Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) celebrated with a ribbon-cutting on January 20th in recognition of the creation of a Technology Access Centre on campus in the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing (CIM-TAC).
The Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing was established at Red Deer Polytechnic in 2009 to advance manufacturing in Alberta. In 2020, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awarded the multi-year funding grant to expand its research and innovation capabilities. Since opening, the CIM-TAC has been a unique and affordable resource in the region and hundreds of projects have been successfully conducted to grow Alberta businesses.
The $1.75M NSERC Technology Access Grant together with key equipment purchases funded by a $1.8M grant from Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan), has enabled the CIM-TAC to work with industry at a higher level and expand service offerings to include design for manufacturing, validation, and manufacturing optimization.
“RDP is the only post-secondary facility in Alberta with this breadth of manufacturing equipment and expertise that is both centralized and dedicated to serving industry,” said CIM-TAC Manager, Dr. Tonya Wolfe. “We are grateful to NSERC and PrairiesCan for their generous funding that made it possible for the CIM-TAC to truly become a full-service applied research facility.”
This support also created more applied research and learning opportunities that benefit RDP’s students, faculty, and staff as they collaborate with businesses and entrepreneurs to bring to life the innovative ideas that help all Albertans.
You can watch the ribbon-cutting video on Red Deer Polytechnic’s YouTube channel.
Questions? The CIM-TAC team would be happy to connect with you.