Experiences from the Manitoba Industry-Academia Partnership

The Manitoba Industry-Academia partnership (MI-AP) is an initiative to facilitate industry-academia alignment and collaboration for the economic, societal health and vitality of Manitoba. It represents all nine post-secondary institutions in Manitoba, Canada.

MI-AP started hosting AIMday events since October 2020 and have so far conducted three events in the areas of Digital Agriculture, Heavy Equipment and Vehicle Manufacturing, Construction and Sustainable Protein. MI-AP will be hosting three to four AIMday events per year to enhance research and innovation collaboration in Manitoba.

Novel Format and Focused Discussion

From the participants’ feedback, most of them enjoyed the focused discussion in a one-hour format. They liked the facilitated workshops and thought the format was efficient.

Accelerate Academia and Industry Collaboration

With financial support from Western Economic Diversification Canada, researchers who have their pre-study proposal selected by companies and organizations would receive funding for their pre-study phase projects. This accelerates the process in collaboration and strengthens the connections between industry and academia to move forward.

Industry-Academia collaboration is a core priority for Manitoba and is vital for the province’s future economic success. AIMday is an excellent opportunity to bring together industry and researchers to discuss real-world challenges for Manitoba’s different industry sectors.

I am so impressed with the work accomplished on AIMday Construction. I can’t believe how much was accomplished and planned for the future!