Dalhousie University’s latest Lab2Market cohort has a new objective: supporting women in research.

Announced Tuesday, the new cohort includes 11 graduate and post-graduate level women researchers from five Canadian universities, mostly in Atlantic Canada, who will receive 16 weeks of training in how to find market opportunities and commercialize their deep-tech research.

Lab2Market is part of Dalhousie's Dal Innovates suite of entrepreneurship programs, which also includes the Ready2Launch accelerator for researchers further along in the commercialization process. Participants will receive access to mentorship services, as well as a grant of up to $15,000.

“There is a significant disparity between the number of women graduate students in Atlantic Canada’s post-secondary institutions and the number that go on to start enterprises based on their innovations,” said Vice President for Research and Innovation Alice Aiken in a press release. “This is an important step in helping to close that gap.”

So far, Lab2Market has graduated 120 teams from cohorts across Halifax, Toronto, St. John’s and Winnipeg. Each team includes three people: a graduate student or post-doctorate fellow, that person’s research supervisor and an industry mentor.

According to Statistics Canada, about 60 percent of graduate students in Atlantic Canada are women, but Lab2Market said in its press release that women make up just 36 percent of its past participants.

And in the startup ecosystem more broadly, Entrevestor’s 2020 Startup Data Report found that women entrepreneurs were drastically underfunded. Fourteen percent of Atlantic startups are led by women, but they bagged just 3 percent of total equity funding last year, not counting money from public markets, which went exclusively to companies run by men.

Here's a look at the participating teams:

Misha Afaq and Dr. Ahmad Rafiq University of Alberta Mobile robot platform design for performing inspection procedures on pipelines, automobiles, and infrastructures in extreme environmental conditions.
Michelle Lehman and Dr. Tanya Packer Dalhousie University A network to transform how occupational therapists around the world support people with severe and chronic fatigue to live well.
Mehrnaz Ahmadi and Dr. Lihong Zhang Memorial University of Newfoundland An electronic design automation tool to retarget analog design from older technologies to advanced ones.
Sidra Anwar and Dr. Jonathan Anderson Memorial University of Newfoundland

Privacy and Security of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices within their computational constraints.
Yanitza Trosel, Dr. Valerie Booth and Dr. Anand Yethiraj Memorial University of Newfoundland Development of vegan preclinical testing techniques using in vitro human cells to test drug toxicity.
Nicole Doria and Dr. Alice Aiken Dalhousie University Safety intervention for dating app-facilitated sexualized violence. Aiken is also Dalhousie's Vice-President of Research and Innovation.
Lisa Chen and Dr. Boris Worm Dalhousie University A platform that uses citizen science to track and map ghost fishing gear in the ocean.
Julie Anne Dayrit and Dr. Clarissa Sit Saint Mary’s University Topical antimicrobial product based on traditional medicinal plants to combat antimicrobial resistance.
Dr. Somayeh Norouzi Ghazbi, Dr. Sander Hitzig, Dr. Jan Andrysek and Dr. Roger Goldstein University of Toronto Phase one of development of a tele-health rehabilitation system to improve patients’ adherence and enable remote rehabilitation.
Mmasinachi Atansi and Dr. Alison Thompson Dalhousie University Developing a consumer hair care product for afro-textured hair using natural raw materials.
Mahesha Asiriwardhana and Dr. Robert Bertolo Memorial University of Newfoundland A novel nutritional feed additive using guanidinoacetate and methionine for the poultry industry; to improve feed stability, growth performance, and meat quality.

 

 

Disclosure: Lab2Market is a client of Entrevestor.