NRC launches fresh approach to collaboration with new microfluidics hub at UofT

Canada’s National Research Council has partnered with the University of Toronto to launch an innovation hub for the rapidly advancing field of microfluidics. Called the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT), the hub will co-locate researchers from both institutions in laboratories at the university, while giving them access to the NRC’s facilities in Boucherville.

Microfluidics is a burgeoning area of opportunity for a variety of medical applications. The technology enables transformative innovation in healthcare, such as point-of-care diagnostics. “We take the whole laboratory and shrink it down to a handheld device, such that you can go do the laboratory test right on site and be able to take action immediately,” explained Professor Aaron Wheeler, one of the microfluidics researchers at the University of Toronto who’s associated with CRAFT, in a conversation with RE$EARCH MONEY.

Wheeler says the collaboration at CRAFT represents a significant change for the two groups of researchers, who will make the shift from working apart to working together in the same building, sharing equipment and cross-pollinating ideas. The partnership removes the pressure of competition between researchers within Canada and enables them instead to better compete with other hotspots for microfluidics research globally, like Germany, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Wheeler is excited about how the partnership with the NRC will enable him and his colleagues to scale up production of microfluidic devices that they create, so they can satisfy demand from other researchers elsewhere in the world. He believes the collaboration with the NRC will allow them to make connections with other researchers worldwide and “really start having more impact beyond the borders of our own laboratories,” he said.

“We are all individually at the top of our game and are competing internationally, but pooling our resources makes us even more competitive,” Wheeler said.

Kickstarting a stronger collaborative strategy

CRAFT exemplifies a new approach to collaboration at the NRC. The strategy entails building on existing relationships and pursuing natural synergies between research teams, explains NRC president Iain Stewart, in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY. “[The collaborations] will arise from our relationships with people or these strategic opportunities, like you see at CRAFT, and we’ll co-develop it with that party,” Stewart said.

The new strategy reflects a key challenge in the mandate letter that the NRC received from Ministers Kirsty Duncan and Navdeep Bains in August 2016, to focus on research excellence and to engage local innovation systems. “They were looking for us to put our energy into engagement,” Stewart said.

To fulfill this mandate, the NRC is seeking out strategic opportunities where different strengths and advantages can be brought together around a specific topic. CRAFT “reflects our commitment to try to reach out to leading edge researchers, when it’s organic to where we’re going as well,” said Stewart.

The NRC isn’t looking for unsolicited proposals and won’t seek new funding for these special collaborations. “We literally have to reallocate money from other things we’re already doing, so it really has to make sense for the research centre involved,” Stewart said. In the case of CRAFT, it will cost about $22 million over five years, for both parties.

There are two potential models for this style of collaboration, Stewart added. The first is like what’s happening at CRAFT, where NRC researchers are co-located on a university campus, to build a core team that works together in a given area. The other model is to do the same basic thing, but in an NRC building. Whichever approach is taken, the projects will be founded on a baseline of synergy and shared ambition:  “These are things we really want to do and we’re making a connection around it,” Stewart said.

R$