PARTNERSHIP TO TRANSFORM COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH FUNDING IN CANADA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A recent partnership between CS-Can|Info-Can and tech startup Profound Impact creates the potential for Computer Science researchers to access new sources of funding.

WATERLOO, ON | JANUARY 23, 2024 — Profound Impact™ Corporation, a technology company based in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, is excited to announce its partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can, an organization with over 60 member Computer Science departments across Canada that aims to foster excellence in Computer Science research and higher education. 

As part of this partnership, Profound Impact will provide CS-Can|Info-Can member Computer Science departments and researchers with free evaluations of Research Impact, Profound Impact’s AI-driven researcher to funding matching tool. Research Impact uses proprietary AI-powered algorithms to match industry and academic researchers with the over $300-billion available in funding opportunities worldwide.

“We are thrilled to embark on this transformative partnership with Profound Impact™ Corporation, as it signifies a significant stride forward for our CS-Can|Info-Can members. Profound Impact’s commitment to providing free evaluations of Research Impact, their cutting-edge AI-driven researcher-to-funding matching tool, aligns perfectly with our mission to foster excellence in Computer Science research and higher education across Canada. This collaboration opens doors for our member Computer Science departments and researchers, addressing the funding challenges that often hinder the expansion of vital research initiatives. We believe this partnership marks the beginning of a fruitful series of collaborations, empowering our members to achieve their funding goals and contribute to the advancement of Computer Science research in Canada.” says Gina van Dalen, Executive Director CS-Can|Info-Can.

This partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can is the first of a series of collaborations with researchers across Canada as Profound Impact works with industry leaders and researchers to initiate new research funding connections to help Canadian research institutions and their partners meet their funding goals.

“Computer Science research drives technological innovation. Yet many researchers and departments struggle to find funding to continue and expand their research,” says Profound Impact President & CEO, Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone. “We are excited to offer this solution to the CS-Can|Info-Can membership. We all succeed when researchers get the funding they need to continue to innovate.”

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT™ CORPORATION 

Based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool – Research Impact – helps academic and industry researchers find the perfect funding match. With over $300 Billion in research funding opportunities, 100,000s industry partners and 8.8 Million researchers globally, finding the optimal grant for academic and industry innovators is often overwhelming and unnecessarily time-consuming.  More than just a search engine, Research Impact offers automatic, targeted and timely matching.  Profound Impact’s customers include top North American research institutions, universities and industry partners.  CEO and Founder Sherry Shannon-Vanstone is a serial technology entrepreneur with an unparalleled track record.  She has had five successful start-ups and exits in Silicon Valley and Canada, including two IPOs and acquisitions.    

About CS-Can|Info-Can

CS-Can|Info-Can counts among its members more than 60 Canadian organizations active in computing research: academic departments of computer science and computer engineering; laboratories and centres in industry, government, and academia; and affiliated professional societies. CS-Can|Info-Can works with these organizations to represent the computing research community and to effect change that benefits both computing research and society at large.

Visit us at www.profoundimpact.com

Connect with us at 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

For media inquiries, please contact:

Scott Hamilton

Durrell Communications

scotth@durrellcomm.com

media@profoundimpact.com 

CEO Message

Happy 2024!

Profound Impact is excited to start the new year with the announcement of a new partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can, a professional organization representing more than 60 Computer Science departments and faculties across Canada.

CS-Can|Info-Can and Profound Impact worked together in 2023 to produce two webinars on researcher and industry collaboration. Recordings of those webinars are available for viewing here.

This new partnership provides an exciting benefit to the CS-Can|Info-Can members – a free evaluation of Research Impact, which uses advanced AI to match researchers with the best research funding opportunities in their field and helps find industry partners to support successful grant applications.

Would you like to see Research Impact in action? You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration during one of the bi-weekly Demo Days that the Profound Impact team will be presenting throughout 2024.

This month, we’re proud to present profiles of two 2023 Impactful Action Award finalists. These finalists exemplify what it means to make a profound impact in the world, and we are honoured to share their stories. You’ll meet Leigh Zachary Bursey, an activist, journalist, former three-term politician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and author, and Lynn Smith, a proud member of the Peavine Métis Settlement who is leading her northern community through a significant change to take control over monitoring the impact of climate change on their land and waterways.

The Profound Impact team is excited about our plans for 2024 and looks forward to sharing those with you. Enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections and best wishes for a productive and happy new year!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Leigh Zachary Bursey

Leigh Zachary Bursey
Community Advocate
Young Leader Impactful Actions Award Finalist

International best-selling author, loss prevention officer, research consultant, supportive housing program coordinator, community organizer and journalist. Through these roles, Leigh Zachary Bursey has engaged with vulnerable people and worked to amplify their voices to produce social change.

Leigh has never shied away from tackling challenging social topics such as homelessness, mental health, harm reduction and allied support for the LGBTQIA – and for him, this work is personal. “My mother and I dealt with homelessness while I was in high school, giving me an early education in trauma and desperation,” notes Leigh. “As a result, I understood early on that I wanted to help people.”

It was while standing calf-deep in snow at a bus stop in Brockville, Ontario and realizing that this was a daily experience for many people that Leigh decided to run for city council. “I used my punk rock ethos, music background and big mouth to go out and make a difference,” says Leigh.

During his three terms as Brockville city councillor, Leigh participated in important discussions about social justice issues including gender equity, homelessness, mental health, harm reduction and affordable housing. “I was tagged as the punk rock councillor and was called by people in crisis to help. That experience provided powerful, hands-on experience in dealing with the circumstances and traumas of others,” he said.

Leigh’s passion for community development and helping those who are often marginalized and in need of support is reflected in his work. In addition to his role as a city councillor, Leigh has served as Vice-President of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association, and as a Child Protection Support Worker for Family and Children Services of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, and for Cornerstone Landing Youth Services in Lanark County. He has worked in youth homeless shelters and adult warming centres, advocating for naloxone training and increased harm reduction supports, and has been a vocal supporter of increased public transit hours and of adding operating dollars to local library budgets.

A highlight of Leigh’s career was speaking at the International Journal on Homelessness Symposium in Chicago in 2023. “I presented case studies that told the stories of rough sleepers – putting a name and a face to homelessness.  Some of the rough sleepers I’ve worked with are the most incredible people I’ve known. I have come to understand that my lived experience is trivial in comparison,” says Leigh.

Leigh has shared his research findings as a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Canadian Rural and Remote Housing and Homelessness Symposium, the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness Conference, the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention National Conference and the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association National Congress.

The focus of Leigh’s work has been to represent marginalized people in order to communicate their challenges and share their ideas for change to develop scalable solutions that can be replicated across borders. He has challenged stigmas and amplified the voices of the people he works with through outreach and engagement. “When asked what I do, I often say that I love people who are sometimes hard to love,” says Leigh. “I encourage people to make better decisions.”

Leigh’s dedication to advocating for the most vulnerable in the community is exemplified by his philosophy in life: “Kindness is free and a very underutilized form of currency that we should all exhaust.” Profound Impact is honoured to share the story of Leigh’s work and its impact and to recognize his accomplishments as an Impactful Action Awards finalist in the Young Leader Category.

You can see more about Leigh’s career and impact in the visualization below.

Do you have an impact story to share? Let us know at connections@profoundimpact.com for a chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

Lynn Smith

Lynn Smith
Regional Planning Coordinator
Lifetime Achievement Impactful Actions Award Finalist

Lynn Smith has fond memories of walking through the jack pine forest of the Peavine Métis Settlement in northern Alberta, of which she is a proud member, with her grandmother to pick blueberries and of camping with her family in those same forests. In her current role as Regional Planning Coordinator within the Consultation Department in the Settlement, developed in partnership with NAIT (the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), she is leading her community through a significant change to take control of monitoring the impact of climate change on their land and waterways. 

“Indigenous people have been stewards of the forests and waterways for generations,” notes Lynn. “I am now in a position to make changes to bring things back, as closely as possible, to the way they were when I was a child, when my cousins and I could drink directly from the river and streams in our community.”

Lynn works with compassion and perseverance in collaboration with community members to build knowledge and achieve data sovereignty in order to better hold industry and all levels of government accountable for how their actions impact Indigenous lands. She has developed an environmental monitoring program managed by a team of community-based environmental monitors and data technicians that deliver real benefits to the Settlement. This mentoring model ensures that the skills of those monitors and technicians are retained within the community.

Lynn regularly initiates, enables and sustains collaborations with a broad range of stakeholders, including Elders, traditional hunters and fishers, NAIT staff and students, all levels of government, and companies from the energy, forestry, and environmental consulting sectors. She reaches out to people and organizations with different experiences and expertise and enables her team to weigh in on decisions to achieve her community’s goals – all while demonstrating her compassion and strong interpersonal connections.

Although Indigenous peoples own, occupy, or use about a quarter of the world’s surface, they safeguard 80% of the world’s biodiversity. Attempts in the past by those communities to set up environmental monitoring programs have suffered from a lack of knowledge, thereby hindering the development, sustainability, quality and viability of the programs. Lynn has developed innovative partnerships between the Indigenous community and Western scientists, to teach Indigenous ways of knowing and to share Western-based methods of doing science with professionals who create environmental monitoring programs in her community. Lynn is also breaking new ground by communicating her learnings in setting up environmental monitoring programs to the scientific community by participating in the upcoming Chemical Society of Canada conference – a first for a non-traditionally trained scientist.

The sharing of knowledge and learnings with other Indigenous communities suffering from similar environmental challenges is a vital element of Lynn’s work. She works with communities to build competencies in their consultation teams to autonomously monitor their land, generate and interpret data, and implement management programs. 

Lynn has been recognized for her achievements by being asked to represent her community on the Board of Directors of the Lesser Slave Lake Watershed Council, which works to improve and maintain a healthy watershed through education, planning and implementation of shared initiatives supporting communities and ecosystems throughout the region.

Lynn is mother to three young adult children and, when not working for the Settlement, owns and operates, along with her husband, Jesse Smith, three businesses: P’J’s Eavestroughing, Lynn and Jesse Grain Farm and D’Vine Trap Range. The trap range evolved from her love of the sport of trap shooting, where she was named the 2019 Canadian Ladies Champion. She is currently and has been, for the last 5 years, the reigning Alberta Provincial Ladies Champion.

“I’ve never thought of myself as a pioneer,” says Lynn about her work. “This is the best job I’ve ever had!” 

Profound Impact is delighted to showcase Lynn’s important work and its incredible impact on the Peavine Métis Settlement and across Indigenous communities.

You can see more about Lynn’s career and impact in the visualization below.

Do you have an impact story to share? Let us know at connections@profoundimpact.com for a chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

CEO Message

Message from the CEO

November was a busy month for the Profound Impact team as we released our annual Social Impact Report, participated in industry conferences and met with venture capitalists in the US in preparation for the company’s next funding round.

The Profound Impact Social Impact Report highlights strategies we’ve undertaken over the last twelve months to maintain and improve a positive environment for our employees. These initiatives have included monthly in-person team meetings, team-building activities, virtual social events (including group cooking sessions), group volunteering, professional skills and growth support education programs, a team-wide book club and the matching of charitable contributions to community organizations. I’m proud to report that Profound Impact has achieved an employee retention rate of 100% (with 0% attrition) while growing the team by 33%. This employee retention rate is in stark contrast with tech companies globally, where the average attrition rate sits at 13.2%. 

Conference attendance and presentations took Profound Impact employees across North America to learn more about key technologies and to meet current and potential customers.  

Our Technical Program Manager, Sohail Ramzan, attended AWS Reinvent in Las Vegas to meet with AWS experts and to learn about the latest cloud industry innovations and how generative AI is revolutionizing the workplace.

Sherryl Petricevic, Director of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships was joined by Mike Folinas, Director of Research Administration at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto to present a case study on the use of Profound Impact’s Research Impact tool at the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) East in London, Ontario.

Jacqueline Watty from our Business Development team represented Profound Impact at qConnect 2023 in Calgary to connect with researchers and industry representatives discussing Canada’s role as a leader in quantum research and development, and how and why quantum is going to affect, change and benefit businesses.

Karl Burger, Director of Sales, attended the VentureLAB HardTech Summit, Canada’s premiere technology and innovation-focused summit that brought together global industry leaders, Canadian founders, investors, and innovators to explore the necessary ingredients to build a strong, connected hardware and semiconductor ecosystem in Canada.

Dr. Deborah Rosati, the chair of Profound Impact’s board of directors, and I took part in Pathways to Silicon Valley, where 24 female founders from across Canada participated in a curated immersion program designed for women founders of start-ups on their path to global business growth. We joined this program to establish relationships with US venture capital firms to prepare for our next fundraising round and our launch into the US in 2024.  

December is the season of giving and the team at Profound Impact is demonstrating the power of small acts of kindness through our annual 12 Days of Impact, a program that encourages generosity. Our 12 Days of Impact campaign provides great examples of easy and inexpensive ways to be kind and generous and has also helped members of the Profound Impact team create a meaningful sense of contribution to their community while increasing bonds of collegiality on the job. We encourage you to download the 12 Days of Impact calendar and challenge your team to participate through small acts of kindness that have great big impacts.

I wish you all the best for 2024 and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Tabatha Laverty

Tabatha Laverty
Vice-President, Marketing and External Relations, Accelerator Centre
Young Leader Impactful Actions Award Finalist

It was during a Grade 8 field trip to a television station where a classmate’s father worked that Tabatha Laverty decided that she wanted to be a journalist. “I really didn’t consider another career until I graduated from Seneca College’s Television Broadcasting program, just as journalism as a business model was changing,” says Tabatha. “I realized that there wasn’t as broad of a variety of career options as I would have liked and ended up at a Big Four accounting firm, working in administration and marketing.” She was drawn to the storytelling aspect of journalism and discovered that marketing and communications would offer her the opportunities to tell those stories.

Tabatha’s career journey from project management, marketing, communications and community engagement to her current role as an acclaimed non-profit leader and award-winning marketer has seen her develop a passion for workplace equity and inclusion and an understanding of the vital importance of mentorship.

As VP of Marketing and External Relations at the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo, Ontario, Tabatha has spearheaded the organization’s EDI Action Plan, resulting in significant progress in creating a more inclusive and equitable innovation organization and tech community ecosystem. Most significantly, when women-led start-ups account for approximately 17.5% of all private-sector businesses in Canada, over 63% of the Accelerator Centre’s most recent program launch are women-led businesses, with 26% being led by newcomers to Canada, and 5% by indigenous entrepreneurs.

Tabatha was also instrumental in developing the Accelerator Centre’s cleantech incubation program, a first for Waterloo Region. In 2020, the programming was expanded to support all entrepreneurs working on solutions that support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, adding resources for med-tech, ed-tech, smart city and social innovation-focused start-ups and supporting nearly 100 start-up companies.

Tabatha’s commitment to the advancement of women in the workplace includes her participation in the Waterloo Region Chapter of Women in Communications and Technology (WCT-WR) as a board director. “I love this community. The Kitchener Waterloo area has been such an incredible place for my family to live and work, and I’m passionate about giving back. Serving on the WCT-WR board is one way I can do that. I look forward to doing amazing things with this incredible organization and increasing access to networks, mentorship, and community for women across the region,” says Tabatha.

In addition to her role on WCT-WR’s board, Tabatha serves as a mentor in the organization’s Mentoring Circles program. She participates in monthly meetings with a fellow mentor and 5-6 mentees in similar career stages to share stories, provide guidance and help build mentees’ skill sets. “Mentoring is very important,” notes Tabatha. “It’s essential to reach out to people who have accomplished something you want to accomplish. And it’s important to get out of the echo chamber by including mentors from different backgrounds. For me, that was learning about finance, strategy, and EDI from people more accomplished in those areas than I am.”

In addition to the wisdom gleaned from her mentors and career champions, Tabatha has broadened her skill set through post-graduate certificates in social media management, fundraising, digital marketing, stakeholder management and non-profit and voluntary sector management. As a wife and mother of three, Tabatha prioritizes making time for herself and her family. “I wouldn’t say I am an expert in work-life balance, or that I have it figured out,” she says. “But I am lucky to work at a place that values flexibility, and I do my best to find a balance that works for me and my family.”

In 2021, Tabatha received the Global Women in Leadership Award issued by the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade and, in 2022 was nominated for DMZ Women of the Year Award. Profound Impact is proud to have designated Tabatha as a finalist in the Young Leader category for this year’s Impactful Actions Awards in recognition of her work as an accomplished leader and active community champion.

You can see more of Tabatha’s career and impact in the visualization below.

Do you have an impact story to share? Let us know at connections@profoundimpact.com for a chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

Stephanie Thompson

Stephanie Thompson, P. Eng
General Motors
Lifetime Achievement Impactful Actions Award Finalist

“Be a ladder, be a lamp or be a lifeboat.” This is Stephanie Thompson’s motto in her work as a passionate engineer and community leader who increases awareness for engineering, manufacturing and skilled trades careers for young women.

Stephanie grew up as the oldest of four children in Ottawa. Her interest in a career in science was sparked by an invitation by Mrs. Williams, her Grade 11 physics and chemistry teacher, to an overnight trip to the Chalk River Laboratories in Deep River, Ontario, where she saw nuclear physicists at work. “My teacher had a profound effect on me by recognizing my potential in science,” says Stephanie.

Stephanie liked chemistry and chose to study chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo after doing her research and learning that engineers had the best capacity for earning. Although successful at the traditional model of learning in high school, she found university to be humbling. “I had to figure things out. How to be creative and inventive and how to learn. And this prepared me for work after graduation,” she notes.

During her 22-year career at General Motors in St. Catharines, Ontario, Stephanie has worked in a range of engineering roles, including Launch Process Engineer, Process Engineer and Production Group Leader, and was the first woman to serve as an Engineering Manager. “I have been most successful when surrounded by talented and smart people, allowing me to find my space in a way that nobody else was doing.”

Through her extensive community outreach, Stephanie promotes engineering and other STEM fields as a storyteller, problem solver and a breaker of barriers. It is through these skills that she allows others, especially women, to see what they do not see in themselves. 

In 2019, Stephanie launched the social enterprise STEM by Steph. STEMbySteph.com offers a range of activities, including a workshop series that brings women together to explore STEM careers. These workshops are led by women and focus on topics including Chemistry, Automotive, Environment, Space, Robotics, and Electrical. STEM by Steph also offers pro-bono career coaching for high school students.

Stephanie believes that a major barrier for girls pursuing trades and STEM fields is the lack of female STEM role models. In response to that need, STEM by Steph workshops offer a frequently sold-out social event where other female STEM professionals join Stephanie to teach young women and their mothers in a fun, camaraderie-filled atmosphere. “If you want more young women to be interested in non-traditional roles, involve their mothers,” notes Stephanie. “You cannot be what you do not see, and a major influence in every girl’s life is her mother.”

As a FIRST Robotics Mentor, Stephanie has run FIRST Robotics teams at local schools since 2005 including leading the Niagara FIRST Lego League as Tournament Director. She recently connected engineers and electricians from General Motors with over 200 students from across Ontario for a day-long workshop on Design Thinking about the future of automotive.

In addition to her mentoring and community outreach work, Stephanie is active in the Niagara Region as a member of the Brock University Board of Trustees, a member of the Niagara College Industrial Automation Program Advisory Committee, the inaugural Chair of the Brock University Engineering Industry Partners Committee and Director of Innovate Niagara. 

Stephanie’s professional and community work has been recognized by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce as the 2018 winner of the Women in Business Award for Science and Technology.  She was awarded the 2020 Alumni Achievement Medal for Community Service by the University of Waterloo and was included in the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, when she was inducted into the Hall of Fame 

Stephanie’s impact on the community is perhaps best summarized by Nancy Watt, Advisory Board member for the internationally recognized magazine, Enterprising Women. “When I asked Stephanie to help build a STEM event on behalf of the Young Enterprising Women Foundation, I had no idea she was about to deliver a record-breaking, precedent-setting, multi-media-covered event that garnered an article in Enterprising Women. Stephanie is a connector. She sees potential and opportunities in others, puts them together and watches synergy take hold. She puts forward-thinking strategy to use, analyzing and achieving the best possible outcome for those who know her.”

You can see more of Stephanie’s career and impact in the visualization below.

Do you have an impact story to share? Let us know at connections@profoundimpact.com for a chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

CS-CAN|INFO-CAN and Profound Impact Announce New Partnership Offering Research Impact to CS-CAN|INFO-CAN Members

This newly announced partnership provides an exciting benefit to the CS-CAN|INFO-CAN membership! Profound Impact is offering CS-CAN|INFO-CAN members a free evaluation of Research Impact, which uses advanced AI to match researchers with the best research funding opportunities in their field and helps find industry partners to support successful grant applications.

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PLEASE READ AND USE THE CHECKBOX BELOW TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE.

Profound Impact is pleased to provide ORGANIZATION with the right to evaluate Research Impact, a Software as a Service product, for a period of ninety (90) days. This service will be provided at no charge during the evaluation period.

As part of the evaluation ORGANIZATION agrees to assign a Research Administrative Manager to 1) participate in a bi-weekly, thirty(30) minute meeting to share feedback about their use of Research Impact and to 2) complete a product survey at the end of the evaluation period. Profound Impact shall assist ORGANIZATION to support the evaluation by up to two (2) administrative staff and ten (10) researchers.

In order to support the evaluation, Profound Impact requires permission from ORGANIZATION to obtain the following publicly available information about each researcher from ORGANIZATION’S website and from other public sources on the Internet to create a researcher profile to prepopulate these profiles within Research Impact: i) First Name, (ii) Last Name, (iii) Faculty (iv) Program (v) Role (vi) Email Address (vii) Researcher Interests (viii) Publication History and (ix) Award History. Each researcher profile will be used by Research Impact to automatically generate key words to match each researcher with grant opportunities and industry partners.

ORGANIZATION agrees to provide the above information about each researcher and administrator via email to info@profoundimpact.com within two (2) weeks of the signature date of this document. Profound Impact shall obtain any and all public information about each researcher solely to create a researcher profile.

At the conclusion of the evaluation, ORGANIZATION will have the option to 1) continue to use the service with a paid subscription or 2) if ORGANIZATION chooses not to continue the service and at the ORGANIZATION’s instruction, Profound Impact shall delete all information about researchers and administrators described above, including all researcher grant matches, and shall provide written confirmation to ORGANIZATION within seven (7) business days.

In order to facilitate the evaluation of Research Impact, Profound Impact shall provide an online training session for ORGANIZATION research administrative staff.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

PLEASE READ AND USE THE CHECKBOX BELOW TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE.

Profound Impact is pleased to provide you (the Researcher) with the right to evaluate Research Impact, a Software as a Service product, for a period of three hundred sixty-five (365) days. This service will be provided at no charge during the evaluation period. As part of the evaluation you agree to share feedback about your use of Research Impact by responding to a monthly email, and you expressly, give permission for Profound Impact to obtain the following publicly available information about you from public sources such as your curriculum vitae to create your profile within Research Impact including but not limited to the following: i) First Name, (ii) Last Name, (iii) Faculty, (iv) Program, (v) Role, (vi) Email Address, (vii) Your Research Interests, (viii) Publication History, (ix) Award History, and (x) Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). Your profile will be used by Research Impact to automatically generate key words to match you with grant opportunities and industry partners.

At the conclusion of the evaluation, you will have the option to 1) continue to use the service with a paid subscription or 2) if you choose not to continue the service and at the your instruction, Profound Impact shall delete all information about you described above, including all your grant matches, and shall provide written confirmation to you within seven (7) business days.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

I have read and agree to the terms and conditions including the Additional Terms and Conditions in the PDF document linked above.

Would you like to see Research Impact in action? You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration!

CS-CAN|INFO-CAN and Profound Impact partnered earlier this year to produce two webinars on researcher and industry collaboration. If you missed the live event, you can watch the videos here!

Profound Impact + CS-CAN|INFO-CAN Webinar – Industry Collaboration: Benefits and Challenges, March 24, 2023

Profound Impact + CS-CAN|INFO-CAN Webinar: Industry/Researcher Collaboration Best Practices and Tools for Success, April 20, 2023

Profound Impact Achieves Staff Retention of 100% Over Two Years, Releases Social Impact Report and 12 Days of Impact Downloadable Calendar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL TECH COMPANY PROFOUND IMPACT ACHIEVES 100 PERCENT STAFF RETENTION OVER TWO YEARS DESPITE TUMULTUOUS MARKET CONDITIONS

Profound Impact attributes a staff retention rate of 100% to employee programs driven by purpose

WATERLOO, ON | NOVEMBER 27, 2023 — Profound Impact™ Corporation, a local tech company in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, has reported in its annual Social Impact Report that it has achieved an employee retention rate of 100 percent (zero percent attrition) while growing the team by 33 percent. This employee retention rate is in stark contrast with tech companies globally, where the average attrition rate sits at 13.2 percent. 

“It’s a rarity to see a start-up tech organization embody social impact programs so early in their company journey,” says Renata Rusiniak, who leads People & Purpose programs at Profound Impact. “Our CEO, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, understands the business value of purpose-driven work and invests accordingly. Her early adoption of programs that support her team to engage with community organizations has created a culture of generosity and as a result, an impressive employee retention rate.” 

The Social Impact Report highlights strategies the Profound Impact team undertook to maintain and improve a positive environment for their employees. Initiatives included monthly team meetings with team-building activities, virtual social events such as cooking sessions conducted through online platforms such as Zoom, team wellness programs such as team volunteering, professional skills and growth support education programs, matching charitable contributions to community organizations, book clubs, and much more.

Profound Impact’s annual ‘12 Days of Impact’ program encouraging generosity and the impact of small acts of kindness upon others, has also helped employees create a meaningful sense of contribution to their community while increasing bonds of collegiality on the job.

“Our 12 Days of Impact campaign provides great examples of easy and inexpensive ways to be kind and generous,” says Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, the CEO and Founder of Profound Impact. “ We’re encouraging our team members and our whole community to demonstrate the power of many through small acts of kindness that create big impacts in society.” 

Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool, Research Impact, offers automatic, targeted and timely grant matching. The company is also passionate about community, environmental sustainability, and employer-supported volunteerism. In addition to giving back through the 12 Days of Impact, Profound Impact has implemented employee donation matching, time off for volunteering, and group volunteering. To learn more about Profound Impact’s purpose-driven business, take a look at our FY23 Social Impact Report.

Individuals and organizations participating in the 12 Days of Impact can download the 12 Days calendar and share their actions on social media using #12DaysOfImpact.

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT™ CORPORATION 

Based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool – Research Impact – helps academic and industry researchers find the perfect funding match. With over $300 Billion in research funding opportunities, 100,000s industry partners and 8.8 Million researchers globally, finding the optimal grant for academic and industry innovators is often overwhelming and unnecessarily time-consuming.  More than just a search engine, Research Impact offers automatic, targeted and timely matching.  Profound Impact’s customers include top North American research institutions, universities and industry partners.  CEO and Founder Sherry Shannon-Vanstone is a serial technology entrepreneur with an unparalleled track record.  She has had five successful start-ups and exits in Silicon Valley and Canada, including two IPOs and acquisitions.    

Visit us at www.profoundimpact.com

Connect with us at 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

For media inquiries, please contact:

Scott Hamilton

Durrell Communications

scotth@durrellcomm.com

media@profoundimpact.com 

CEO Message

We’re excited to make innovation in medicine the focus of this month’s newsletter and to introduce you to two Canadian trailblazers who are making profound changes in the treatment of diabetes and gynecologic cancers.

Our November Impact Story features Dr. Harald Stöver, Professor in the Faculty of Science at McMaster University and founder and CEO of Allarta Life Science. You’ll learn how Harald has moved his research on polymer hydrogels, bio-relevant macromolecules and the delivery of biologics from the laboratory to market to fundamentally change the way that patients with Type 1 Diabetes receive treatment.  

You’ll also meet Dr. Laura Hopkins, a gynecological oncologist with the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency and Professor in the Division of Oncology and Provincial Lead for Gynecologic Oncology. A dedicated clinician, Laura’s devotion to providing excellent and timely care for patients through all stages of cancer treatment has led to the launch of the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency’s first investigator-initiated trial to explore patients’ preferences for precision medicine in ovarian cancer.

In keeping with the focus on medical technology innovations, this month’s Research Spotlight explores technologies that are providing advanced tools that, thanks to innovative research partnerships between clinicians, scientists, patients and industry, are vastly improving patient care and clinical outcomes.

This month’s newsletter also features an article about CANARIE, Canada’s National Research and Education Network, in recognition of its 30th anniversary. Along with its provincial and territorial partners, CANARIE operates NREN, Canada’s National Research and Education Network. This nationwide, ultra-high-speed network connects Canada’s researchers, educators, and innovators to each other and to global data, technology, and colleagues.

In late October, I was appointed as Vice-Chair for the CANARIE Board. I am extremely honoured to take on this role and have the opportunity to work closely with the Board Chair, Larry Rosia, President and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Past Chair, Sylvie LaPerriere and the other Board members. As the CEO of a female-founded company, I’m proud to serve on the board of an organization committed to diversity as reflected in the appointment of Kathryn Anthonisen, CANARIE’s first female President and CEO, and, when women occupy just 23% of board seats in Canada, a board that is 60% female.

Thank you for connecting with us and the Profound Impact community.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone