ReMAP Announces Commercialization Award Winner at Inaugural AGM

TORONTO, June 15, 2015 /CNW/ - ReMAP is pleased to announce the winner of the 2015 Commercialization Award to the O7 Project Team at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario on June 10, 2015. The O7 Project Team is a ReMAP collaboration between 7D Surgical, Celestica, Ryerson University and Sunnybrook Research Centre. This group of industry leaders and research partners has come together to advance optical technologies for image-guided surgery.

The award recognizes the project team with the most compelling business case to accelerate their innovation with an additional $50,000 of funding in 2015 - 2016. The O7 Project Team will use this additional funding to leverage similar technology already proven in spinal surgery to develop prototypes and surgical tools for cranial surgery. The development of this innovation will help improve patient outcomes.

"On behalf of the entire O7 Project Team, 7D Surgical accepts this award and is honoured to have the continued support of our partner organizations, Ryerson University, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Celestica. We thank ReMAP for seeing the opportunities in our team and innovations, where this $50,000 award will accelerate the commercial success of our image-guided surgical navigation products," said Beau Standish, Chief Executive Officer, 7D Surgical.

"As products are being launched exponentially faster than ever before, the role of ReMAP is to accelerate time-to-market from researchers' innovative ideas and emerging technologies at later stage technology readiness levels (TRL) through to product commercialization," said Irene Sterian, Executive Director, ReMAP. "A collaboration of industry experts and scientists strengthens the ability for a start-up organization to accelerate the commercialization of their innovation developed in Canada for the global market.  ReMAP is pleased to support the O7 Team in this initiative."

ReMAP is also pleased to announce that two other project teams have tied for second place and have been awarded a $10,000 Commercialization Travel voucher. Project O8, comprised of McGill University, CMC Microsystems, Celestica and TeraXion are developing a cost-effective modulator; and in Project S3, Solantro and Celestica are developing smart electronics for solar energy.  The award will enable project teams to travel to trade shows, conferences and/or potential customers to demonstrate their product innovation.

"We are committed to making a significant contribution to Canada to help build its competitive advantage, create new highly skilled jobs and provide opportunities to build export-ready products that will have long-term economic benefit," said Brad Jackson, Board Chair, ReMAP.

About ReMAP
Refined Manufacturing Acceleration Process (ReMAP) is a business-led network that brings together industry leaders from across Canada in academia, research, innovation incubators and companies of all sizes to drive innovation for a global market. Working collaboratively, the network supports leading-edge research to advance new capabilities in R&D, product design and manufacturing to solve today's industry challenges. These capabilities are intended to accelerate the commercialization of electronics innovations – ensuring that Canada's investment in electronics technology translates into differentiated solutions for economic growth and job creation. Sharing resources across 38 labs and factories throughout ReMAP's 25+ partner network will help companies of all sizes lower cost, improve processes, and bring differentiated products to market – faster. ReMAP receives financial support through the Government of Canada's Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program and its network partners.  For more information, visit www.remapnetwork.org.

SOURCE Refined Manufacturing Acceleration Process (ReMAP)

For further information: Media Contact: Loretta Renard, [e-mail], 416 318 4571