School:Dalhousie University

STUDENT INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship (NNCE) is investing close $1 million in development of entrepreneurial skills of Dalhousie University’s students every year. Under umbrella program LaunchDal™ NNCE provides series of credit and noncredit programs to help students, researchers and early stage ventures to take their ideas to the next level.

LAUNCHDAL™ Programming

Starting Lean course is focused on lean methodology and provides student teams with funding of $1,500 to build their minimal viable product.

Innovation course is teaching the frameworks and best practices of design thinking and pushes students toward building prototypes by offering $1,000 in funding.

Launch Dal's 100k Competition is qualifier competition via which student teams get into the LaunchPad Accelerator.

LaunchPad Accelerator is an 8-week summer program for student startups with $10,000 in seed funding to move their idea to the next level.

E-corps is a program is a series of workshops based on the Lean LaunchPad approach using the Business Model Canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder. This is a team-based training program, (at least two members from each organization or research project) where participants work in teams to test their hypothesis related to the commercialization potential. Workshops embraces both Design Thinking and Lean LaunchPad approaches to Customer Discovery and Customer Development using a hands-on approach for participant teams.

Entrepreneurial Skills Program (ESP) Certificateis a post-secondary certificate program that facilitates the development, growth and success of student-run business ventures. ESP is designed to add to skills learned in the classroom through extracurricular, individualized, experiential learning. The program culminates in the development of a personal portfolio that illustrates a student’s entrepreneurial capabilities. Upon successful completion of ESP, students are accredited and receive a certificate indicating venture readiness.

Canada’s Business Model Competition

The competition is hosted and organized by the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship’s LaunchDal Programming in collaboration with Dalhousie University’s Rowe School of Business. Canada’s Business Model Competition ® has been sanctioned as the national qualifier competition for the International Business Model Competition (IBMC)with the winner advancing to the IBMC. The winners of Canada’s Business Model Competition ® will share in $50,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.

Collider (Innovation Space)is a space for LAUNCHDAL’s programming; courses, programs, events, competitions and more. However the space will also be available to students while not in use by the NNCE.

Dalhousie University offers a Major in Entrepreneurship and Innovationfor the Faculty of Management and Commerce Programs in their undergraduate degree. Dalhousie University offers three for credit courses regarding entrepreneurship are New Venture Creation COMM 3307, and Managing the Venturing Process (MGMT 4901/COMM 4301). Entrepreneurial Work Term is offered to commerce students who have their own business venture or would like to work on their own idea to fulfill their co-op or internship requirements. In addition NNCE co-host series of entrepreneurial events including Pitch 101, Startup Canada Tour, Next 36, Demo Camp. Demo Camp is an event that showcases local startups solely through product demos not powerpoint presentations. Dalhousie University has also an official partnership with Next 36.  

Entrepreneurial societies and student-led organizations on campus.

The Dalhousie Entrepreneurship Society (D.E.S.) strives to build inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem on the Dalhousie University campus by exposing students in all faculties to resources and funding opportunities, organizing hackathons and connecting them with the local startup community.

Enactus is a student society that focuses on improving the community through entrepreneurial action.

Entrepreneurs and Law Association of Dalhousiesociety hosts law clinics to answer legal questions in relation to starting a business. Issues such as corporate structures, tax, intellectual property, contracts, shareholder agreements and privacy law are discussed in round table format.

UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FUNCTION

Industry Liaison and Innovation (ILI) manages and facilitates collaborations between companies and university researchers, commercializes research at Dalhousie University, and assists in the creation of spin-off ventures.

FACILITATING UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION

ShiftKey Labs Sandbox

ShiftKey Labs Sandbox offers a broad mix of resources, supports, and opportunities for individuals wishing to experiment with and develop start-up ideas containing a technical component. We provide free, physical space to collaborate on ideas within your own team and learn from other lab resident teams. We also organize a variety of interesting workshops and events where participants can develop skills, meet new people, gain practical experience, be inspired, and ultimately, explore what is involved in creating a technology-related start-up in causal, risk-free environment. ShiftKey Labs recently organized an event Smart Energy App Challenge hackathon where teams were competing

IDEA Sandbox

” standing for “Innovative Design and Entrepreneurship Academy” — a collaboration between Dal’s Faculty of Engineering, it's Rowe School of Business and NSCAD University.

Cultiv8 -The Nova Scotia Agricultural Sandbox

Cultiv8 brings together Dalhousie and Acadia, two universities with campuses connected to rural communities, each with a focus on supporting and growing the agricultural economy of Nova Scotia. The sandbox will be established upon a strong base of successful existing programming and entrepreneurial resources at both universities. The sandbox recently hired its first coordinator, Jolene MacEachern, who be taking a leave of absence from her current position with the Department of Extended Learning on the Agricultural Campus to support the sandbox’s launch. It has also identified its facilitation space, which will be located in the MacRae Library.

Cultiv8 in collaboration with NNCE organized first of its kind Startup Weekend in Truro focusing on agriculture and food.

Volta Labs is a local workspace for early stage startup that holds its tenants and network members accountable  with a strong mentorship and peer-to-peer validation which help companies grow and scale faster.

Innovacorp Incubator - Technology Innovation Centre

Innovacorps biennial I3 Competition is open to all students with early stage startups or ideas to compete for over 900k in prizes across Nova Scotia.

Research Centers

Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC), Brain Repair Centre (QEII Health Sciences Centre), Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics, Institute for Research in Materials, Canadian Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Centre for Marine Vessel Development and Research, Centre for Water Resources Studies (CWRS), Minerals Engineering Centre (MEC), Centre for Innovation in Infrastructure, Vehicle Safety Research Team (VSRT), Atlantic Region Magnetic Resonance Centre, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Research Resource (NMR3),NRC Institute for Marine Biology,Aquatron Laboratory, Bedford Institute of Oceanography.

ENGAGING WITH REGIONAL AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

Innovacorp's Early Stage Commercialization Fund (ESCF)assists and supports the academic community in the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities. The purpose of ESCF is to provide support for projects demonstrating readiness to advance a technology that has achieved, or is close to achieving, a prototype/proof-of-concept stage and is approaching market readiness with a possibility of attracting industry partners and/or investment. The prospect of generating a new revenue stream must also be apparent.