CEO Message

More than a billion people around the world will celebrate Earth Day on Saturday April 22.  This year’s Earth Day theme, Invest in Our Planet, is designed to encourage businesses, governments and citizens to invest in solutions that will support the protection of the environment.  Profound Impact is marking Earth Day with our Research Impact article on the evolution of the automobile industry in Canada over the last 120 years and how the federal and provincial governments, along with Canadian companies, are leading the way in investing in and developing innovative technology that is transforming the industry as it transitions to zero-emission vehicle production.  

In this issue, you’ll meet Flavio Volpe, President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA).  Flavio was key in renegotiating the NAFTA agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico and is passionate about his work as an advocate of the automobile industry.  He tells us about Project Arrow – the prototype automobile that is a showcase for made-in-Canada technology to meet the federal government’s call for a Zero-Emissions future by 2050. I am honoured to be a member of the Project Arrow Advisory Committee and to have the opportunity to contribute to this impactful initiative.

This month’s Impact Story introduces Deborah Rosati, corporate director, entrepreneur, Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant and founder and CEO of Women Get On Board. Deborah works closely with the corporate governance community and is a powerful role model and mentor for women as she promotes and empowers women to join corporate, public sector and not-for-profit boards. I am excited to announce that Deborah is joining this month as Chair of Profound Impact’s Board of Directors.

We’re thrilled to announce that the Impactful Actions Awards, which recognize leaders from around the world who are making a profound impact in the global community, will accept nominations in two categories in 2023. Read more about the nomination procedures and timelines for the Young Leader and Lifetime Achievement categories here.

And finally, we hope you’ll check out the webinar on researcher/industry collaboration Profound Impact presented in partnership with CS-CAN|Info-Can in March, as well as the highlight demo video of our Research Impact product. We have another webinar coming up in April!

Happy Earth Month and thanks for connecting with us and the Profound Impact community!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CS-CAN Two Part Webinar Series

Industry – Research Collaboration Webinars

Profound Impact is excited to announce our participation in two CS-CAN webinars for a discussion on new strategies for matching funding and researchers. The webinar series will run in two parts on March 24, 2023 and April 20, 2023

Webinar #1 – March 24, 2023 View the recording here

Industry – Research Collaboration: Benefits and Challenges

Connections between industry, colleges and universities are vital as researchers seek industry partners for federally and provincially-funded research programs and industry looks to researchers for insight into long-term research directions as strategic development road maps are developed.

This webinar will discuss the benefits of collaboration to researchers, students and industry partners as well as the challenges in identifying potential partners and developing collaborative agreements.  

This webinar features:

  • Emily Gordon, Advisor, Business Development at Mitacs
  • Camelia Nunez, Manager of Operations at the Lazaridis Institute at Wilfrid Laurier University
  • Ig Kolenko, Executive Director at the Smart Manufacturing and Advanced Recycling Technologies (SMART) Centre at Conestoga College

Webinar #2 – April 20, 2023, 3:00 PM EST View the recording here

Industry – Research Collaboration: Best Practices and Tools for Success

What makes an industry-researcher collaboration a success? 

Hear from the experts:

  • Vio Onut, Principal R&D Strategist at the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) at IBM Canada and Adjunct Professor at University of Ottawa;
  • Jennifer Moles, Director, R&D Collaboration and Commercialization Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)
  • George Shaker, Principal Scientist and Head of Research at Spark Technology Labs (STL).
  • Brian Romansky of Profound Impact demonstrates the Research Impact matching tool.

You can view both webinars with this playlist on Youtube!