An innovative incubation consortium on Memorial University’s St. John’s campus will help nurture new business ideas and promote entrepreneurship. The Campus Incubation Consortium is a partnership between Memorial’s P.J. Gardiner Institute for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, Genesis Group Inc., the Inco Innovation Centre, the National Research Council of Canada’s Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT) and the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP).

“The formation of this new consortium strengthens our technology community and makes it easier for entrepreneurs to access our expertise and start-up resources,” said Dave King, president and CEO of Genesis Group Inc. “The new investments in entrepreneurial support for the mining, engineering, physical sciences, and ocean technology sectors via the Institute for Ocean Technology and the Inco Innovation Centre will strengthen, as well as benefit from, the existing partnership between Genesis, the P.J. Gardiner’s Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Gateway and IRAP.”

The Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Gateway will be the consortium’s main promotion vehicle on campus and is aimed at igniting the entrepreneurial spirit among students, faculty, staff and alumni. The Gateway will work with potential entrepreneurs to help them explore their ideas and get the fundamental business planning steps underway.

If an entrepreneur is a fit for one of the other incubation partners on campus, the Gateway will refer them to the Genesis Centre’s Selection Board, which will decide whether the applicant will get access to the services of the Inco Innovation Centre’s skunkworks (a term that refers to the 5,000 square feet of space earmarked for technical development by entrepreneurs working in the centre), the IOT’s Ocean Technology Enterprise Centre, or the Genesis Centre. The NRC’s IRAP will then provide these companies with value-added technological and business advice, financial assistance and a range of other innovation assistance.