Blackberry, University of Waterloo to fast-track innovation in Canada

A joint lab to accelerate innovation in Canada is in the pipeline between BlackBerry Limited and the University of Waterloo, who this week confirmed they were extending their long-standing partnership arrangement.

The enterprise software and services and the university ranked in Canada’s top 10 have partnered for over three decades in multiple ways, both bringing to the table their respective academic and industry expertise to work on new innovations and create a talent pipeline for the future.

“We are proud to have worked with the University of Waterloo for more than 30 years to help build our company and turn it into one of the world’s most recognised and celebrated technology brands,” said BlackBerry Chief Technology Officer Charles Eagan.

“We are thrilled to reinvigorate our relationship which promises to strengthen the entire Canadian technology and cybersecurity industry.”

Thanks to the extended partnership, the University of Waterloo’s world-renowned research capabilities and BlackBerry’s proven ability in delivering impactful products and services will combine to create a joint lab that will fast-track innovation in Canada, guiding products through the research and development phase to hit commercial markets quickly.

Arrangements like these are quickly becoming the lifeblood of Canada’s, and the world’s, growing innovation economy.

Industry-academia collaboration fuels research and creates the products and services on which tomorrow’s industries will be built.

The BlackBerry and University of Waterloo partnership, for example, will see the two organisations will also explore ways faculty and students can work alongside top R&D and business leadership teams in Blackberry. 

Among others, they will work collaboratively through research, workshops and economic development sessions.

An example of this is the Marketing and Sales Strategy 101 session to be held this November 12 at the university. During the session, student participants will learn about the importance of GTM (Go To Market) strategy from BlackBerry executives and work through real-life examples of GTM considerations in the technology sector.

In addition, senior representatives from BlackBerry’s sales, product, R&D and leadership teams will continue engaging the university on campus through groups like the Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research (WatCAR).

They will also build new relationships with the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, AI Institute (Waterloo.AI), faculty, and undergraduate and graduate co-op students, further enhancing efforts to both bring innovation to Canada and then creating an ecosystem of support in around those innovations.

The idea is to create avenues that enable both parties to go further in research, transition technologies more efficiently to market, and offer new opportunities for real-world experience to help train up the next generation of technology and cybersecurity experts.

“We are pleased that one of Canada’s leading technology firms wants to explore ways to leverage the deep knowledge and amazing talent of Waterloo’s faculty and students,” said  University Research and International Vice President Charmaine Dean.

“We are keen to build on the deep partnership fostered between BlackBerry and centres like the WatCAR and expand research into new areas where Canada can lead the world in technology development.”