post-secondary institutions across the country,” said Mike Matheson, managing director of Cognit.ca. “This partnership with BIOTECanada will help fuel Canada’s biotechnology industry with the world-class research being undertaken in Canada’s post-secondary institutions.”

The Biotechnology R&D Portal leverages Cognit.ca’s extensive database of research activities undertaken by Canada’s post-secondary education institutions. The portal will give industry leaders a window into the latest research and discoveries as well as the ability to search Cognit.ca’s database of more than 225,000 research grants, more than 100,000 experts, thousands of pieces of intellectual property, thousands of pieces of research infrastructure and hundreds of research facilities from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Research Facilities Navigator. The portal can be accessed at http://www.biotech.ca/rd-portal/

About BIOTECanada

BIOTECanada is the national industry association with over 200 members located nation wide, reflecting the diverse nature of Canada’s health, industrial and agricultural biotechnology sectors. In addition to providing significant health benefits for Canadians, the biotechnology industry has quickly become an essential part of the transformation of many traditional cornerstones of the Canadian economy including manufacturing, automotive, energy, aerospace and forestry industries.

About Cognit.ca

Cognit.ca is a tool for businesses, non-profits, governments and others who want to access the experts, facilities and/or intellectual property that exist on campuses across Canada. Originally created by The U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities as part of a larger set of initiatives to increase the impact of Canadian university research Cognit.ca is now being developed in partnership with Universities Canada, in collaboration with Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and with the support of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and Mitacs.