Algonquin College Wins Funding to Support Market Driven Social Innovation Research

Posted on Friday, October 14th, 2022

Canadian Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, today announced that Algonquin College is the recipient of a new grant from the College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF). The project, entitled “Social Procurement & Enterprise Development (SPEnD)”, will develop, curate and disseminate research on the capacity of Canada’s college sector for social procurement and social finance and contribute to community wealth building through research and development of market driven social enterprises.

“We appreciate the support from the College and Community Social Innovation Fund and the recognition of Algonquin College’s Social Innovation Lab,” said Claude Brulé, president and CEO, Algonquin College. “We are pleased to embark on this long-term research partnership that will harness the skills of our students and faculty and contribute to developing a new generation of professionals with the skills required to serve the needs of Canada’s social innovation sector.”

CCSIF supports collaborative social innovation research projects and is managed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

The $356,863 grant, to be distributed over three years, is focused on the business and economics aspects in the four key pillars of social innovation, namely, social procurement, social finance, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship.

“Co-applicants Jaswinder Kaur (Professor, School of Business) and Kevin Holmes (Senior Program Manager, Office of Applied Research) are to be commended for their success with this innovative social enterprise project in such a highly competitive grant competition”, said Kristine Dawson, Algonquin’s Associate Vice-President, Experiential Learning and Innovation. “This new project builds on the success of the College’s Social Innovation Lab and formalizes an emerging partnership with the School of Business and IBM.” she said.

IBM Canada Advanced Studies, a founding partner and long-term supporter of Algonquin’s Social Innovation Lab will also invest an additional $146,100 (cash & in-kind) to support the SPEnD project. This support will focus on SPEnD’s global research on successful models for social enterprise with a specific focus on diversity of product and service models. Utilizing this information SPEnD will leverage IBM’s proven Enterprise Design Thinking approaches and Garage Innovation model for accelerating digital transformation to generate and test new concepts and launch student led technology enabled social enterprises in our community.

The work of the SPEnD project targets advancing community wealth-building and the role of anchor institutions in building a fairer more just society which leverages its wealth to drive social change in a positive manner.

For more information on research and innovation at Algonquin College, please visit: https://www.algonquincollege.com/arie/

For more information on IBM Canada Advanced Studies, please visit:
https://www-40.ibm.com/ibm/cas/canada/

For further information on the SPEnD project, please contact:
SPEnD@algonquincollege.com


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