Initiatives
Cultivating Innovation by Developing Skills and Nurturing Talent
Experience Ventures (opens in new window)
Experience Ventures creates paid entrepreneurial thinking placements for college and university students with innovative companies in Canada. Entrepreneurial thinking is being creative in finding innovative solutions. Student's get paid to participate in challenges, projects, hackathons, and other entrepreneurial thinking placements.
Minor in Innovation & Zone Learning
This new academic minor from Zone Learning allows undergraduate students to start and grow their projects and ventures under the guidance of an instructor. Courses from across the unveristy allow students to get hands-on experience gaining deeper insights into the skills and competencies needed to grow a project or venture.
Professional Skills Development Zone (opens in new window)
The Professional Skills Development Zone provides opportunities to develop transferable skills like critical thinking, communication, interpersonal relations and technical skills. Participants can choose from a combination of workshops and learning modules and apply for work placements at Zone startups or other employers.
Startup School (opens in new window)
Startup School provides fundamental entrepreneurial education to aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs alike. Students and founders can take advantage of practical education on topics curated to accelerate a startup’s growth. Join top industry experts, academic thought leaders and seasoned entrepreneurs as they lead sessions on the topics crucial to entrepreneurial success.
Shad Canada
Shad (external link) is a lifelong experience that begins with a month-long summer program, which shows students that they can achieve anything if they think big and pursue their extraordinary potential. Shad teaches high school students – at a pivotal point in their education – to recognize their own capabilities and envision their potential as tomorrow’s leaders and change makers.
TechTalent Accelerator (external link)
The TechTalent Accelerator prepares undergraduate and graduate students to foster industry specific skills, knowledge, and experience with exposure to evolving challenges and opportunities faced by the Tech Industry. Students participate in seminars, complete training courses and gain hands-on experience through hack-a-thons, job shadows and internships.
Extending the Zone Model to Develop New Ecosystems
Brampton Venture Zone (opens in new window)
Located within the burgeoning Brampton Innovation District (external link, opens in new window) , The Zone aims to enhance the city’s social and economic vitality by supporting the growth of new business, creating high-skilled jobs, building a talent pipeline, and solidifying Brampton’s standing as a global hub of innovation.
DMZ Innisfil (external link, opens in new window)
DMZ Innisfil is more than just a workspace. In partnership with the Town of Innisfil, DMZ Innisfil will be a staple to the town’s growing startup community by providing exclusive resources and access to a network of partners, customers and investors from Canada’s top tech incubator-accelerator.
DMZ Global
From New York to Tokyo, the DMZ supports global partners to design, execute, and expand startup programming. Our team will share our experience, expertise, templates, and best practices, and work with your team every step of the way.
Building Strategic Partnerships that Help TMU’s Innovation Ecosystem Thrive
Creative Innovation Studio
The Creative Innovation Studio connects emerging and established makers, artists, technologists, entrepreneurs, researchers and academics, in a collaborative community devoted to creative exploration, cross-disciplinary innovation, and creative excellence. It is also home to 3 Zone Learning incubators.
Dais (external link)
An action-oriented public policy and leadership think tank to develop the people and ideas needed for a more inclusive and innovative economy, education system and democracy for Canada.
Future of Sport Lab (external link)
The Future of Sport Lab (FSL) is a collaborative lab and incubator for sport innovation and research. The lab is a vision supported and co-managed by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), one of the world’s premier sport and entertainment companies, and Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada’s most vibrant educational institution.
iBEST (external link)
The Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science and Technology (iBEST) is a partnership between Toronto Metropolitan University and St. Michael’s Hospital that brings together the university's engineering and science strengths with St. Michael’s biomedical research and clinical expertise.
Image Centre (external link)
As part of its dedication to the history of photography and related cultural studies, The Image Centre fosters artist projects, academic research and scholarly activity related to its collections.
LPP
Innovative, rigorous and demanding, the eight-month LPP is an approved pathway to lawyer licensing in Ontario (equivalent to articling), offering simulated, virtual training with a hands-on work term.
Magnet Student Work Placement Program (external link, opens in new window)
The Student Work Placement Program (SWPP) brings together employers, students, and post-secondary school stakeholders to create quality work-integrated learning opportunities. The Magnet Student Work Placement Program is run through the Office of Zone Learning by not-for-profit, digital social innovation platform Magnet.
Fostering Canadian Innovation from Coast to Coast
Incubate Innovate Network of Canada (external link)
The Incubate Innovate Network of Canada (I-INC) is a pan-Canadian, internationally connected network of high-performance university-linked accelerators and incubators. Along with UOIT (now Ontario Tech) and SFU, Toronto Metropolitan University is a founding partner of the network. Now with 13 partner institutions nationwide, I-INC creates an ecosystem for the efficient commercialization of University-based and science and technology-enabled innovation.
Lab2Market (external link, opens in new window)
Lab2Market (L2M) is the first national-level program in Canada to fund and equip graduate students and their faculty supervisors with the entrepreneurial skills needed to assess the commercial viability of their university-based research innovations. Lab2Market is run in partnership with Dalhousie University and Memorial University. The program is funded with support from support of FedDev Ontario, ACOA, Mitacs and Ocean Supercluster – Ocean Startup Project.
Mindframe Connect (external link, opens in new window)
MindFrame Connect is an online platform that features leading experts, entrepreneurs, and mentors in workshops, how-to videos, masterclasses, literature pieces, podcasts, and more. All content is designed to provide practical learnings and advice that an entrepreneur and/or mentor can efficiently apply in real-life time. It also supports accelerators, hubs, and academic institutions as a complement to their current programming.
Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst (external link)
Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst is Toronto Metropolitan University’s national centre for training, innovation and collaboration in cybersecurity. Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, but delivering a variety of national programs targeted at individuals and youth, private- and public-sector organizations, cyber entrepreneurs, researchers and policy professionals, the Catalyst empowers Canadians to seize the opportunities and tackle the challenges of cybersecurity.