Training program in organ-on-a-chip engineering and entrepreneurship (TOeP)

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The long term objective of this training program is to provide a skilled entrepreneurial workforce for Canada, one that will fuel creation of a high-tech economy to replace the shrinking classical manufacturing sector. The statistics are clear: our Universities and research institutions are leading the world in discovery, but we are failing in transferring these technologies into commercial products. We will equip the trainees with skills to build their own companies from their research, with a specific scientific focus on building organ-on-a-chip devices for compound screening and discovery. Our objectives are: 1) Provide world-leading training of the highest scientific standard in microfabrication, microfluidics, polymer chemistry, organ-on-a-chip engineering and translation. 2) Provide training in hard (patent law, business, finance) and soft (networking, etiquette, public speaking, critical thinking & analysis, team work) skills essential to entrepreneurial success. 3) Building on our existing contacts, we will develop a network of partners and receptors, e.g. business advisors, patent lawyers, venture capital firms and incubators, to assist trainees. Sustainability of the program will be achieved through H2i a Campus Linked Accelerator (CLA), that agreed to incorporate our best practices into their program at the completion of the CREATE funding. Student mobility will be encouraged through our collaborator network, spanning investigators from Canada's east to west coast; and a consortium with 3 other already established CREATE programs in the realm of tissue engineering. We will open our curriculum and fundraising opportunities to those collaborating investigators and programs, while our students will have the opportunity to learn from successful entrepreneurs at the collaborating institutions through the shadowing program that will encourage a two way exchange. We will run an Annual Symposium at the University of Toronto and an entrepreneurship workshop at the Till and McCulloch Annual Meeting for students across Canada and internationally. We secured matching scholarship funds, funds for program administration and in-kind support for curriculum development through Banting & Best Center.