OCII is committed to helping UPEI faculty advance their research. We offer a range of services to help you develop and fund your work, partner with industry, and commercialize your research results and technology.

Technology assessment

Your ideas and expertise are incredibly valuable. The solutions and technology that you develop can make a huge difference.  At OCII, we can help you evaluate the process, idea, or product you have developed to determine its most appropriate market and position.

We work closely with you to understand your objectives and the unique aspects of your idea. But we also stand back and look at it from an outsider’s perspective. What is special and valuable about the idea? What problems can it solve? Who has this problem? Who has similar problems that your solution could be applied to?

Some of the services or activities that we offer include:

• Advising on intellectual property protection, including copyrights, trademarks, and patents
• Identifying the market potential of the technology
• Identifying external expertise to assist in reviewing the technology

Please contact us to get started. We are always happy to talk.

Partnering with industry

Sometimes the best way to move your solution or technology out of the university is to work with an industry partner. This can be a company or other organization such as a hospital or government department.

OCII can help you find the right industry partner based on your work, ideas, and objectives. We have extensive networks of businesses, economic development agencies and others who work closely with industry and understand their challenges. This means we can find potential partners for you from almost any sector and from any region.

Industry partners can work with you in many ways, including collaborating on research, fee for service, or licensing your technology. OCII can help you work with industry partners to ensure that you both meet your objectives in an equitable way. We can help you navigate the contracts, negotiations, and other official components of the partnership, and provide advice and counsel on best practises and procedures to follow.

If you would like to work with an industry partner, please contact us to get started.

Proposal development

Sometimes you have the beginnings of an idea, but just need a little more evidence to make progress. Other times, you need to see your idea in action in the proper context. Either way, if research is required, OCII can help you identify the best applied research funding opportunities for your work.

We can help you evaluate and refine your research plan from the perspective of the funding program you are pursuing so that it is as competitive as possible.

If you have an industry partner, we can help you identify funds that are exclusively available for business R&D. 

There are a wide range of funding programs designed to encourage innovation through applied R&D. We can help you with any of these programs, providing proposal development support, guidance and connections to external expertise, where necessary.

Commercialization support

Commercialization is a broad category. There are many ways to move your product or solution into the market. We can help you determine the path that’s right for you and your technology.

Some of the options may include:

Technology licensing

Your solution or product may lend itself to licensing, meaning another person or company pays you for the use of your idea for a set period of time. You can stay focused on your research and coming up with the next great solution, while you and the University receive royalties for the license.

Spin-out  

Form your own company to develop and market the product or service yourself. This route requires time, money, patience and a fierce entrepreneurial spirit. You’ll need strong connections to potential markets, access to financing, broad networks of professionals such as accounting, legal, marketing, human resources and information technology.

Sell the intellectual property

For some technologies, it’s advisable to sell the intellectual property outright. This is a lot like licensing your technology. You receive a payment for the IP, and essentially say goodbye to your idea.

Please contact us for help and information about these options.