Global Insights: Celebrating the future of academic incubators - UBI Awards in North America

TORONTO, Nov. 4, 2015 /CNW/ - On November 2 and 3, 2015, UBI Global and Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) co-hosted a benchmarking conference & award ceremony for the 2015 top performing university business incubators in North America. The event was held at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox.

The event highlighted best practices, hands-on-tools, analyses, success stories, and featured inspiring presentations that allowed those who attended to network, learn from each other and improve performance in order to enhance economic transformation and local, regional and national development.

It has been a very promising year for North American incubators, the third largest region UBI Global benchmarks in terms of sample size.

North American business incubators have attracted a total of $1.98b in investment, meaning each of the 60 incubators has received an average of $33m each. With regard to deal flow North America as a whole accept 9.2k applications per year, equating to an average of 154 applications per incubator.

In the last 5 years, North America's business incubators have created 28.4k jobs (473 jobs per incubator) and over the same time period generated $5.3b in sales, equating to an average of $89m in sales per incubator.

Top University Business Incubator

A Top University Business Incubator is an incubator managed or formal affiliated with a university, that provide better value for the ecosystem and their startup clients than their regional or global peers. They stand out from average-performing incubators with better outcomes on economy enhancement, access to funds and post incubation performance indicators.

Top University Business Accelerator

A Top University Business Accelerator is an accelerator managed or formal affiliated with a university, that provide better value for the ecosystem and their startup clients than their regional or global peers. They stand out from average-performing accelerators with better outcomes on economy enhancement, access to funds and post acceleration performance indicators.

High Impact Incubation Program

A High Impact Incubation Program is a successful business incubator or accelerator that is managed, affiliated or associated with a university, that has high impact on its ecosystem and provides higher value to their startup clients than their regional or global peers. They stand out from average-performing incubation programs with better outcomes on economy enhancement, access to funds and post incubation performance indicators.

During the event, UBI Global has announced and awarded ten Top University Business Incubators, five Top University Business Accelerators and two High Impact Incubation Programs in North America. These awardees are also shortlisted for the UBI Global's World Rankings in London, United Kingdom on November 25, 2015.

Ten Top University Business Incubators in North America 2015 are:

#1.	The DMZ at Ryerson University - Ryerson University; Canada
#2.	1871 - Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Loyola University, Illinois Institute of Technology, DeVry University; United States
#3.	Innovate Calgary - University of Calgary; Canada
#4.	TEC Edmonton - University of Alberta; Canada
#5.	Western Research Parks - Western University; Canada
#6.	The Franklin Business Incubator - Paul D. Camp Community College; United States
#7.	Lead to Win - Carleton University; Canada
#8.	Ohio University Innovation Center - Ohio University; United States
#9.	The Kevin M. McGovern Family Center for Venture Development in the Life Sciences - Cornell University; United States
#10.	VentureLab – Georgia Institute of Technology; United States

Five Top University Business Accelerators in North America 2015 are:

#1.	Entrepreneuriat Laval - Laval University; Canada
#2.	MassChallenge - Boston University, Northeastern, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; United States
#3.	York Entrepreneurship Development Institute - York University, Schulich Executive Education Centre; Canada
#4.	Launch Chapel Hill - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; United States
#5.	The INKUBATOR - Northern Kentucky University; North America

Two High Impact Incubation Programs in North America 2015 are:

• Youngstown Edison Incubator Corporation, DBA Youngstown Business Incubator - Youngstown State University, Kent State University, Hiram College, Case Western Reserve University, University of Akron; United States
• Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) - University of California, University of Southern California, California State University, Northridge, California Institute of Technology, Otis College of Art & Design; United States

SOURCE Ontario Centres of Excellence Inc.

An Nguyen-Johansson, Director of Operations, [email protected]