Research Support
Business Development Contacts
Sarah BrooksSenior Business Development Manager
sarah.brooks@uwo.ca
519.850.2434 x82434
Tristan Harrison
Business Development Manager
tristan.harrison@uwo.ca
519.661.2111 x84594
Colin Macaulay
Business Development Manager
colin.macaulay@uwo.ca
519.661.2111 x89095
Intellectual Property Contacts
Nadine Weedmark
Manager, IP & Administration
ipm@uwo.ca
519.661.2111 x. 84183
Commercialization

Drawing upon a mix of industry connections, sector-specific market knowledge and business development expertise, Western's technology transfer office will help you, the inventor, find a path to commercial success through licensing or a new company spin-off. We are proud to support researchers from London Health Sciences Research Centre Institute (LHSCRI) and Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph's Health Care in addition to Western Reseachers.
Report of Innovation (ROI)
The first step in our commercialization process is submitting a Report of Innovation (ROI) through the Inventor Portal. The ROI is a confidential submission that outlines your findings and the background of your innovation, enabling our team to evaluate its viability.
Requires Western ID and Password
If you have questions about the ROI process, please contact ipm@uwo.ca.
Please submit your Report of Innovation in complete confidence. Using a pre-screening success criteria that often includes industry expert opinion, the team will quickly review the ROI to determine if your work has commercial market value.
The criteria include:
- Product attributes;
- Value proposition;
- Prior art review;
- Market prospects by partner; and
- A life cycle return on investment analysis.
We will then work with you on introducing the innovation to a range of prospective industry partners and will always seek an agreement that is biased towards the researcher and beneficial to all parties.
Similarly, we will also consider new company spin-off options that may prove more lucrative and compelling to both the inventor and industry. We will assess and augment the potential spin-off’s value proposition, market prospects, financial requirement and operational needs to maximize the new company’s probability of success. Western Research and its partners will then assist the spin-off with legal assistance, accounting support, capital acquisition and governance, thus allowing the researcher to focus on what they do best.
To learn more about our invention evaluation process, please contact one of our Business Development Managers.
If you prefer to explore certain aspects of our services on your own, we invite you to read through the general information for inventors available on our commercialization process page.
Commercialization Training
We offer a variety of commercialization training programs for researchers and students:
Funding Innovation
A number of unique funding opportunities are available to Western researchers with intent to commercialize. Some of the most common that Western assists researchers to apply for include:
Western Innovation Fund (WIF)
Western Innovation Fund awards are intended to support the cost of projects that will advance innovative research results towards application and commercialization. The competitions are for one-time projects based on existing research initiatives. Applicants can only receive one grant per type of project or technology.
One of the first steps in the application process is to submit a Report of Invention (ROI).
For additional steps and guidelines, please visit the Western Innovation Fund program page.
External Funds
The following list consists of external links to the funding program websites. A member of our team can assist you in determining which of these are the best fit for your project.
- National Sciences and Engineering Research Council – Idea to Innovation (NSERC i2i)
- NSERC – Engage Grants Program
- NSERC – Partnerships
- NSERC -Synergy Awards for Innovation
- Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Market Readiness
- OCE Collaborative Research Projects
- OCE Interact
- OCE Proof of Concept
- OCE Champions of Innovation
- Ontario Genomics Institute – Pre-commercialization Business Development Fund (OGI PBDF)
- Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) – Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization Program
- Precarn Programs & Funding
- TiEQuest 2010 Business Venture Competition