Applied research may not be the sexiest subject, but Canadian colleges conducting vital hands-on work for business and communities alike are pressing all the right innovation buttons.
Two of the newest additions to the world of postsecondary research are Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology in Hamilton, and Grande Prairie Regional College in northwestern Alberta.
The two colleges have dabbled in applied research over the years. But to formalize their work and enhance their reputations, in September they each named directors to their fledgling research and innovation centres.
Mohawk, for example, is involved in more than one sweet project, including one involving helping a local candy company learn how to better make candy canes. And when it comes to determining the lifespan of tree seedlings, Grande Prairie (GPRC) is sprouting more than its share of interesting research ideas.
Students such as Hilary Ahman, a 26-year-old in the joint McMaster University-Mohawk bachelor of medical radiation science in ultrasound, say their research-related studies are getting them a leg up on the work force competition.
Now getting her clinical experience at a hospital in Owen Sound, Ms. Ahman is also looking to publish her work with Mohawk classmates and Ted Scott, an award-winning ultrasound research specialist and head of the college's Centre for Innovation and Applied Research.
"It's important and fantastic that the college is involved in applied research," says Ms. Ahman, a Halifax native who now calls Abbotsford, B.C., her home.
"Being involved in an institution that has a focus on research adds credibility to the program. Mohawk has a strong reputation for producing highly skilled technicians, and I am relying on that for after I graduate and return to B.C.
"It serves the community well," she adds, "to know that their college is on the front line of research in many areas and that a high standard of academics exists outside of larger institutions."
Mohawk, with about 10,000 full-time students, has a six-year plan for its new innovation centre. Its work encompasses four basic themes: education, medical radiation sciences, health-care informatics and a variety of industry-based projects.
Major projects already under way include the computer science program's work in developing tools for the deployment of electronic health-care records in Ontario. The project was initially backed with $1-million in cash and in-kind services from Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
A recent application for funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence involves a Hamilton manufacturing company, Karma Candy Inc., which is looking to Mohawk's industrial engineering students and faculty to help it learn how to enhance production of Christmas treats.
Mohawk is a "relative newcomer" to formal applied research, so no budget has been set for its new program, Mr. Scott says.
But its staff and students have been involved in community research projects in the city of more than 504,000 for some time.
"We're formalizing and building a structure around what we have been doing more ad hoc for the last five to eight years," he says.
That sense of strong community links is also shared by GPRC.
Grande Prairie, a growing city of more than 50,000, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and has a rich agricultural economy. So it's a natural fit that, among other initiatives in natural and social sciences, the regional college's focus on forestry research is striving to improve the survival rates of tree seedlings.
Much of the agricultural work and student education is undertaken at the college's 259-square-kilometre training forest south of the city.
"We directly interact with community and industry people, and collect their applied research needs, such as in forestry and health care," says Bruce Rutley, director of the GPRC's Centre for Research and Innovation, established in partnership with the Peace Region Economic Development Alliance.
Money for research projects such as those at Grande Prairie and Mohawk come from a variety of sources, including government financing and the private sector. But what is attracting businesses and government alike to Mohawk, Grande Prairie and other college research centres, rather than to larger universities?
Grande Prairie's Dr. Rutley says that compared with universities, colleges are closer to the community and local industries, so can perceive and understand their research needs more readily. Colleges also tend to delve into more everyday, front-line issues, he adds.
Dr. Rutley, an agrologist with a PhD in wildlife ecology and management from the University of Alberta, says research leaders such as forestry instructor Weixing Tan help create a win-win situation at schools such as GPRC, which has about 1,300 students.
The school's Centre for Research and Innovation's mandate is to use applied research as a teaching tool, motivating students to apply it in the real world for problem-solving, as well as to help faculty in their own professional development, and to aid the community, business and industry.
Dr. Tan says some of the research projects result in developing new lab exercises for students. One example, he says, involves the college's work in nailing down green technology that uses algae to remove carbon dioxide from power-plant emissions.
Currently, five students are directly involved in separate applied research projects with Dr. Tan, and the results of their work are shared with more than 100 students in other programs, Dr. Rutley says. Dr. Tan takes his research information "and integrates it into the classroom, so students see him as not just a teacher talking from books, but as someone as actually practising his profession," Dr. Rutley says.
Although GPRC's applied research centre is just a few weeks old, researchers like Dr. Tan have a long history of putting the school on the innovation map. In the mid-1990s, he did work for a local forestry company that found, somewhat surprisingly, that less-hearty white spruce seedlings stood a better chance of survival after planting than did heartier ones that got special treatment before going into the soil.
Dr. Tan says that initial research project helped the new research centre land a $500,000 project for five forestry companies that will focus on refining his earlier work.
Special to The Globe and Mail
FUNDING A KEY PLAYER
The vital role that Canadian colleges play in the applied research world was emphasized last February when it was announced that up to 25 college-based R&D projects would be supported with a $48-million, three-year College and Community Innovation (CCI) program, managed by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council.
Although it welcomed the move, the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) expressed concern that it had taken seven years from the time it began pushing for federal support of R&D activities before the CCI, first developed as a $1.8-million pilot project, became a permanent program.
"This is a real breakthrough. It's the first time the government has recognized the college contribution to research and working with the private sector … Now we need to demonstrate the value added for Canada: local economic development and productivity enhancement," said James Knight, president of the ACCC, which represents more than 150 colleges and polytechnics.
The group intends to document the outcomes of the research receiving CCI funding to lobby for more government support.
