Grant: CCI Mobilize Grants

George Brown College will use Mobilize funding to leverage academic expertise in interdisciplinary applied research focused on three primary program areas and six research centres: (1) the Product Development Exchange (PDx), with the Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping (AMP) Labs and the Textile and Garment (TaG) Labs; (2) the Future Living Exchange (FLx), with the Life Centered Design Institute (LCDI) and the Built Environments Studio (BESt); and (3) the Social Innovation Exchange (SIx) with the Institute for Community Innovation (ICI) and the Black Futures Research Institute. GBC’s Think, Make, Test model enables partners across diverse sectors to adopt new processes, tools and methodologies to drive innovation, design and develop new products and services, and experiment with products, services and systems to ensure success prior to market launch. The Mobilize grant will help sustain researcher capacity and student engagement in applied research and innovation and meet the growing industry and community partner demand anticipated over the next five years. George Brown College has a strong track record of multidisciplinary research leading to significant economic, environmental, social and health benefits for companies, communities and Canadians. Mobilize funding is essential to the college’s current and future partners sustaining this high level of impactful research outcomes. The overall goal of the program is to enable local and regional industry and community innovation by applying the proven Think, Make, Test model across the college’s three primary program areas. The proposal objectives are to: 1. help partners design and develop innovative new products that respond to changing consumer attitudes and requirements; 2. support partners in establishing their competitive advantage and ability to provide socioeconomic benefits for Canadians; 3. prepare students for employment by providing them with highly-relevant research and innovation skills; 4. maintain growth and impact across our three program areas; 5. improve the welfare and wellbeing of individuals and communities; and 6. champion principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, sustainability and responsible conduct of research.