Through applied research projects, they bring partners together to develop the collaborative economic and social solutions Canada needs most – like building homes better and faster, strengthening our military and defence capacities, boosting energy production and transition, and getting major projects done.
College applied research develops solutions to real-world challenges in advanced manufacturing, climate-smart agriculture and food production, digital transformation, and more.
In real terms, these projects help businesses build new energy efficient houses, increase drought-resistant varieties of agricultural crops, develop new ways to mobilize genomic-based technologies in local clinics, and enhance encryption systems to protect drones from cyberattacks.
Research Questions Determined by Partners: Each applied research project is based on real problems identified by external partners.
Results at the Speed of Business: More than 80% of college applied research projects are completed in less than a year.
Intellectual Property Stays in Hand and At Home: 99% of project partners are Canadian. In each project, industry partners retain intellectual property for any innovative design, prototype, or solution developed.
College applied research makes real differences in the lives of Canadians – it helps businesses drive innovation that translates into downstream scalable solutions to our healthcare, housing, demographic, economic and social challenges.
Every dollar spent on applied research is a dollar invested in Canada.
When it comes to research impact, colleges punch above their weight. With less than 4% of federal research funding they are disproportionately efficient in delivering impact for Canadian industry relative to their share of federal research investment.
1-to-1: Colleges leverage nearly every dollar of federal funding to generate an equivalent private sector contribution in their research activities. With $187 million in federal funding (2023-2024), colleges generated $173 million in private contributions (31% of total) to deliver $560 million in research activities.
College applied research helps Canadian businesses transform their operations to be more efficient and competitive in a global economy and deliver downstream impact that benefits the economy and builds strong and prosperous communities.
Working with local industry partners, Canadian businesses, and SMEs, colleges lead mission-driven research that helps businesses develop, adapt, adopt, and commercialize new technologies, test and prototype new products, improve processes, and upscale capacity.
In 2023-2024, these projects delivered nearly 9,000 new products, prototypes, processes and services – innovations like structurally insulated panels used in modular housing construction that help businesses build more homes, faster.
Through applied research projects, colleges offer specialized expertise, smart technicians and state-of-the art facilities that can help industry partners transform innovative ideas into tangible in-time solutions – and get those ideas to market.
This includes Canada’s small and medium-sized enterprises that do not often have the capacity, infrastructure, networks, connections, or resources to conduct cutting-edge research on their own.
By working with a college, Canadian firms can explore new ideas to become more competitive and productive and generate wealth for the Canadian economy, while working with a trusted and reliable partner to minimize risk and support technology uptake.
In college research partnerships, intellectual property stays in the hands of industry – keeping wealth at home and allowing for rapid integration of research outputs in the local economy.
More than 28,000 students contribute to applied research projects at college and institute laboratories and research centres each year, learning and working in dynamic environments alongside employers.
This ensures graduates enter the labour market with problem-solving skills, technology-enriched experience that primes technology adoption, and employer connections. For businesses, this can serve as a critical talent pipeline that can help them become more innovative, competitive and productive.
College applied research supports nearly 9,000 Canadian partners every year – particularly the small businesses that generate nearly half of the country’s GDP. Sixty-one percent of college research partners are Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises.
With close to 500 research centres and labs across the country, including in northern, rural and Indigenous communities, colleges offer an accessible and open gateway to place-based R&D support to SMEs, large corporations, not-for-profit and community organizations.
Through these centres and labs, the college ecosystem provides crucial capacity to their communities, driving local innovation and economic development, from Canada’s biggest cities to our small towns in economic transition and resource intensive remote communities.
Placed-based, partner-driven, and mission-oriented college applied research delivers what Canada needs most – enabling solutions that help build more homes, boost domestic manufacturing, support the adoption and deployment of made-in-Canada dual-use technologies, and provide the high-quality services that Canadians depend on.
For every challenge, there is an applied research solution.
An innovation ecosystem built for Canada is one where colleges and institutes are centered as high-value partners bringing their full capacity to the table.
The data on this page comes from CICan’s biennial Survey of College and Institute Applied Research Activities, completed by 88 of CICan’s 127 member institutions. The survey also includes data from Quebec’s Centres collégiaux de Transfert de Technologies (CCTT) thanks to a data-sharing agreement.
Updated November 2025 with data from the 2023-2024 Survey. All the numbers on this page have been rounded to the nearest whole value.