Research Park Receives International Outstanding Research Park Award

Friday, September 30, 2016

Sarnia, ON - Western Research Parks, including the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park, has been awarded the Outstanding Research Park Award by the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) at the organization's annual conference in Oklahoma City Thursday.

The award is presented to universities and research parks that are operating effectively and making a quantifiable contribution to their respective communities. Western Research Parks is the first in Ontario and third in Canada to be recognized with the distinction.

"The Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park is honoured to receive such an illustrious accolade in front of global industry experts and research park leaders," said Community Development Corporation Chair Mike Bradley. "Such an award will serve to further strengthen the Park's reputation as a key link between ideas and the marketplace."

The community of three research park campuses includes the original park now named Western Discovery Park, the Western Advanced Manufacturing Park and the Western-Sarnia-Lambton Research Park.

Over the last two years, the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park has seen seven of its occupants graduate to the commercial sector. It was ranked the 7th best research park in North America by UBI Global in 2014 and 5th best research park in North America in 2015. It is also home to the Bowman Centre for Commercialization, Canada’s largest clean-tech incubator, focused on large-scale industrial technology, which has contributed an estimated $125 million back to the local community.

The Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park was created in November 2003 with the inception of the Community Development Corporation, owned by the County of Lambton. The Research Park manages and operates the property owned by the CDC. It boasts 270,000 square feet of leasable area and is home to a number of high profile tenants including Nova Chemicals, Enbridge, and WorleyParsons.

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) is a professional association of university related research and science parks. AURP's mission is to foster innovation, commercialization and economic growth through university, industry and government partnerships. For more information, visit AURP's web site at www.aurp.net.

For more information, contact:

Mike Bradley
Chair, Community Development Corporation
Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park
519-332-0330 x 3312
mayor@sarnia.ca

Tom Strifler
Executive Director
Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park
519-383-8303 x 245
tstrifler@sarnialambtonresearchpark.ca