New facility to support London’s advanced manufacturers

June 23, 2014 – Western University’s Collider Centre for Technology Commercialization (Collider) has officially opened in London, Ont.

Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for FedDev Ontario, took part in the grand opening celebration, and spoke about the Government of Canada’s commitment to supporting the manufacturing sector in southern Ontario.

“FedDev Ontario’s investment in this project is supporting the manufacturing industry — an important contributor to southern Ontario’s economic growth. Today’s grand opening is a great example of how our government is backing our advanced manufacturers to bring new opportunities to the London area, and establish it as a hub for this sector,” said Goodyear.

On November 5, 2012, FedDev Ontario announced a non-repayable contribution of up to $13.7 million toward total project costs of $37 million for Western University to create the Fraunhofer Project Centre @ Western (FPC) and the Collider. The FPC is an applied research facility and a collaborative project between Western and the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology, a world leader in the development and testing of advanced composite materials.

The Collider is a centre for commercialization of advanced manufacturing technology and will provide manufacturers with industrial research space, business services, contract research services, and access to research staff and expertise, as well as production and testing equipment. It has the capacity to house 10 to 20 businesses at once and aims to accelerate the research and development process and help the region’s manufacturers get products to the global market.