Media Releases

University of Toronto to amplify entrepreneurship offerings with over $3 million from province’s Campus-Linked Accelerator Program

September 23, 2014

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will receive more than $3 mil­lion in fund­ing to increase its train­ing and sup­port for stu­dent entre­pre­neur­ship as part of the Cam­pus-Linked Accel­er­a­tor Pro­gram (CLA), announced today by Reza Mori­di, Ontario’s Min­is­ter of Research and Inno­va­tion, and Min­is­ter of Train­ing, Col­leges and Uni­ver­si­ties.

“Fos­ter­ing the entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it among stu­dents is a key com­po­nent of Ontario’s Youth Jobs Strat­e­gy, through pro­grams that help trans­fer their ideas and skills to the mar­ket­place while cre­at­ing reward­ing careers,” said Min­is­ter Mori­di. “By part­ner­ing with col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties to sup­port entre­pre­neur­ship, we are ensur­ing our province’s busi­ness lead­ers of tomor­row are get­ting the sup­port they need to suc­ceed today.”

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to pro­duces more star­tups than any oth­er uni­ver­si­ty in Cana­da and is already home to a diverse ecosys­tem of entre­pre­neur­ship sup­ports, includ­ing accel­er­a­tors, pro­grams, cours­es, class­es and co-cur­ric­u­lar orga­ni­za­tions.

The $3,056,000 of fund­ing over two years will enable the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to to bet­ter coor­di­nate its entre­pre­neur­ship activ­i­ties, expand the base of stu­dents exposed to entre­pre­neur­ship at the uni­ver­si­ty and enhance the qual­i­ty of train­ing.

“The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to has long been a leader in fos­ter­ing entre­pre­neur­ship,” said Scott Mabury, U of T’s vice-pres­i­dent of uni­ver­si­ty oper­a­tions. “This new invest­ment allows us to strength­en the impact of our range of ini­tia­tives and inten­si­fy our ties with the region­al inno­va­tion ecosys­tem.”

With this fund­ing, U of T will con­tin­ue to build on its long track record of suc­cess in this area by expand­ing the entre­pre­neur­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties it offers to stu­dents, pri­mar­i­ly through its four prin­ci­pal accel­er­a­tors: The Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab (Rot­man School of Man­age­ment), The Hatch­ery (Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing), The Impact Cen­tre (Fac­ul­ty of Arts & Sci­ence), and UTEST (The Inno­va­tion and Part­ner­ships Office, pro­duced in part­ner­ship with MaRS Inno­va­tion). U of T’s Bant­i­ng and Best Cen­tre for Inno­va­tion and Entre­pre­neur­ship will oper­ate as an umbrel­la accel­er­a­tor to coor­di­nate entre­pre­neur­ship activ­i­ties across the University’s three cam­pus­es.

“The CLA pro­gram will great­ly enhance what the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to can offer its com­mu­ni­ty in terms of entre­pre­neur-focused edu­ca­tion and sup­port,” said Jesse Rodgers, direc­tor of the Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab at the Joseph L. Rot­man School of Man­age­ment. “The Uni­ver­si­ty is rich with expe­ri­ence, research, and raw tal­ent to build strong com­pa­nies. With sup­port from the CLA ini­tia­tive more stu­dents will have what they need to be suc­cess­ful.”

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