Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for inviting us again to address your committee.
My name is Nobina Robinson, and I'm joined by my colleague, Ken Doyle, of Polytechnics Canada.
Contributing to Canada's economic success is what polytechnic institutions do. It is an integral part of our mission. We foster economic growth through applied research that addresses commercial needs. I can't emphasize this enough. Our research is driven by industry requirements, not by academic curiosity. Being close to our clients, we deliver results quickly and efficiently. Just ask the thousands of firms that come to us for help. We help small and medium-sized businesses solve a variety of challenges, from the design and prototype stages of new products right through to their commercialization, and finally to adoption by Canadian consumers.
In the past year, the federal budget and its research funding agencies of government have recognized our positive economic contribution by boosting available applied research support to the college sector, and for that we are thankful. We appreciate the measured, positive, and forward changes within programs at NSERC, at the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, and SSHRC. I note particularly the presence today of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, CFI, which has recently announced a new fund for vitally needed college research infrastructure. I wish to thank the CFI for this recognition.
The nine members of Polytechnics Canada are located in key economic regions across the country in B.C., Alberta, and Ontario. All nine have broken out of the mould of the traditional community college. While we still proudly offer diplomas, essential trades and apprenticeship training, together the nine of us offer 76 bachelor degrees, and we work together with our university partners to offer another 21 joint bachelor degrees. We are seeing more and more examples of collaborative research projects between university and college faculty on an informal project-by-project basis. This is an important new trend that should be encouraged.
Last year we provided you with concrete examples of how our members are helping companies in Canada. Today, I want to share three more success stories.
In Vancouver, the British Columbia Institute of Technology is helping to develop a smart grid electricity system for Schneider Electric, the world's largest producer of energy management software. The idea is to let customers manage their electricity use to take advantage of different prices during peak demand periods to reduce their costs.
In Toronto, Mill Pond Cannery and Preserves Company sought George Brown College's assistance in developing their business. The partnership resulted in the commercialization of Mill Pond's maiden line of fruit butters in an interdisciplinary effort that saw the product through R and D to the assembly line to store shelves and consumers.
In Calgary, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton is making use of SAIT Polytechnic's expertise in sports engineering to design a sled that can be produced at a lower cost to encourage more participants in a sport where Canada is a world leader.
These are just three examples of the dozens of examples of win-win cooperation between SMEs and polytechnic institutions, often propelled by the one modest federal granting council program for college research. In 2009-10, our nine members consulted with 750 local companies, conducted 351 applied research projects, which resulted in 124 prototypes being developed. We believe in measuring the output of your dollars; it's very important for us.
Due to the size and nature of these companies, and the current economic situation, we are confident that without the applied research services of our students and faculty, the majority of these companies would not have undertaken these projects, and these ideas would have remained on blueprint paper instead of being turned into tangible prototypes.
We recognize that the country is now facing severe constraints on new spending. That is why we have offered practical ideas for small-scale, targeted, incremental, and pilot projects that continue to modestly build the capacity and momentum of research-intensive colleges in Canada. Opportunities exist to encourage and incentivize the smaller and newer entrants in the innovation system, such as colleges and small companies. We've mentioned two such opportunities in our paper: a commercialization chair program, and a program designed to harness the latent talent of newcomers with industrial experience to mentor our students.
With additional research training support for the Canadian college sector, Canada could make better use not only of the 130,000 full-time students at our polytechnics but of the creativity and innovation that lies untapped in all Canadian college graduates, coast to coast to coast.
I look forward to your questions. Thank you.