Flintbox Technologies: September

Flintbox Technologies is a snapshot of some of the most recent out-licensing and in-licensing opportunities available on our site.

Out-Licensing Opportunities

Centre for Logic & Information Seeks Partnership

St. Francis Xavier University – August 25, 2008

St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) is seeking an industry partner to invest in and collaborate with the StFX Centre for Logic & Information in our Building Decision Support Systems for Health Care research project. With over $3.5M for research funding in place for the project and a partnership with a local health authority; we now need an innovative Heath Informatics, IT Management or Systems Integration company to partner with, share our research and resources and together, develop and move new products to commercial success.

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Machine Learning System for Protein Folding Dynamics and Structure Determination

University of Guelph – August 27, 2008

A machine learning system is developed to induce the folding dynamics of proteins (macromolecules) of known sequences and structures (training set). These dynamics are then applied to other proteins whose structures are unknown (test set). Thus, the problem of identifying the fold dynamics is treated as a function approximation problem, where the function to be learned is the update equation of a dynamical system.

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RadClean Toilet Seat

College of the North Atlantic – August 22, 2008

The RadClean toilet seat is designed for the decontamination of the seat area using UV irradiation. The device has a particular suitability to medical facilities, public washrooms and other high traffic toilets.

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Novel Catalyst for the Dry Reforming of Methane

University of Saskatchewan – August 19, 2008

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan have developed a novel catalyst and method of manufacture that overcomes a number of the issues that have been associated with Dry Reforming.

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In-Licensing Opportunities

Self Powered Transmitter

NineSigma Inc. – September 3, 2008

A Fortune 500 Corporation invites proposals for development of a wireless, self-powered transmitter with matching receiver. The goal is to find a system solution, not a component that might be part of a solution.

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Coformycin- Novel Cancer Therapy for Epithelial Cancers

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare – August 29, 2008

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare is seeking a company to license and/or co-develop a potential cancer therapy, coformycin, for the treatment of epithelial cancer. In 2006, 1.4 million Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer and in 80% of those cases (more than 1.1 million people), the tumors will be of epithelial origin. ENH Investigators have discovered that coformycin could be effective against human tumors of epithelial origin, namely from lungs, breast, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary tract and the reproductive organs.

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CIMA Labs Drug Delivery Technologies Search

Consulate General of Canada, Minneapolis – August 22, 2008

Given the very successful response to CIMA Labs’ initial search for Canadian drug delivery platform technologies, the Consulate General of Canada Minneapolis has once again partnered with the company to launch a second round call for technologies.

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Queen’s-Generated Nanotechnology Company Receives $4.6 million From Government of Canada

Flintbox member Queen’s University announces new funding for one of their startups:

Repayable investment funds development of next-generation aerospace parts

Integran Technologies Inc., an advanced materials company based on technology developed at Queen’s University, has been awarded $4.6 million by the Government of Canada for the research and development of next-generation nanotechnology-based coatings for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

The funding, in the form of a repayable investment, enables Integran to expand its technological capabilities in composite tooling. The project aims to develop Nanovate NV™, a hard metal surface coating for aerospace tools to improve tool lifespan and durability, and to achieve cost savings. These tools will be used to form and shape airplane parts.

Integran was formed based on nanomaterials research pioneered at Queen’s University by metallurgist Uwe Erb, who discovered a novel way to manipulate the grain size of nickel using electrodeposition, a widely used, low-cost metal processing technique. His technology formed the basis of Nanometals Corp., a PARTEQ spinoff company that was later merged into Integran.

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Congrats to Parteq and thanks to Hassan Jafferi for sending us this news item! If you are a Flintbox member and want to share news about your organization with the rest of the Flintbox community, email us at support@flintbox.com.

‘Best of the Web’ For Protecting Online Portfolios

This month Flintbox welcomes guest blogger Heather Dimson, C4 E-Commerce Coordinator, WORLDiscoveriesTM, The University of Western Ontario. Heather offers tips and resources to fellow Flintbox users on how to protect your online portfolio.

When I first created a business website back in 1996, my highest priority was to make a logo that rotated (it required only four separate images and I considered it animation). After rubbing elbows with innumerable lawyers at the McGill IPIC course Copyright in Internet, Technology and Software last month, my greatest current concern is protecting my online portfolio. I’ve come across some great resources in this quest, including:

• Citizen Media Law Project’s Legal Guide
  Harvard University law students have created a legal guide for anyone who publishes online. If you have a website, you need to read the section on Creating Effective Terms of Use and Privacy Policies.
• Canada Business: E-Business Info-Guide
  The Canadian Government offers this great resource for anyone who wishes to conduct business online. Among the essentials are the Canadian Competition Bureau Canadian Code of Practice for Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce and ebiz.enable, a training tool leading to even more great links. Even if you don’t offer anything for sale through Flintbox, you should probably familiarize yourself with the basics of the Protection of Personal Information – Your Responsibilities since you may receive identifying information through Flintbox enquiries (if you are a part of a larger organization such as a University, you likely have an overreaching Privacy Policy that you should familiarize yourself with).
• Gowlings Domain Name Law Portal
  A Canadian law firm’s musings on domain names and trademarks. In addition to a (completely boring – did I mention I’m not a lawyer?) compendium of case law on domain name issues, this site offers the e-commerce essentials in the left-hand menus ‘Useful links’ and ‘Internet Tools’. And the Wayback Machine is just plain fun – especially for us geeks who created pathetic animated logos back in ’96.

Why not share your favorite e-commerce links by posting a comment below?

Thanks again to Heather for a great list of resources! If you are interested in guest posting on the Flintbox blog, email us at support@flintbox.com.

$554 Million in Funding for Canadian Research Hospitals

The Canada Foundation for Innovation announced $554 million dollars in funding yesterday for Canadian Research hospitals to help attract and keep world-class researchers.

“This investment in Canada’s research hospitals will result in new insights into the causes of illness, new approaches to prevention and treatment, improved health-care delivery systems, and ultimately, in an improved quality of life for all Canadians,” Dr. Eliot Phillipson, president and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, said in a release.

Congratulations to Flintbox members receiving funding including McGill University, Memorial University and The Hospital for Sick Children.

The $554,480,880 investment includes:

• $426,544,529 awarded under the Large-Scale Institutional Endeavours component of the Research Hospital Fund.
• $127,936,351 to assist institutions with the operation and maintenance costs associated with the infrastructure projects being funded.

For more information read the CBC article, or visit the Canadian Foundation for Innovation website.

ACCT Canada Funded Features Now On Flintbox

Earlier this year ACCT Canada, The Alliance for the Commercialization of Canadian Technology, requested proposals from our group members to suggest new and novel uses of Flintbox as part of the grant program from NSERC. We received many excellent proposals, and the final three chosen were from the C4 consortium, the University of Victoria (IDC) and Red River College. Thanks to these great proposals and funding from ACCT Canada and NSERC all our members now have access to new Flintbox features.

“We are pleased to announce the launch of new Flintbox features funded by ACCT Canada and NSERC.” said Janet Scholz, Managing Director of ACCT Canada. “As part of the launch, ACCT Canada has added the new Flintbox widget to our website, allowing our members to stay up-to-date with all the latest innovations from more than 80 research institutions in Canada. ACCT Canada is proud to support building connections between industry and the Canadian research community through Flintbox.”

WYSIWYG Editor (C4)
No longer do you have to use HTML tags when editing Flintbox profiles and projects. WYSIWYG stands for “what you see is what you get” – just enter your text and use the buttons for formatting.  We also created social bookmarking, and received many more great ideas for ways to connect the Flintbox membership.

Flintbox Widget and PDF Generator (University of Victoria)
With the Flintbox Widget, you can now easily add Flintbox to your own website.  Its easy – and free – to sign up. Just use the code provided, and in minutes you can display an inset with Flintbox postings on any website. The widget updates automatically, allowing you to have the most up-to-date content from Flintbox on your website or blog.

Currently available are either the Flintbox Technology Feed, or the Flintbox Most Popular, visit the Flintbox website for instructions and examples.

Coming soon – Canada’s Hot Technology, profiling a great new technology from a different Canadian research institution every week!

IDC’s proposal also included the first stages of a PDF generator to allow anyone viewing a project on Flintbox to take away a PDF copy of the page. This is phase one of the project, we are hoping to complete phase two later this year, which will allow for more flexibility, editing, and report generation.

Blaze – Educational Resource Co-operative (Red River College)
Members of the Canadian Virtual College Consortium, spearheaded by Red River College, received ACCT Canada funding to launch Blaze, an open educational resource (OER) co-operative for international sharing of Canadian educational resources and curriculum content. Flintbox members can tag educational resource postings with “OER” to have them added to the Blaze site.

Thank you to ACCT Canada and to all our participating organizations. Please contact us as support@flintbox.com to let us know if you have any questions or feel free to send us feedback on these new features.

Online Commercialization Training with Wendy Kennedy

Starting today and running throughout the fall, “entrepreneurial professor” Wendy Kennedy is offering a series of online training sessions in Commercialization and Entrepreneurship.

Kicking off the series is today’s session What’s the REAL Business Problem? Learn the Language of Business and the Core Value of Your Invention.

At the root of all successful inventions is the ability to solve real customer problems, and most successful inventions can be traced back to this one factor. Seasoned inventors know this and invest time understanding the business problem that an idea or invention solves. Being able to articulate both the real problem and how your invention solves it in a clear and concise manner is a simple, yet powerful concept can pay big dividends as you seek funding or support for your invention.

In this session, Wendy will break down the key elements of defining and developing an effective problem statement. She will take you step-by-step through the process of discovering and translating scientific and technical ideas into compelling problem statements.

The series has two streams – 1. For Inventors, Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Coaches and 2. For Commercialization and Technology Transfer Professionals. Each stream has 5 sessions, each session costs $159 and provides you with access to an online resource bank, as well as “admission” to the class.

Stream 2 starts on August 27th with Light the Commercialization Fire in Your Organization – 5 Strategies to Fuel Commercialization in Your Labs

Most research labs are at the early stages of the commercialization adoption curve. For many, commercialization is not well understood by many researchers and scientists and, therefore, causes them to dismiss the value and contribution it can make to advance their research. Researchers with an interest to commercialize are often reticent for fear of being labeled by their peers as “selling out”. There is a role for education and awareness building in this environment to dispel these misconceptions. Critical to this process is a targeted program aimed at engaging researchers to self-educate and discover the true meaning and value of commercialization.

In this session, Wendy will share best practices for igniting commercialization programs in a research environment. She will also provide awareness building strategies and techniques for engaging the broader community to fuel commercialization in your organization.

Webinars and online training sessions provide a great, low-cost way to continue learning new methods and techniques with out having to travel (or break your organization’s budget). While there is no substitute for in person training, online training might just be the next best thing. Learn more about this series at wendykennedy.com.