Canadian Food and Wine Institute Research Centre at Niagara CollegeDr. Amy Proulx – Program Coordinatoraproulx@niagaracollege.ca

How we work with artisans and entrepreneurs

• National Science and Engineering Research Council – College and Community Innovation Program (NSERC-CCI)

• Funds for job creation, technical readiness, and economic competitiveness in food and beverage sector

• Typically 1:1 cost sharing, with matching in-kind contributions typical for smaller companies

Typical Clients

• Small and medium sized enterprises (<50 employees), including roughly half of clients with less than 5 employees

• Must submit a simple business plan for project vetting and metrics

• Work through collaborative strategic planning process for defining R&D outcomes

Students

Specialist Faculty

Industry Partner

Training and Services

• Empowerment and education centric model• In-kind contribution can be accomplished by

working hands-on with our team, using College resources to accomplish goals

• Access to unique facilities, licensed brewery, licensed winery, food analysis labs, microbiology, municipally inspected kitchens

• 2015 – HACCP compliant processing pilot lab

Typical services

• Nutrition labelling• Regulatory affairs• Food safety management (eg HACCP programs)• Process lethality validation• Process or formula optimization• Golden palate services• Sensory analysis and consumer testing• Proof of concept manufacturing• Ingredient sourcing resources• Co-packing resource development

What defines success for us?

• Entrepreneurs being empowered, and becoming more independent in their technical skills

• Entrepreneurs capable of successfully launching products, ideally creating jobs

• Students interacting at a high level with industry clients, building network in industry

• Students obtaining work-ready skills and jobs

Pitfalls…

• More flexible than traditional university academic settings, still subject to traditional academic bureaucracy

• Driven by grants

• HR – once we get a great student trained, they leave us!

Continuing relationships

• We welcome repeat applications• Link clients to additional service suppliers