The Grande Prairie Regional College’s Centre for Research and Innovation is looking for annual funding commitments from local municipalities. CRI Director Bruce Rutley says they are in the process of creating a Grande Prairie Research and Innovation Network, a more formalized version of their current operation.
“Our primary funder, Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, has asked us to move into a more formal model. It’s too soon to tell what that’s going to be. The important piece is that we continue to deliver innovation services to our region’s innovators and entrepreneurs.”
Rutley says one big change will be how the organization distributes support and funding to those innovators.
“We will continue at the college and we will continue to receive the funds from Alberta Innovates and the other partners on behalf of the region, it’s just that we will now meet quarterly and we will have and annual work plan, and decide as a group how the funds will be allocated.”
City Council was the first municipality to be approached, and has been asked for an annual contribution of $20,000 as a founding partner of GPRIN. The request has been referred to committee for further discussion.