Manager, Partnerships and Programs at Ontario Water Consortium - Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
With funding provided by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the Southern Ontario Water Consortium (SOWC) created the Advancing Water Technologies (AWT) program to help Ontario small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) leverage world-class research facilities and academic expertise to develop and demonstrate water technologies for successful introduction to the market. AWT provides financial contributions to industry-led research and development projects in the water sector that will result in the successful commercialization of globally-competitive and market-ready products and services. SOWC helps researchers and water technology companies connect by making key introductions, supporting coordination and development of projects and offering funding proposal support. These industry-academic collaborations are able to leverage a suite of unique facilities for real-world water technology research, development and demonstration across SOWC's 10 post-secondary partner institutions which are focused on the following areas: wastewater, drinking water, ecotoxicology, watersheds, analytical techniques, sensors and data.