The Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University, which offers a broad suite of programming for aspiring startup founders, has opened its new Sobeys Inspiration Hub — a four-storey, 43,000-square-foot facility meant to act as a nexus between the academic and business communities, with facilities for prototyping and research.

The building was funded with the help of $5 million from the Sobey family of grocery store fame, part of a larger, $18 million donation. In a statement, SMU said the building will house tech accelerators and incubators, along with meeting space and other amenities intended to foster collaboration with industry partners. In April, the federal government also anounced it would contribute $8 million towards the project, complementing $12 million from the university itself.

The Inspiration Hub will also be the new home of the David Sobey Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services, which funds research relevant to the retail industry, as well as providing professional development training. The new facility will include a mock store for testing new technologies, as well as a biometric lab for neuroscience research and a digital lab for the ICT side.

Also integrated into the Inspiration Hub is the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre, funded by $5 million from the Irving family, which includes a prototyping lab, meeting spaces and a podcasting studio.

“The way students learn as well as how and where they learn is a strong consideration for us,” said SMU President Robert Summerby-Murray in a statement.

“This transformational addition to our campus is a demonstration of how we are responding to the needs of our curious, forward-thinking scholars who need the environment and resources for those natural collisions to happen – so different perspectives can come together to create innovations for the times ahead.”