Laurier researchers collaborate with industry to address local and global challenges. Companies can sponsor and participate in research that addresses their needs or hire student researchers as interns. Past Laurier industry partnerships have resulted in research commercialization, patents, product testing and co-development of knowledge.  

Our industry liaison specialist can help connect you to Laurier researchers and leverage research funding opportunities from organizations such as NSERC, Mitacs and the Ontario Centre of Innovation. 

Hiring Interns 

If you wish to hire a student intern to work on an innovation or research project within your company, we can connect you with Laurier researchers and students or with Laurier’s Co-op Centre. Your funds may also be leveraged through Mitacs programs to support an intern’s research or product, process or service improvements under the supervision of a faculty member. 

Commercialization 

We’re here to bridge the translation from creation to commercialization. Our industry liaison specialist provides education and advice to researchers on all matters related to the creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property via patents, trademarks and copyrights. We even assist researchers with company start-ups, fundraising and invention marketing.  

Intellectual Property 

Laurier researchers develop intellectual properties through their research and our industry liaison specialist can help research collaborators understand Laurier's intellectual property policies.  

Building and supporting community is at the heart of what we do. Our research teams apply these values to tackle complex issues at home and around the world alongside our community and government partners. No matter the context, our researchers’ work considers the needs of community members and aims to create concrete, positive change.  

By partnering with university researchers, community organizations can gain answers to the questions most relevant to them by designing and co-leading research to ensure its fairness, accessibility and usability. In turn, Laurier faculty and students gain genuine understanding of the people and issues they are studying and ensure their work has real-world impact.  

If your community or community organization has a challenge to address, needs research-driven solutions, or would like to partner with a Laurier researcher or research centre, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch with our manager of research partnerships.  

Local Partnerships 

Laurier researchers work with organizations across Canada and the globe, but the communities where we have campuses or locations are a special focus. As engaged members of their local communities, Laurier students, faculty and staff are committed to helping make them better places to live, work and play. 

Waterloo Region 

With a campus in Waterloo and the Faculty of Social Work in downtown Kitchener, Laurier researchers have many partners throughout Waterloo Region, including municipal governments, school boards and civil society organizations. A number of research centres, such as the Laurier Centre for Community Research, Learning and Action, Manulife Centre for Community Health Research, Sun Life Financial Centre for Physically Active Communities, Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability and the Social Innovation Research Group, focus on community-engaged research and do much of their work with organizations in Waterloo Region. 

Brantford 

Laurier’s Brantford campus, established in 1999, is right in the heart of the city. As such, many of its researchers are closely connected with the City of Brantford and local organizations such as the Brantford Police Service, civil society groups, school boards and health services.  

The Laurier Hub for Community Solutions, located at the Brantford Campus, acts as a matchmaker between community groups seeking expertise to address community-based challenges and opportunities and the university’s faculty, students and 23 research centres.  

Milton 

Laurier plans to open a new campus in Milton in 2024. The university has a strong relationship with the Town of Milton and Laurier researchers are beginning to partner with local organizations. For example, Laurier biologists are working with a Milton consulting engineering firm to build suburban wetlands. 

Yellowknife 

To deepen its longstanding research partnership with the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), Laurier opened a Yellowknife research office in 2017. In addition to its close work with the GNWT, Laurier maintains research partnerships with a variety of Yellowknife organizations such as Ecology North, the Yellowknife Farmers Market and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. More than 300 students have contributed their research and training work to communities across the Northwest Territories. 

Laurier has a strong commitment to Indigenization, a term that reflects the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into the daily life of the university and members of its community. This includes doing research with Indigenous communities and engaging in reciprocal relations. 

Whether working with First Nations, Inuit or Métis individuals, organizations or communities in Canada, or with Indigenous peoples elsewhere in the world, Laurier researchers work in the spirit of respect, collaboration and reconciliation. They are guided in part by Laurier’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives, as well as by Chapter 9 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2, “Research Involving the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Canada,” which serves as a framework for the ethical conduct of research involving Indigenous peoples. 

Laurier researchers work with communities on issues related to Indigenous governance and rights, and co-lead two Global Water Futures projects with Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario and the Northwest Territories. Events such as the annual Indigenist Research Symposium share Indigenous research with the wider community. 

Laurier researchers often collaborate with other academics. If you are a scholar at another institution seeking collaborators, reach out directly to Laurier researchers. If you need help connecting with a researcher, our knowledge mobilization officer and research facilitators can assist you.