Thank you, Denise.
Madam Chair, it is a privilege to be here before this committee representing Durham College and speaking on the impact of applied research.
Our research partners value our collaboration with them because they know we can quickly deliver solutions on their timelines and they retain the ownership of their IP.
One example of a business that we partnered with during the pandemic is 4Pay Inc., a financial technology firm specializing in digital wallets. Durham College's AI hub assisted them with building a wallet optimizer to manage gift cards in the company's proprietary digital wallet.
Another company, ConnexHealth Inc., is a first-of-its-kind personal-support-worker-as-a-service company, providing care services for seniors across this country. Durham College's AI hub assisted the company to build their digital health service to assist users with choosing their services and optimizing timing and delivery.
We're always grateful for our primary research funders: NSERC and the NRC. Commercialization supports, however, are limited in the current funding environment, and without assistance, companies can struggle with next steps such as regulatory challenges, certification, finding strong investment partners, sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. The lack of these supports for small and medium-sized companies is a limiting factor in their success. There are limited local resources to support growth, and for colleges, we do not receive any resources beyond funding projects.
Looking to the future, we are exploring the development of a trades innovation centre that would be the first of its kind, establishing an exciting new connection between diverse trades to collaborate and develop new industry solutions.
Thank you again for this opportunity to speak to you this evening. We look forward to your questions.