By IAN ROSS
Margo Shaw remembers her boss' sage advice just before he departed for vacation after hiring her as director of the
Upper Lakes Environmental Research Network
(ULERN) in 1997.
"Make something happen," he said.
Eight years later, she has.
The Sault Ste. Marie research organization counts a lengthy list of achievements, including raking in more than $12.5 million in direct research funding and providing more than 240 students and interns with jobs.
As well, the group has facilitated dozens of collaborative public-private sector research projects, workshops and conferences, producing a $6.2 million impact on the local economy.
In 2002, ULERN helped Sault College get more funding than any college in Canada with three projects valued at $3.9 million.
"For a small Northern college of 2,000 students to obtain that kind of exposure is very satisfying," says Shaw, who previously worked as a Department of Fisheries and Ocean researcher.
Last year, ULERN was awarded the 2004 Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Environment Award, one of many acknowledgments the
organization has garnered.
If a proposed forestry research technology park is eventually built in the Sault, ULERN can take a good chunk of the credit for their early spadework in helping develop a cohesive R&D cluster.
Last year, ULERN moved out of its Sault College digs into more high-profile space at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre on the city's waterfront.
The six-person staff doesn't actually perform any research development work but helps encourage its development, focusing on environmental and natural resource areas.
In recent years, the non-profit group's focus has changed from pooling the city's government and academic R&D capacity into developing business proposals by getting into technology transfer.
"A lot of projects we're facilitating now are much closer to the commercialization side," says Shaw. He points specifically to green energy and the health-care field.
It all began in a think tank
The idea of forming a collaborative research network evolved out of a Sault College workshop of local researchers.
They discovered there was plenty of local R&D capacity at the Sault-based government forestry labs, but limited sharing of expertise, equipment and
analytical capabilities.
"You're talking about a hardworking group of people whose noses are to the grindstone," says Shaw. "They don't often look up to see what opportunities are out there."
Many realized the Sault held an incredible research capacity that wasn't being utilized to its fullest potential.
Through ULERN's early years, their government research members funded the organization until it established a track record that attracted private sector partners such as Great Lakes Power, St. Marys Paper and Tembec.
One of their first projects teamed Great Lakes Power with some researchers to study the impact of hydro dams on downstream aquatic life.
"We were given a lot of leeway in the beginning to see whatever worked," says Shaw.
Incorporated in 1999 as a non-profit group, about 20 per cent of its operational funding comes from membership dues and government grants.
But as government R&D funding criteria have changed, so has ULERN's focus.
They realized environmental and natural resource initiatives receive a very small slice of the R&D pie.
So they've developed some new strategies, projects and partnerships in the area of health care and energy to take advantage of that.
One such project is growing Canada Yew.
ULERN staff are teaming up with the Thessalon First Nation to do field and greenhouse work in a former Ministry of Natural Resources nursery. The aim is to produce paclitaxel, one of the world's best-selling anti-cancer drugs.
"We are doing a lot of the propagation of the cuttings of the Yew plant and some plantings there, in farmers' fields and in the OFRI (Ontario Forest Research Institute) arboretum," says ULERN's business development officer Jody Wildman, who is overseeing the project.
ULERN is also partnering with St. Marys Paper to convert some of their waste products into a compost replacement.
They stage an annual safe water conference raising questions and solutions for businesses and municipalities.
In the energy field, they are involved in projects to manage underutilized forest industry waste like crowns, branches and commercial thinnings left on site for bio-based energy uses.
"There's a lot of material sitting in the bush not being used that has great potential to develop bio-oil, but also a lot of compounds in those species that can be used potentially for pharmaceuticals or replacements for the plastic industry," says Shaw.
They recently added the Chippewas of Nawash, an unceded First Nation in the Bruce Peninsula, as a new member, with plans to develop an environmental centre. They are also cultivating a partnership with Georgian College in Barrie to marry with the Sault's forestry expertise in looking for plastic substitute alternatives in the automotive industry.
Educating young people for future job opportunities has been a vital part of their youth strategy. They have created more than 245 jobs in seven years. Employment ranges from four months to three years, and employees have earned on average $17 an hour.
Shaw says securing research funding is not getting any easier, despite ULERNs solid track record and gallery of accolades. But writing an application that gets fully funded brings her a great deal of satisfaction.
"Chasing money is the hardest thing you will ever find," she says. "There is a lot of stiff competition out there and, even though we have a great track record, each proposal is judged on its own merits. "You're always back at stage one."
