Research & Innovation Boréal (RIB)

• Support and guidance in project development, including the development of funding applications and receiving ethical approval when necessary
• Identification of sources of funding and administrative management of projects, agreements, and reports
• Prototyping and concept validation
• Creation and sharing of tools and resources
• Access to the expertise of our highly qualified researchers
• Support from our students in your projects supervised by our researchers
• Access to our research and innovation facilities and to our state-of-the-art equipment

• Support and guidance in the development of funding applications and ethical evaluation requests
• Identification of funding source and administrative management of partnerships, projects, agreements, and reports
• Support for multidisciplinary collaboration initiatives and research partnerships
• Access to research and innovation facilities and state-of-the-art equipment
• Opportunities for internships, summer jobs, and part-time jobs for your students

The Province of Ontario issued its Commercialization Mandate Policy Framework in early 2022. The objective of Ontario’s Commercialization Mandate Policy Framework is to harness the intellectual property generated with the institution’s resources to achieve Ontario’s goal of ensuring that made-in-Ontario innovations benefit Ontarians.

Follow the link for the full statement: Commercialization of Intellectual Property Policy Statement

Collège Boréal is an innovative educational, cultural and community hub serving Ontario’s Francophone population. Its goal is to produce a highly qualified bilingual workforce that is engaged in French-speaking communities and contributes to the economic, social and cultural vitality of the province and the country. Visible and recognized, Collège Boréal enriches communities through the quality of its training and personalized services at its seven campuses and 37 sites in 26 communities across the province.

Newly formed in 2019, Research & Innvoation Boréal continues to innovate in order to remain a competitive provincial and national leader in applied research. Collège Boréal remains on the lookout for emerging research areas and themes and positions itself as a leader in the communities it serves, placing particular importance on collaboration with its communities and multi-sectoral research teams. Collège Boréal develops research partnerships with businesses, governments and communities to address their needs and current societal challenges. We work closely with small and medium-sized enterprises in our regions to provide innovative solutions to the challenges they face. Research projects allow us to jointly develop expertise in research and education for our students. They are at the heart of our research projects. By participating, they benefit from experiential learning opportunities, in-depth training in their field of study and exposure to future employers.

In our approach to IP and its commercialization, our greatest success lies in our ability to support innovation in partnership with companies, and to help them commercialize their products at their request. In fact, during the year 23-24, we supported our partners in accessing information related to IP and its commercialization. In particular, we supported the organization of an event entitled Innovation for a Greater Sudbury – IP 101 in collaboration with Laurentian University, Cambrian College, NORCAT Innovation, the Sudbury Regional Business Centre, and the Greater Sudbury Innovation District. The event focused on IP and how it can accelerate business growth, with presentations from a patent lawyer, the City of Greater Sudbury’s Director of Economic Development, and the owner of a private company that has benefited from IP commercialization. We took advantage of the event to chat with PIO members and share with them the needs of our partners.

Collège Boréal supports research initiatives in a multitude of fields, including the agricultural sector. Many of our partners approach us to develop projects related to the adoption and adaptation of new technologies. However, agriculture is not a sector that falls within the eligibility criteria for PIO services. In fact, to be eligible, the company must operate in one of the following sectors: medical technology and life sciences (not including agriculture), artificial intelligence, automotive technology, mining and advanced automotive manufacturing. In particular, we are working with an industrial partner on the development of a new agricultural greenhouse technology, and have been able to refer them to Assistance PI, the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program. Our greatest success in terms of IP support and commercialization is quantifiable in the organization and participation in an educational event, the sharing of tools and resources with partners in our twelve active research projects, and the training of our research teams, including some twenty students.

In March 2021, the three federal research funding agencies (i.e., the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)) launched the Tri-Agency Policy on Research Data Management. This policy promotes research data management and data stewardship practices among Canadian researchers. To this end, Canadian postsecondary institutions were asked to develop their own research data management (RDM) strategies and share them publicly on their websites.

Follow the link to access the full strategy (French only): Institutional Research Data Management Strategy

Professor and coordinator of agricultural programs

For over twenty years, Jean Pierre Kapongo has been conducting in vitro and in situ research projects focusing on plant production and protection. His aim is to preserve biodiversity and the environment while increasing agricultural yields. His research played a significant role in the development of entomovection, a technology used by the Canadian company Bee Vectoring Technology (BVT) and by North American farmers since 2009. As author and co-author of several scientific articles and chapters in specialized journals, he is particularly interested in reducing the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture and promoting new biological technologies for sustainable agricultural production.

At Collège Boréal, Mr. Kapongo directed and supervised several research projects focusing on the application of new techniques and trends in the production and protection of strawberry, oat and plant crops under sheltered conditions. The main aim of these projects was to improve crop yields while preserving biodiversity, ecosystems and the environment.

Professor of Electrical and Electronics Programs

Since the beginning, Kuny has been involved in research projects at Collège Boréal as an expert in industrial design, manufacturing, automation, electronics and programming. His career path has been marked by a constant passion for innovation and creation. One of his achievements is the Smart Windmill Controller (SWC), a project entirely developed and designed at Collège Boréal. This intelligent controller manages the mechanical power of the wind to charge and regulate current for batteries. Another fascinating project he was involved in was the development of adjustable racks for strawberry cultivation. Putting his design and manufacturing skills to good use, he participated in the complete design of the system at Collège Boréal.

His career at Boréal has been marked by fruitful collaborations and concrete achievements, testifying to his expertise in industrial design, manufacturing and technology. His ongoing involvement in innovative projects reflects his passion for research and development, and he is determined to pursue this path in order to actively contribute to the advancement of science and technology.

Coordinator/Professor of Environment and Natural Resources Programs

Marc hails from the city of Greater Sudbury and has lived through the dramatic changes to the city’s forest environment since the 1980s. Rehabilitation of the forests devastated by the region’s mining activities is world-renowned, and part of its history.

This history forged his desire to contribute to the rehabilitation of the region’s acidified soils, through the use of wood ash, a bioproduct of the forestry industry. Since 2013, Marc has coordinated six research projects on the use of wood ash to improve acidified and nutrient-poor soil remediation techniques.

Environmental Research and Biodiversity Technologist

For over 6 years, Olivia has been involved in environmental projects run by the Collège and its partners. Specializing in aquaculture, forestry, and agriculture, she has worked on a number of projects, including a feasibility study on the commercial farming of lake whitefish, the economic potential of plant growth activators, the use of industrial residues for environmental rehabilitation, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of symbiotic cultures of three complementary native species.