An economy divided evenly between private and public sectors, with a strong presence of the military and academic institutions may have a familiar ring to it. And it’s no surprise that such a jurisdiction has nurtured economic growth by encouraging energetic entrepreneurs and innovators – especially those coming out of academic institutions.

In this particular case, the location is not Atlantic Canada but the historic city of Kingston, Ont., which is capitalizing on its strengths to develop a unique startup community.  It’s not the roaring showcase that is Kitchener-Waterloo on the other side of Toronto, but it’s clever and successful and features some programs that could be mimicked on the East Coast.

“Having Queen’s here and the research community has so much impact on us,” Donna Gillespie, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications for the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, said in an interview last week. We were sitting in her office in Innovation Park, the nerve centre of the startup world in the city.

The expansive facility set back from Princess Street across a broad lawn is in many ways a symbol of the city’s resiliency. It used to be the local Alcan factory and research facility, one of Kingston’s major employers, but after Alcan was sold off six years ago the facility was downsized and the site was put up for sale.

The structure includes office space and laboratories minutes from downtown Kingston and seemed like an ideal location for an innovation hub. So Queen’s University purchased it and established Innovation Park. It is now a mixed-use facility whose tenants include the Economic Development Corporation, corporations working with Queen’s researchers, and startups.

“It’s an excellent repurposing of a space that could have been vacant,” said Gillespie.

Another key building block in the startup structure in Kingston is Parteq Innovations, the Queen’s incubator and an affiliate of Innovation Park. Founded in 1987, Parteq is a not-for-profit organization that was established to commercialize intellectual property arising from research at the university.

The organization provides researchers who want to commercialize their work the business, intellectual property, public relations and financial expertise needed to bring their product to market.

Note the word “financial”. Part of the Parteq organization is the Parteq Angel Network, which gathers Kingstonians and Queen’s alumni together to invest in the companies coming out of the university.  The network operates without membership fees and members – who must have sufficient capital and/or income to be accredited investors – can invest in individual companies or in an investment pool.

The university and community participate in other interesting programs that help to generate startups. For example, 18 students this summer took part in the Ontario government’s Summer Company program, in which university students receive $3,000 each to work over the summer developing their own businesses. Gillespie said many of these students continue to work on their ventures when school begins in September then continue with it after they graduate.

Kingston is developing a few areas of expertise, such as green chemistry.  For example, one of the brightest stars in the Kingston universe is Switchable Solutions, a startup whose technology can remove certain polymers from recycled plastic.

Gillespie said the community is also interested in developing more innovation with military applications, because it would mesh well with the city’s military complex, which includes the country’s largest military base and the Royal Military College. She added Kingston is a place where military personnel choose to retire, and the city wants to encourage these people (often in their late 40s or early 50s) to apply their expertise to new ventures.

Between the work with academia and the links with the military community, it’s not hard to see how elements of the Kingston model could apply to Atlantic Canada.