Labs4 launches Market to Lab pilots at RRC Polytech and NSCC Pilots connect researcher-entrepreneurs with student teams to tackle barriers to market readiness Labs4 has launched pilot projects for its Market to Lab (MtL) Program, now underway at RRC Polytech in the Prairies and Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) in Atlantic Canada. Market to Lab is a two-month, hands-on commercialization sprint for researcher-entrepreneurs building research-based ventures. Participants lead a multidisciplinary student team and work with structured mentorship while tackling business and technical challenges in parallel. The aim is to remove one priority barrier holding their venture back — such as market validation, business model development or technical refinement — and finish with tangible outputs and a clearer path to adoption, investment or next-stage development. Early interest in the program reflects the range of founders MtL is built for — graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty members and research staff, as well as technical founders emerging from labs and applied research environments. Innovations span health, digital and AI-enabled tools, clean technologies, advanced manufacturing and emerging consumer products. In many cases, what draws founders in is the chance to turn a specific bottleneck into focused progress, with a credible team and deadlines that force real decisions. “As a country, we don’t lack ideas — we lack the capacity to turn strong research into solutions people can actually use,” said Dr. Jolen Galaugher, Labs4 board chair. “Market to Lab is a next-generation commercialization training model: it gives researcher-entrepreneurs the applied talent, mentorship and structured push to clear the barrier between validated research and something the market can adopt. It helps complete the research-to-market continuum — moving promising work from the lab into ventures, products and services that deliver real value for Canadians.” A Canada-wide network of 38 colleges and universities, Labs4 supports researcher-entrepreneurs through programming that is nationally coordinated and locally delivered — with shared objectives and regionally tailored delivery through applied, hands-on environments. The MtL pilots are designed to test the model in two distinct delivery environments — and to learn, quickly and honestly, what participants and student teams need to succeed. “The college environment is an ideal environment for fit-to-purpose, just-in-time solutions for early ventures,” says Roberta Desserre, Labs4’s Manitoba hub program manager at RRC Polytech, where the pilot is based. “It brings together applied student talent, faculty oversight and rapid project cycles that can quickly turn a real bottleneck into a tested build, prototype or proof of concept, without the long timelines or high costs most founders face elsewhere.” Manitoba pilot delivered through RRC Polytech’s ACE Project Space At RRC Polytech, the Market to Lab pilot is being delivered through the Applied Computer Education (ACE) Project Space, an applied learning platform where multidisciplinary student teams build and test practical technology solutions for entrepreneurs and organizations. “ACE gives founders something they rarely have at the early stage: a credible team that can turn a bottleneck into forward motion,” said Ralph Dueck, project lead for ACE Project Space at RRC Polytech. “It helps them test what’s real, build what’s needed, and come out the other side with something they can actually use.” One example is QDoc, a digital tool developed through ACE to help clinicians and staff capture and organize key patient information more consistently at the point of care. Working in a rapid build-and-test cycle, the student team translated frontline workflow needs into a usable prototype, then iterated based on user feedback — the kind of practical, time-boxed progress that helps applied teams move from a real problem to something testable and adoptable. ACE also operates at significant scale. This term, it includes 225 students working across 43 projects, with teams built around each project’s needs and drawing on skills in software development, data science, cybersecurity and user experience. IT Operations students often contribute business analysis and project management support to keep work organized and on track. For the pilot, MtL is embedded in ACE’s existing project structure and delivered as a six-week intensive sprint layered onto the academic term. Each MtL participant enters with one priority commercialization barrier — the obstacle blocking the next step — and works with a student team through a focused cycle that ends with concrete deliverables. The pilot is intentionally small, with three projects currently linked to Market to Lab: Centroid, which maps and visualizes connections between researchers to surface research ecosystems; WeLuma, which streamlines and automates university application processes; and Sole Capsule, a consumer product venture developing a modular sneaker storage and display system with integrated lighting. Across all three, the work comes back to market proof, says Dueck. “MtL is designed to push founders past early encouragement and into decisions that determine whether a venture can move forward: Is there demand beyond friends and colleagues? Will customers pay? What needs to change in the product or offer to make adoption realistic?” Nova Scotia pilot tests delivery across distance and geography At Nova Scotia Community College, the Market to Lab pilot is testing a deliberately different delivery model. Where RRC Polytech can embed MtL inside an established project space with standing teams and workflows, NSCC is using the pilot to answer a tougher question: how do you deliver the same kind of focused support at scale, across a region where geography and access shape what’s possible from the start? “This is exactly why NSCC makes sense as a pilot site,” said Dr. Jeffrey Taylor, associate vice-president of research, innovation and workforce development at NSCC. “We’re built for reach, with 20 locations across the province — and that forces you to design a model that can work beyond one location, including virtual participation. If we can make it work here, we learn something that strengthens the national approach.” The two pilots are also testing Market to Lab across different sector realities. In Manitoba, the program intersects with a Prairie innovation mix that often includes applied digital tools, advanced manufacturing and ag-tech-adjacent needs tied to a strong public and applied research base. In Nova Scotia, the pipeline can look different, with founder activity often shaped by ocean-related industries, life sciences and other region-specific strengths. Comparing outcomes across these contexts will help Labs4 refine what must stay consistent nationally — and what should flex locally. So far, Taylor says, the projects proposed for the MtL pilot at NSCC are trending toward IT- and AI-driven solutions, largely digital software-as-a-service offerings. NSCC is also exploring how “collision spaces” can strengthen delivery — practical environments where entrepreneurship supports, applied research, and hands-on making overlap, and where teams can move quickly from an idea to something testable. If that model holds, it could become a repeatable way to deliver Market to Lab in regions where participants need both virtual access and periodic access to facilities and expertise. For this pilot, NSCC is running Market to Lab within the college first, before expanding delivery through hub partners. That approach creates room to learn quickly, adjust the model, and confirm what participants and student teams need to succeed. “Right now, the value is in testing what’s workable — and being honest about what has to change when you’re supporting founders across distance,” Taylor said. “This pilot lets us pressure-test the program design, not just deliver it.” Potential to widen the pipeline Taylor also sees Market to Lab as a practical complement to Labs4’s Technology Readiness Level-Up (TRL) programming. Where TRL helps teams advance their technology, Market to Lab gives founders a short, structured sprint to tackle the barrier that can block everything else — proving demand, clarifying the offer, tightening go-to-market fundamentals, or making product decisions that stand up in the real world. “Market to Lab is meant to be complementary to TRL,” Taylor said. “It creates another entry point and another way to keep founders moving forward when what they need next isn’t just technical progress.” Early recruitment at NSCC is already pointing to another value: Market to Lab may widen the pipeline beyond founders who are already active in entrepreneurship programming. In the initial group of founder-students NSCC engaged, only two came directly through TRL, while others joined through referrals and were new to formal entrepreneurship supports. “That’s significant, because it means we’re reaching founders who have strong ideas but weren’t already in the system — and giving them a structured way to turn one real obstacle into measurable progress.” With both pilots now underway, the focus is on results: progress founders can point to at the end of a two-month sprint, and the applied experience student teams gain by delivering against real constraints and deadlines. Labs4 will share outcomes and lessons from both pilot sites as the work progresses — including what it takes to run Market to Lab effectively in different regional contexts, what translates virtually versus what requires hands-on access, and what support model is sustainable as the program scales. “Market to Lab is about turning early momentum into something usable,” says Roberta Desserre. “When a founder can name the one barrier holding them back — and has the right mix of student talent and structured support to tackle it — you start to see the kind of traction that makes the next step possible. These pilots are an important step toward making that kind of applied progress more accessible across Canada.”
Labs4 launches Technology Readiness Level-Up program to turn Canadian research into real-world solutions Labs4 has launched its new Technology Readiness Level-Up (TRL) program, giving student innovators the support they need to advance their research toward commercialization. This fall’s inaugural cohort brings together emerging researchers from colleges and universities across Canada to help them tackle one of the most persistent challenges in innovation: turning promising research into prototypes and products that meet real market needs. The four-month program kicked off on September 10 with a virtual session attended by more than 60 participants, along with hub managers and Labs4 staff. The event provided participants with an early look at how they’ll work with mentors, industry partners, and applied research experts as they advance the commercialization potential of their projects. Throughout the program, participants will benefit from a $10,000 stipend, weekly development sprints, applied research placements, and customized business training — all designed to strengthen their ideas before they reach the market. Lucas Monter, an undergraduate student at McMaster University and founder of NeuroSpritz, shared how he hopes the program will help him advance his venture. “I decided to join the TRL program to spearhead NeuroSpritz’s MVP (minimum viable product) development, contribute meaningfully to the intellectual property landscape of Canada, and immerse myself in a community of motivated students and mentors.” NeuroSpritz, incubated at McMaster’s The Forge, is developing a spray-on scalp electrode combined with AI-driven analytics to make EEG measurement faster, more comfortable and easier to scale. It aims to help reduce barriers in neuroscience and mental health diagnostics by providing a more accessible and user-friendly technology. “I am most looking forward to leveraging TRL as a launchpad to build NeuroSpritz’s MVP, gather preliminary data from both hardware and software components, and iterate strategically to land pilot opportunities,” said Monter. The TRL curriculum features workshops on business models, commercialization strategies and customer evaluation methods that equip participants with the tools to align their research with market demand and prepare for future investment opportunities. At Western University, graduate student Dandan Zhao highlighted how the program’s personalized support will help her bridge the gap between research and entrepreneurship. “The program managers not only help connect me with academic mentors but also offer customized business training based on my needs,” she said. “This support is very beneficial not only for my future career development but also for transforming my research into practical applications.” “This launch is the result of an unprecedented national collaboration across 38 post-secondary institutions,” said Nasil Nam, National Director, Labs4. “Together, we’re creating commercialization pathways for diverse innovators and building a more inclusive innovation ecosystem.” Labs4 is a Canada-wide initiative that connects 38 colleges, polytechnics and universities through 11 regional and Indigenous Entrepreneurship Hubs. Using a hub-and-spoke model, it blends national standards with regionally tailored delivery. Alongside TRL, Labs4 also offers Market to Lab and Indigenous Entrepreneurship programs, each designed to support researcher-entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey. By combining technical expertise with business strategy, TRL has the potential to prepare a new generation of Canadian innovators to bring their ideas into the world. The next cohort runs from January to May 2026. Please follow us on LinkedIn to stay engaged.
“We Know What Works” Amy Jackson How Labs4 Indigenous Entrepreneurship Hubs Are Reshaping Innovation in Canada Tia Laroque-Graham never saw herself in the world of startups. Growing up, she didn’t have a computer until high school. “We didn’t know entrepreneurship was an option,” she says. “You saw yourself becoming a teacher or a nurse, maybe a social worker. But nobody told us that this other path was for us, too.” Today, Larocque-Graham leads pawâcikêwikamik, an Indigenous innovation collective hosted by Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT). She’s one of three women shaping a bold new future for Indigenous entrepreneurship in Canada, alongside Amy Jackson (Director of Mittohnee Pogo-ohtah at RRC Polytech in Manitoba) and Ashley Richard (Director of Indigenous Entrepreneurship at FlintHub, located at United College at the University of Waterloo). Together, these three Indigenous entrepreneurship hubs form a core pillar of Labs4, the Canada-wide initiative accelerating research commercialization by connecting post-secondary institutions through applied, equity-centred innovation programs. When Labs4’s national leadership team began designing its innovation framework, the leaders of the three Indigenous entrepreneurship hubs weren’t handed a template. “Labs4 said: bring in the people you trust and co-create something that reflects your communities,” says Richard. That decision mattered. “We had the freedom to do it right,” says Larocque-Graham. “We weren’t being told what Indigenous entrepreneurship should look like. We were asked: ‘What do you need? What’s missing? What do you know will work?’ Because we know what works.” The result is an Indigenous entrepreneurship initiative that is nationally coordinated, locally rooted, and culturally grounded. Designed for Connection and Community At first glance, the three Indigenous innovation hubs within Labs4 may look like conventional incubators. Each offers mentorship, training programs, funding, and access to expertise. But step inside, and something deeper comes into focus. “One of our participants told me, ‘I found a family,’” says Larocque-Graham. “That’s what makes it different. These aren’t surface-level relationships. They’re transformational.” Each hub reflects the people and places it serves. In Winnipeg, Mittohnee is creating a permanent space for entrepreneurs to develop and test products, connect with mentors, and access business services. Jackson envisions it becoming a go-to hub for Indigenous entrepreneurs across Manitoba, including those in northern and remote communities. In Saskatchewan, pawâcikêwikamik is rooted around the seven Grandfather Teachings and around tobacco teachings received from Elder Kathy Wapepah-Eashappie, who will serve on the hubs’ national advisory council. The collective provides access to Elders, mentorship and training, an innovator in residence, financial supports, access to cutting edge technology, fellowships, entrepreneurial boot camps, and cultural programming woven through every phase of the journey. “Reciprocity and giving back are two of our biggest drivers,” says Larocque-Graham. FlintHub in Ontario is open to Indigenous entrepreneurs across Canada and the US. Richard’s team works one-on-one with participants to understand their specific barriers and goals. Need help with taxes? They’ll cover the cost of a CPA. Need a quiet space for a newborn while you pitch? They’ll make it happen. From entry-level training to diploma programs and alumni support, FlintHub adapts to each entrepreneur’s reality. Rooted in Culture No two hubs look the same. That’s by design. “You can’t apply a universal cultural model across hundreds of Nations,” says Richard. “So instead, we’ve built flexibility into the system. Each hub leads with its own teachings, its own protocols, its own priorities.” Culture is the foundation everything else is built on. Together, the three incubators model a new kind of innovation delivery: one where ceremony, reflection and tradition are powerful engines of transformation. “We start with ceremony,” says Larocque-Graham. “We bring in Elders, create space for sharing, and reflect our values in the way we run the entire program. Once participants feel safe and grounded in who they are, they’re ready to explore new ideas.” At FlintHub, Richard draws on both lived experience and council input to embed Indigenous teachings in programming design. From firekeeper circles to an Elder-in-Residence, every aspect is informed by community, not imposed upon it. And at Mittohnee, Jackson emphasizes how being “community-minded” isn’t a strategy, but a way of being. “We come from diverse Nations and backgrounds,” she says. “But we carry shared teachings into every part of our work: humility, generosity, responsibility to one another.” One of their goals is to make visible — and viable — the models that have been working in community all along. One of the most common sentiments shared by Indigenous entrepreneurs is the desire to build something that gives back. As Jackson explains, “Most entrepreneurs I work with aren’t solely asking, ‘How do I make money?’ They’re asking, ‘How do I use this to support my community?’” A Vision of What’s Possible Western models of innovation and entrepreneurship, and their KPIs, don’t fully capture the story of Indigenous entrepreneurship. Ask each of the three hub leaders what success looks like in five years, and you won’t hear about metrics. You’ll hear about people. “Success is seeing our students thriving,” says Larocque-Graham. “Owning their businesses. Living their dreams. Creating wealth in ways that reflect their teachings and values.” “As Indigenous peoples, we not only have different outlooks on business, but our own measurements of success. A huge part of championing Indigenous innovation and entrepreneurship is allowing us to define what that looks like at all stages of the journey.” “It comes down to self-determination,” says Jackson. “This isn’t about informing someone else what’s best for us. It’s about building it ourselves.” That self-determined, human-centred vision is already producing real-world outcomes. Participants trust the hubs because they see themselves reflected in the people delivering the programs. They don’t need to explain their experiences. They’re understood, supported and celebrated. “When you walk in and see people who look like you, who share your values, it changes everything,” says Larocque-Graham. “You know it’s a space where you can be ambitious, creative, loud, soft – all of it. Because it’s your space, too.” That sense of belonging is matched with concrete goals. At Mittohnee, Jackson is building toward an ecosystem that aims to double the number of Indigenous-led businesses it helps launch year over year, with a permanent space in Winnipeg to support them. At FlintHub, Richard sees room for growth across the spectrum, from introductory training to academic accreditation. “We’re aiming to graduate hundreds of entrepreneurs across Canada,” she says. “But more than that, I want us to expand how we think about Indigenous business. Not just startups, but innovation, creativity, community transformation.” The thread that binds these futures together is imagination, a reclaiming of what’s possible. “We already know Indigenous communities are key economic drivers,” says Jackson. “But that’s not always recognized. I want our hubs to spotlight what’s already happening and help take it even further.” Respecting What Already Works While Indigenous Hubs are leading powerful, culturally grounded programs, Labs4’s national leadership emphasizes the importance of honouring that work without redirecting or reframing it. “From the start, it was important to me that the network be committed to not co-opting or reframing Indigenous programming to fit within other models,” says Dr. Jolen Galaugher, RRC Polytech’s Executive Director, Research Partnerships and Innovation and part of the Labs4’s national leadership team. She adds: “We trust in the expertise and know-how of the Indigenous leaders in our network. The strength of Labs4 lies in recognizing that the regional and Indigenous hubs may work alongside one another – sometimes literally. They are distinct but aligned in purpose within the Labs4 vision of supporting research-based entrepreneurship and Indigenous entrepreneurship and equity of access in all our programming.” “It’s important that we not ask Indigenous leaders to pause the work they are already doing well in supporting Indigenous entrepreneurship to teach non-Indigenous hubs how to do Truth and Reconciliation work instead. When we accept that we have our own learning to do, that’s when we begin to be taught.” Richard agrees. “Indigenous entrepreneurship is about building futures defined by our own values: centering community, culture, and sustainable growth. It’s important to recognize that this work is distinct from Truth and Reconciliation. That journey belongs to non-Indigenous institutions, programs, and organizations.” “The Calls to Action were released nearly a decade ago, and we expect that our partners, and others, have already begun that process. Indigenous hubs are focused on supporting our entrepreneurs and responding to the needs of our communities, not the indigenization of others’ efforts. I’m confident that through our work, meaningful opportunities to work alongside non-Indigenous programs and partners within Labs4 will arise. I think that’s what drew us to this network, the fact that we’d be able to build something rooted in who we are.”
