This training program will provide a skilled entrepreneurial workforce for Canada, one that will fuel creation of a high-tech economy to replace the shrinking classical manufacturing sector. The statistics are clear: our Universities and research institutions are leading the world in discovery, but we are failing in transferring these technologies into commercial products. We will equip the trainees with skills to build their own companies from their research, with a specific scientific focus on building organ-on-a-chip devices for compound screening and discovery.

• Provide world-leading training of the highest scientific standard in microfabrication, microfluidics, polymer chemistry, organ-on-a-chip engineering and translation.
• Provide training in hard (patent law, business, finance) and soft (networking, etiquette, public speaking, critical thinking & analysis, team work) skills essential to entrepreneurial success.
• Building on our existing contacts, we will develop a network of partners and receptors, e.g. business advisors, patent lawyers, venture capital firms and incubators, to assist trainees.

Graduate students, as well as post-doctoral fellows who are conducting research under the direct supervision of TOeP faculty members are eligible for full participation in this program (see below for a listing of participating investigators).