City awards $8.5M to U of C’s new life sciences business incubator
The University of Calgary has been awarded $8.5 million from a city fund in the hope that its new life sciences business incubator will create as many as 3,100 jobs over the next 20 years.
The grant — the third and largest yet from the $100-million Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund established by city council in 2018 to help stimulate the economy and support diversification — will support programming at the Life Sciences Innovation Hub located at University Research Park. The facility, which was purchased by the U of C in November and is scheduled to open this summer, is meant to be a place where growing and developing companies can find a home and advance the commercialization of their products and services.
Life sciences incorporates everything from health sciences to agriculture to biomedical engineering, said U of C president Ed McCauley. The Life Sciences Innovation Hub, which has a total budget of $40 million, will provide up-and-coming companies with needed lab space as well as access to training, mentorship and advice as they grow and scale.
The grant will help create 30 full-time jobs at the facility, but the real job creation potential will come from the companies that locate there and later expand into the city, McCauley said. The U of C estimates 20 to 40 companies per year could be fostered at the Life Sciences Innovation Hub, creating as many as 3,100 jobs in Calgary over the next 20 years.
“We’re trying to build out a completely new sector, in essence, for the city,” McCauley said.
Barry Munro, chair of the fund’s board, said he believes the 3,100job target is actually an underestimate. He said there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage research already being done at the U of C and create life sciences companies capable of attracting global capital.
“Not every venture that gets started up and thinks it’s going to be commercial is going to be the next big cancer cure or the next big wearable technology or the next big nano chip,” Munro said. “But you start to create that culture, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Since its launch, the investment fund has received more than 190 applications. Each application is assessed against specific criteria, including potential economic benefits to Calgary and number of jobs created for Calgarians. Money awarded to businesses and non-profits through the grant is paid out in instalments and is dependent on the recipient meeting its stated targets around job creation and capital investment.
The first two grant recipients were MobSquad, a startup tech company in downtown Calgary that received $1.5 million with its promise to create 150 engineering jobs; and ATTAbotics Inc., a Calgary-based robotic supply chain company that will receive up to $4.5 million to expand its local operations and hire 150 more employees.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who also sits on the fund’s board, said while applications are still being accepted, the board is in no rush to award the remaining 80 per cent of the fund.
“We’re actually going to sort of take a breath now, take a look at what we’ve done, take a look at the processes that we have followed and make sure we are really focused on things that are really transformative,” Nenshi said. “We want to be very thoughtful … and place it where it can have the highest impact.”