Regional Technology Development Sites

Overview

The seven Regional Technology Development Sites (RTDS), are located in Waterloo, Ottawa, Hamilton, Durham, Windsor-Essex, Toronto and the newly added Northern RTDS that includes Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Temiskaming Shores, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay, carry out the following activities:

• Enable physical sites across the regions that bring together post-secondary institutions, regional innovation centres, incubators/accelerators, municipal and regional resources, industry and other regional collaborators to support SMEs in the development, testing, prototyping, validation and commercialization of automotive technology and smart mobility solutions
• Provide access to specialized equipment, hardware and software that will reduce the barriers to innovation for start-ups and SMEs in the automotive and mobility sector, including those developing electric vehicle and battery-related technologies
• Provide business and/or technical advisory services to start-ups and SMEs to assist in the commercialization of technologies developed at the regional sites
• Support regional testing and piloting of technologies and solutions that will lead to adoption and deployment

Each regional site focuses on a unique aspect of the automotive and smart mobility sector, such as hardware, security, data analytics and more.

• Participants (defined as SMEs having fewer than 500 full-time employees) and partners (defined as organizations providing in-kind and/or cash contributions to the project) with operations in Ontario and those who will carry out their projects in the province
• Typical project activities include technology development, product/service validation, testing, proof of concept and demonstration
• Participants and respective partners will have the opportunity to be showcased at OVIN events

Each regional technology development site offers access to physical space, tools and resources, as well as business and technical advisory support.