UCalgary Collision Header

Visit UCalgary at Collision 2023

June 26-29, 2023

Join UCalgary at Collision, North America’s fastest growing tech conference in Toronto, ON. Learn more about why we’re the most entrepreneurial university in Canada and the #1 startup creator.

Visit us at booth E453

Connect with these teams at the UCalgary Booth

UCalgary is a leading destination for those who are taking action to move their ideas toward implementation and community impact. The Innovation@UCalgary ecosystem supports these efforts through a culture of entrepreneurial thinking and a determination to trailblaze and innovate.

Visit our Innovation Ecosystem DiIrectory for a full, searchable directory listing of supports, resources and programs available in Alberta and beyond  Innovation Ecosystem Directory.

Highlighted Programs, Resources and Supports for Founders, Researchers, Investors and Entrepreneurs

The Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking is a community hub for activities that will support entrepreneurial student experiences, enable faculty to lead in innovation and expand a growing community of entrepreneurial and innovative thinkers.

Innovate Calgary is the innovation company of the University of Calgary. From ideation to commercialization, we offer the resources, facilities, and expert guidance you need to bring your innovation to Calgary, Alberta, and beyond. 

The Energy Transition Centre (ETC) nurtures innovation-led clean energy development by fostering collaboration and action. Along with our partners, this unique initiative creates, de-risks and high-grades energy transition technologies by supporting clean-tech startups and engaging with industry, academics, students and researchers. 

Today’s pressing challenges are bigger than any one individual, company, sector, or institution can solve. The Social Innovation Hub (SIH) draws upon the expertise, experience, and input of diverse social entrepreneurs, innovators, and partners to re-imagine what innovation means, who an innovator is and how innovation happens.   

Guided by this vision to work differently, we connect changemakers with community-led programming, coaching, mentorship, and access to key capital, space and networks to help launch and scale their innovation and impact.  Through this work, we aim to support you as we build a more inclusive and equitable economy in Alberta and strengthen the resiliency of our communities.  

Transform your life and medical science research into real industry solutions. The Life Sciences Innovation Hub at the University of Calgary is designed to help students, researchers, and entrepreneurs build promising life science-based companies. 

We provide access to the infrastructure, equipment, expertise, and startup support services you need to bring commercially-viable products and services to market. 

Level up your digital health or life sciences venture with funding. R&D infrastructure and professional development support. Do you have a technology-driven solution to a compelling and unmet need in digital health or life sciences? If you need a boost to launch your solution to market, this fellowship may be for you.

The Life Sciences Fellowship program takes early-stage startups with technology-driven solutions to important problems and adds funding, technology development resources, professional development training and expert support.

The funding is a game-changer, but the program is so much more than that: funding will keep you going, but the support system will help you grow. 

A philanthropically powered early-stage investment program accelerating UCalgary and community-based start-up companies to advance problem-solving research, create jobs and fuel the economy. 

UCalgary is a leading destination for those who are taking action to move their ideas toward implementation and community impact. The Innovation@UCalgary ecosystem supports these efforts through a culture of entrepreneurial thinking and a determination to trailblaze and innovate.

This is where discovery becomes a solution.

With a wealth of expertise and cutting-edge facilities spanning Energy, Health, Data Sciences, Social Sciences and more, the University of Calgary is poised to accelerate your company’s innovation pipeline. The Industry Engagement team in the Office of the Vice-President (Research) will help you navigate the many collaborative opportunities that we offer companies. Often, companies, research professors and graduate students collaborate via an extended benchtop model where the UCalgary team serves as your R&D provider, conducting research and optimization studies on a project-by-project basis. 

This nine-month program is laser-focused to accelerate business growth. Highly successful entrepreneurs and angel investors work with founders to break down complex business challenges and define objectives that are achieved in 8-week sprints. Through mentorship and financing opportunities, the CDL helps innovators transition their ideas from technology and science projects to high-growth companies. 

At the Haskayne School of Business, we encourage you to take your future into your own hands and choose change. Choose to unleash your potential to lead, to grow and to make things happen. Big things. The stuff you didn’t know was possible. ​Choosing a business degree is an investment in time and money, but it's worth it. Haskayne has been preparing leaders to tackle change for over 50 years. ​It’s what we do.

Our mission is to provide a fun, safe and experiential environment to ignite innovation, discovery, new ways of learning and problem solving. 

M2 was launched in 2018 to help grow the maker community on campus. We welcome the community to use our labs, grow their skills with new technologies, and experience the process of taking an idea to innovation. These open labs create a welcoming environment where you can have positive experiences, gain wisdom, develop new technical skills, build confidence, learn collaboration skills and unlock your creativity. 

Zetta is our digital innovation hub. Representing 1021, a Zetta is massive by any calculation. It's estimated that the world will generate 175 Zettabytes of data annually by 2025. Here at the SSE, Zetta is a place where researchers and students come together to develop integrated digital solutions. By focusing on the big picture and creating digital systems that work together seamlessly across industries, Zetta will raise the bar for technology research and prepare our graduates to be leaders in the digital revolution. 

We are open to all UCalgary students, faculty and staff. 

Calgary’s economic future is getting brighter because tech start-ups and global companies are establishing a new quantum hub, right here. From nanotechnology and artificial intelligence to quantum internet and biomedical engineering – Calgary is becoming a true quantum capital city.  

The Quantum City initiative will establish quantum-focused fabrication infrastructure, new talent development programs and commercialization pathways to support the development of a vibrant economic and scientific hub based in Calgary. Together, these combined assets create a unique, and indeed, once-in-a-generation opportunity to position Alberta as a national and international jurisdiction in the new quantum economy.  

We are a research and innovation initiative based in the University of Calgary (UCalgary) and the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS). W21C conducts health systems research with the overarching mandate to improve patient safety and quality of care. Through this strategic research and innovation agenda, we hope to MAKE CARE BETTER for our communities, both now and in the future. 

The Integrated Management Platform to Accelerate Clinical Trials (IMPACT) provides an accelerated path to health innovation market approval for less capital. The IMPACT program will help your health-tech or biomedical early or mid-stage venture conduct clinical trials and secure regulatory approvals for your new health-related inventions. 

Founded in 2019, our team and partners at Innovate Calgary have over 300 years of combined experience in trial design, management and execution, regulatory affairs and quality management, biostatistics, data analysis, IP and business development. With our help, several ventures have achieved FDA and Health Canada product approvals and you can be next! 
 
IMPACT is the recognized clinical trial vendor for the Creative Destruction Lab, and has partnerships with McMaster Innovation Park and Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation. While we are proud to support our local Calgary innovation community, over half of our client ventures originate from across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom thanks to our growing reputation. 

The Academic Entrepreneur in Residence (AEIR) program offers mentorship and practical support when and where it’s needed. We are supercharging innovation and nurturing venture building through a network of embedded mentors. 

The AEIR role at the University of Calgary is aimed at supporting a critical step in the innovation workflow by providing mentorship and practical support to help move emergent research ideas toward impactful solutions in our community. 

The odds are stacked against those trying to create a successful venture. AEIR’s are tilting those odds to favour UCalgary researchers who possess innovative solutions. The AEIR mentors have been in this position. They have tried, failed and sometimes succeeded. They recognize that entrepreneurship requires a holistic view of the problems and solutions. 

University Innovation Quarter (UIQ) — formerly known as the University Research Park — will be Calgary’s latest mixed-use innovation district, designed to cultivate bright minds on the cutting-edge of advancements in science research and programming. UIQ spans 76 acres adjacent to the University of Calgary main campus, and has an existing ecosystem of Calgary start-up companies and science, technology, and research organizations. 

This redevelopment in Calgary has the potential to offer a complete ecosystem of networks — research, start-ups, office space for lease, lab space for rent, collision spaces, residential development, and retail amenities — to foster and support the process of innovation in Calgary. 

UCalgary is once again the No. 1 startup creator among research institutions in Canada

2021 rankings from Association of University Technology Managers puts university on top for 2nd year in a row.

Read more

Alum-founded company changes the game for hydrogen storage

UCeed Energy Fund gives transformative startup a leg up.

Read more

Class of 2023: New grads land jobs and discover their passions thanks to UCalgary’s student-run investment fund

How the UCeed Haskayne Student Fund supports students for post-grad life.

Read more

Innovation takes centre stage

Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking hosts ingenuity competition.

Read more

Now Innovating: How research in electrochemistry and nanomaterials has led to applications for clean energy transition

A conversation with Dr. Viola Birss, PhD, Chengying Ai, MSc'19, and Dr. Anand Singh, PhD, from the Faculty of Science.

Listen now

Entrepreneurial Thinking Month strikes a chord as startup ideas pour in from across UCalgary campus

Hunter Hub marks milestone month of exploring innovative solutions, pitching concepts, and networking.

Learn more