Accelerate Your Growth in Our Innovation District

Companies partner with Western Research Parks (WRP) to tap into a dynamic ecosystem that seamlessly bridges commercial enterprise with Western University's world-class academic research and talent pipeline. By locating at WRP, businesses gain a highly competitive foothold in Southwestern Ontario’s booming health, mobility, and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Specialized Infrastructure

Gain unparalleled access to advanced wet labs, clean rooms, and secure industrial testing spaces like The Collider—significantly lowering your R&D capital costs.

Commercialization Pathways

Leverage a highly supportive "idea-to-invest-ready" pipeline equipped with dedicated incubators, technology transfer assistance, and expert mentorship.

Curated Ecosystem

Immerse your company in a vibrant network of over 65 diverse organizations, fostering strategic collaborations that drive technological breakthroughs.

Established in 1989, Western Research Parks (WRP) is an innovation district designed to help startups, small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), and established businesses collaborate with academic researchers to bring new ideas to the global marketplace. WRP spans three distinct locations:

  • Western Discovery Park: The original and foundational site in London, Ontario, housing flagship R&D buildings, tech transfer offices, and incubation spaces.
  • Western Advanced Manufacturing Park: Located in London, Ontario, this site is a joint venture between Western University, the City of London, and Fanshawe College, tailored specifically to regional industry and advanced manufacturing growth.
  • Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park: Established in 2003, this site is a joint initiative of Western University, the County of Lambton, and the City of Sarnia.

WRP offers a wide variety of specialized infrastructure to support everything from micro-startups to national scaling enterprises:

  • The Convergence Centre: A 55,000 sq. ft. LEED® Gold-certified green building at Discovery Park featuring 30 fume hoods, mid-to-large wet labs, and expansive R&D space tailored for life sciences, green tech, and advanced manufacturing.
  • The Mogenson Centre: The prestigious original building at Discovery Park, providing traditional office suites, tech transfer operations, and a collaborative address for scaling tech companies.
  • The Stiller Centre: A highly secure, 45,000 sq. ft. facility with industrial-grade wet labs and shared bio-processing amenities designed to lower overhead for early-stage biotech, pharmaceutical, and clean-tech ventures.
  • The NRC Centre: A sprawling 78,000 sq. ft. facility blending expansive office space with integrated dry labs, anchored by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).
  • The Collider: Located at the Advanced Manufacturing Park, this center offers secure industrial research space, multi-function meeting rooms, and high-bay industrial areas specifically designed to accelerate the testing and commercialization of advanced manufacturing technology.

WRP is a critical commercialization asset that operationalizes Western University's mission to drive global impact. Guided by the university's strategic plan, "Mobilize for Impact!", WRP serves as the physical and collaborative bridge between academia and industry. WRP works directly with Western's tech transfer and commercialization offices to move academic discoveries into the marketplace via licensing and spin-off companies. Furthermore, the Parks provide unique experiential learning opportunities for Western students and trainees, allowing them to collaborate with resident businesses and engage in entrepreneur-based research.

Over the next five years, Western Research Parks (WRP) is embarking on a bold transformation. We are evolving from a traditional research park model into a proactive "Innovation District"—a dynamic, interconnected ecosystem designed to be Canada’s leading nexus for commercializing research in human health, sustainable manufacturing, and the future of mobility. Our strategic vision is built on three core pillars that directly align with Western University’s world-class research strengths, creating a seamless bridge between academic discovery and global industry impact:

  • 1. The Biomedical Innovation Hub: Centered at Discovery Park, this hub will establish a nationally recognized destination for medical technology, biotechnology, and clinical research commercialization. Focus: Translating bench discoveries into clinical applications by leveraging Western’s deep expertise in neuroscience, imaging, and musculoskeletal health. Key Initiatives: Fostering a "bench-to-bedside" ecosystem with our anchor tenants, creating a center for Sovereign Healthcare AI, and building formal partnerships with regional hospitals to accelerate clinical trials and domestic tech adoption.
  • 2. The Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility Cluster: Capitalizing on the generational economic shift in Southwestern Ontario, WRP will serve as the indispensable R&D core for the region’s burgeoning Electric Vehicle (EV) and advanced manufacturing ecosystem. Focus: Driving innovation in next-generation battery materials, sustainable manufacturing, and EV supply chain resiliency. Key Initiatives: Establishing a flagship Battery Innovation & Materials Characterization Centre and proactively recruiting companies across the entire mobility supply chain to collaborate with world-class facilities like Surface Science Western.
  • 3. The Entrepreneurial Powerhouse: WRP is transforming into the ultimate scale-up destination for high-growth ventures, creating a seamless "idea-to-invest-ready" pathway for innovators. Focus: Nurturing startups from their earliest stages through to becoming successful, venture-backed companies. Key Initiatives: Launching a dedicated Discovery Park Incubator, providing structured post-accelerator scale-up programs, and integrating deeply with the Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship to ensure Western-born companies have the resources they need to thrive locally.

Cultivating "Community as a Service"
Underpinning these pillars is a commitment to building a "sticky," vibrant community. WRP is shifting from being a simple provider of real estate to an active orchestrator of collaboration. By designing spaces for "collisions," hosting curated networking and knowledge workshops, and forming strategic alliances across local, national, and global networks, WRP ensures that our tenants don’t just exist—they thrive. Together, we are mobilizing knowledge for real-world impact and building the future of innovation in Southwestern Ontario.

WRP is currently home to a record high of 66 businesses, ranging from dynamic startups to publicly traded and multinational companies. The ecosystem represents a wide array of high-growth sectors, including life sciences, artificial intelligence, MedTech, advanced manufacturing, and mental health. Notable tenants and hubs include:

  • MedTech Ecosystem Support: To help companies navigate the complex healthcare market, WRP partners with organizations like BioNext, which officially joined the parks to advance life science commercialization and support MedTech entrepreneurs. Furthermore, WRP hosts specialized "Connector Sessions" and seminars on critical clinical topics, such as how to start a medical device company and how pharmaceutical innovators can successfully navigate regulatory approvals and market access in Canada.
  • A Hub for NeuroDevelopment Research and Disorders research: A newly formed network at the Mogenson Centre featuring the Developing Brain Lab, registered psychotherapists, and grief counselors driving interdisciplinary mental health innovation.
  • MedTech Innovators: Medical device companies like Vessl Prosthetics and Step Sciences orthotics. Caius Medical (biomedical consulting and AI hardware).
  • Advanced Analytics: Science and data-driven companies using technology to advance material and drug discovery; EpiSign and PolyAnalytik being long-time park tenants that have grown into international experts.
  • Advanced Manufacturing: Partners like BOS Innovations, operating their TrueLight Machine Vision Integration unit out of The Collider, alongside the Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for Composites Research.

WRP is an indispensable economic engine for the region, contributing an estimated $58 million annually to the local economy. It serves as the physical nexus for southwestern Ontario’s booming entrepreneurship ecosystem, purposely bringing together municipal governments (London Economic Development Corporation - LEDC, Sarnia, Lambton County), educational institutions (Fanshawe College, Lambton College), and industry. By providing world-class testing and production equipment to advanced manufacturers, WRP actively helps the region’s industries rapidly develop products, solve supply-chain challenges, and access the global market, thereby ensuring a continuous competitive advantage for southwestern Ontario.

Western Research Parks provides the specialized infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and commercialization support necessary to transition medical discoveries from the lab to clinical settings. It actively supports MedTech, diagnostic imaging, and pharmaceutical innovators in several key ways:

  • Specialized Infrastructure for Medical Devices and Drug Discovery: The Stiller Centre serves as a highly secure, 45,000 sq. ft. facility tailored specifically for drug discovery, bio-processing, and medical device development. It features industrial-grade wet labs and shared amenities designed to lower the overhead costs for clinical-stage and life science ventures.
  • Pioneering Medical Imaging Tech: WRP is home to cutting-edge startups revolutionizing diagnostics and surgery. For example, 8i robotics is developing next-generation surgical robotics, located in NRC Centre. Another tenant, MRIdt, provides specialized hardware and physics simulations.
  • Driving Clinical Trials and Treatments: The park's deep integration with Western University's research institutes accelerates real-world clinical applications. Great examples of this are Alimentiv; a leader in GI-related clinical trials and KGK Science.

Based on the sources, companies primarily join the Discovery Park Incubator by successfully completing the university's on-campus entrepreneurship programs, specifically the Western Accelerator. Western Research Parks has designed a seamless "idea-to-invest-ready" pathway to nurture startups from their earliest stages to becoming venture-backed companies. Joining the incubator is Stage 4 of this specific five-stage journey:

  • Stage 1 & 2: Ideation and Venture Creation: Aspiring entrepreneurs start on Western's main campus, developing their business plans through programs like the Ivey New Venture Project.
  • Stage 3: Acceleration: The most promising teams are accepted into the Western Accelerator, where they receive seed funding, workspace, and intensive mentorship to validate their business models.
  • Stage 4: Incubation (Joining the Incubator): Once startups successfully graduate from the Western Accelerator, they are offered a place in the Discovery Park Incubator. Here, they receive a "soft landing" with subsidized, flexible lab and office space, shared services, and continued mentorship from entrepreneurs-in-residence.
  • Stage 5: Scale-Up: Companies that achieve product-market fit and begin generating revenue can then graduate into a post-accelerator Scale-Up Program within the park to prepare for major venture capital funding.
  • Alternative Pathways for Life Sciences: For biomedical and life sciences companies, the park also utilizes a pipeline that moves companies from Discovery Landing (a short-term, shared space designed for companies to test the waters before making a long-term commitment) into the BioNext incubator, before eventually scaling up to single-tenant or anchor spaces.