York University will help lead a new Ontario innovation fellowship program supporting emerging inventors with funds and training to turn research ideas into investor-ready ventures.
The University is one of 10 post-secondary institutions to receive Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) funding for the recently launched Innovation Fellowship Program. Together with renewed funding as part of IPON’s Commercialization Pilot Program, which York has been a recipient of since 2023, the University will receive $575,000.
The funding will support the Inventor to Founder Fellowship, a new collaboration at York between YSpace and the IP Innovation Clinic. The 13-week fellowship provides up to 30 students, researchers, faculty and recent graduates with a $10,000 stipend, along with mentorship and practical training to move early-stage research toward investment readiness.
"Research achieves its full value when it reaches people through new products, new companies and new solutions to the challenges Ontarians face,” says Lisa Philipps, York’s interim president and vice-chancellor.
IPON’s investment, she adds, strengthens the connections at York that make research translation possible.
“Our new Inventor to Founder Fellowship will extend that pathway to even more Ontarians with an idea worth building – and we're proud to partner with the province on work that ensures research investments have local impact."
Since 2023, IPON support has helped increase capacity for the University’s IP and commercialization pathway, a strategic collaboration between the IP Innovation Clinic and York’s Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI). The partnership is designed to address critical gaps and assist researchers, students and entrepreneurs navigating complex decisions around IP and venture development.
“Now more than ever, it is imperative that Ontario continues to protect our homegrown innovation, transforming ideas into solutions that strengthen our economy,” says Nolan Quinn, minister of colleges, universities, research excellence and security. “Through this investment into IPON, our government is safeguarding our epicentres of discovery, our post-secondary institutions, to ensure Ontario continues to benefit first and foremost from research developed in our own backyard.”
To date, IPON has provided nearly $1.5 million to York University to bolster IP and commercialization initiatives. This funding has helped the IP Innovation Clinic serve 133 clients and train 132 Osgoode Hall Law School students, while VPRI has received more than 100 invention disclosures, leading to more than 30 IP protection applications.
“The IP Innovation Clinic and University are grateful to IPON for its sustained investment, which enables the clinic and VPRI to continue delivering high-impact IP and commercialization support to innovators across York while training the next generation of IP professionals through experiential education,” says Pina D’Agostino, the clinic’s founding director and York’s associate vice-president research at the time of the funding announcement.
The IP Innovation Clinic and VPRI, she adds, will continue to scale York’s unique innovation ecosystem with partners across the University and beyond.
With files from the IP Innovation Clinic