Job one for the City of Mississauga is to "establish a Mississauga Innovation Leadership Alliance comprising leaders from the private sector, post-secondary institutions, and the city that can provide strategic direction, support and commitment to overseeing initiatives designed to strengthen the innovation economy in Mississauga," according to a report commissioned by the city and its Research, Innovation and Commercialization Centre (RIC).
The report, entitled "
A 10-point Action Plan for Innovation in Mississauga," was unveiled late last month. Pam Banks of the RIC said in
announcing the strategy that it will "get more of the Mississauga business community, in particular, involved in fast-tracking innovation" in Canada's sixth-largest city.
Thought of by some in downtown Toronto as a primarily suburban municipality, Mississauga has recently become a hub for the pharmaceuticals industry, among others. Despite this blossoming innovation culture, according to the report, the city still lacks "a meeting place to promote connectivity and a coherent approach to better capitalize on the post-secondary assets for training, education and R&D purposes."
The plans focuses on building a hub organization to connect business and academia, fostering research and development clusters, nurturing a talent stream to develop entrepreneurs and create jobs, and marketing the city as an innovation hotspot.
According to the RIC, meetings this month will examine how to begin implementing the strategy.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jana Schilder for the Mississauga RIC Centre