Georgian College is receiving a $1 million of investment from the Ontario government aimed at strengthening advanced manufacturing research, expanding workforce development and supporting local industry across Central Ontario.
The funding from the Ontario Research Fund was announced Wednesday at the college’s Barrie campus by Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Minister Nolan Quinn alongside president of Georgian College, Kevin Weaver.
The investment will support work at Georgian’s Centre of Industrial Simulation and Prototyping (CISP), which received a separate $1 million of federal funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) in October.
“Partnerships are the key to accelerating innovation across all sectors,” Weaver said during the announcement. “Innovation and ultimately meaningful change thrives at the intersection of government, post-secondary institutions, industry and community.”
Georgian College is the first institution in Ontario to operate an Industry 5.0 sandbox, which allows manufacturers to work through the processes of new technologies at the College's facilities, among other perks for the school.
“We’re not just advancing technology,” said the College's executive director of Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Mira Ray. “We’re helping to design solutions that put people at the centre, strengthening resiliency, sustainability and collaboration across sectors.”
Quinn said research has become increasingly important amid global economic uncertainty, lauding Georgian's CISP, which aimed to create up to 460 jobs when it was opened in 2024.
“As we face international instability that threatens our economy, it is through groundbreaking research that we will create jobs, attract investment and improve lives throughout the province,” Quinn said.
“The centre is on the forefront of advanced manufacturing supporting local businesses with cutting-edge technology, workforce development and strategic collaboration.”
Georgian's recent announcements of three campus closures hasn't scared off the government, with Quinn noting the province has invested $2.3 billion over the past two years to stabilize the post-secondary system to help counter the federal cap on international students.
"We are currently wrapping up a funding formula review which we have been engaging with our stakeholders including Georgian College to receive feedback for our small northern rural institutions to ensure that they are successful moving forward for the students they serve."
Georgian officials say the research funding will also expand hands-on learning opportunities for students, allowing them to work on real-world projects and graduate with job-ready experience.
Weaver says that over time, the funding will initiate more activity from outside players and evolution of the research space, ultimately benefiting students.
"We will be able to engage more students in that type of work," he said to Barrie360. "When we have learnings from research projects with business and industry, often that works its way back into the classroom or the lab or the learning environment.
According to the province, the $1 million investment at Georgian is part of a broader $47 million commitment supporting 195 research projects at colleges, universities and hospitals across Ontario.
One potential beneficiary from Wednesday's announcement is Giovanni Marcelli, the chairman of Northern Transformer Corp., which is using a provincial investment to build a high-voltage power transformer facility in Innisfil.
Marcelli is relying on Georgian to provide at least 150 graduates to enter the workforce at the new facility as technicians. Much of that is due to the proximity, but he says he's also had experience working with Georgian co-op students at the company's facility in Maple.
"We like what they bring to the table," Marcelli said to Barrie360, describing his goals for the partnership with the College. "We want to work with Georgian to refine the curriculum to train people that can work on building transformers. Transformers are highly technical and there is no room for error."
"Predominantly, our partners are from the local geography in terms of business and industry that have problems to solve and look to us to work on new technology or prototyping simulation testing, whatever that case may be," Weaver added. "If they're successful, they're gonna stay they're gonna grow they're gonna invest back in our communities more jobs in some cases... And that's just a win-win."
