Development of the Facility

This component of the project is focused on the creation of a new applied research and innovation centre in Corner Brook. Key partners in this component are College of the North Atlantic (CNA), Grenfell Campus – Memorial University (GC), and Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Ltd (CBPPL). The Centre is housed in the former CBBPL Human Resources Building, located at the intersection of Lewin Parkway and Mill Road in downtown Corner Brook. Though unoccupied since 2004, CBPPL has maintained the building. CBPPL has offered the building to develop the Innovation Centre.

The Centre aims to be a hub from which new businesses, ideas, and innovative practices emerge through the collision of industry and entrepreneurs, students and faculty, community leaders, and government representatives. The Centre provides a space for collaborations and unique partnerships that will spark innovation and creativity and transform the regional culture and economy. It builds on and enhances existing partnerships such as CityStudio, which has brought students from Grenfell Campus to learn and share expertise with the City of Corner Brook to to help solve urban planning challenges. Until now, CityStudio coursework has been delivered partly at Grenfell and partly in City Hall, but the Innovation Centre offers an ideal collaborative space in downtown Corner Brook for this curriculum to be delivered. The Innovation Centre will also house a makerspace and incubator operated by Navigate Entrepreneurship Centre, co-working space, training centre and research space:

Co-working spaces allow people to work independently, while sharing values for collaborative working arrangements