By Vanda Urbanellis
On Nov. 6 Ryerson University announced a 20-year collaboration with St. Michael’s Hospital with the opening of a new state-of-the-art research centre.
Ryerson president Sheldon Levy and St. Michael’s president and chief executive officer, Dr. Robert Howard made the announcement after three years of planning.
“The future is going to be very, very bright for Ryerson students,” said Sheldon Levy. “There would be no better partner than our colleagues here from St. Mikes”
The facility will be housed in a 22,000 square foot space as part of the Keenan Research Centre in St. Michael’s Hospital. It is going to be a part of the collaborative virtual enterprise known as iBest, the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science Technology. It will allow for approximately 15 Ryerson faculty members and 40 Ryerson students whose active research involves health care. These participants will be working alongside St. Michael’s scientists and doctors.
The partnership aims to bring opportunities in researching different possibilities of scientific thought and new ideas regarding the fields of healthcare, allowing to greater access and integration between different fields resources of study.
“Being able to partner with Ryerson and have the opportunity to do research together and have students come to St. Michael’s from Ryerson in a new and exciting way, that couldn’t be more special,” said Dr. Robert Howard.
This collaboration is set to engage students and faculty members in new and innovate entrepreneurial experiences within the field of science.
Like Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone for business and media, this incubator-like structure will focus on hands on research and collaborative, selected teams.
“iBest is an expansion of the Faculty of Science and collaborating with outside resources like St. Michael’s, which is so close to campus is a great opportunity for Ryerson’s growth and prosperity,” said Laura Olenjnik, third-year biology student at Ryerson.
Construction for the incubator is set to begin next spring with a completion goal of spring 2015.
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