CRAFT IP Policies

CRAFT is an initiative of University of Toronto (“University”), NRC and Unity Health Toronto (the “Anchor Partners”) who have provided certain facilities for CRAFT including those located at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus. The purpose of the CRAFT IP policy is to provide guidance on intellectual property (IP) and facility use at CRAFT-UT (the “Facility”) under the CRAFT initiative, enabling collaboration, innovation, and commercialization with external partners and Facility users, while respecting institutional policies. Facility users who are University of Toronto faculty, students or staff may be subject to University policies and should consult with the University Innovation and Partnerships Office.

The University of Toronto, National Research Council of Canada and Unity Health Toronto operating CRAFT take no interest in IP developed at the Facility by external users paying facility fees. External users may include incorporated startup ventures formally operating within campus accelerators, provided academic resources are not used to develop company IP. For further clarity, use of the Facility is not considered use of academic resources, as long as Facility fees and associated expenses are not paid with University funds, including but not limited to grants and sponsored research funds.

CRAFT supports Mitacs projects between sponsors and University of Toronto. If interns work at CRAFT facilities on behalf of a sponsor paying user fees (including via Mitacs funds) and does not involve use of University of Toronto background IP, foreground IP may be treated as if created on sponsor premises in accordance with the sponsor’s policies. Please contact us at partnerwithCRAFT@utoronto.ca for a copy of the Mitacs Letter of Understanding (LOU) for full UofT policies.

CRAFT helps connect companies with researchers at anchor partner institutions and supports relevant grant applications (e.g., NSERC Alliance) for industry sponsored research projects. IP terms are negotiated on a case-by-case basis between Anchor Partner(s) and sponsors.

Clinical validation studies at Unity Health Toronto are handled on a case-by-case basis. While Unity Health does not claim ownership of background IP developed externally, Unity Health investigators may contribute to elements such as but not limited to study and trial design, patient outcome surveys, patient data, and data analysis. Such contributions may be considered institutional IP (in-house know-how or trade secret) in accordance with Unity Health’s IP policy when not delivered as a paid-for-service.

Please inquire below or email partnerwithCRAFT@utoronto.ca for any questions, or to obtain a full copy of CRAFT’s institutional IP policies.

Interested in working with CRAFT?

Have questions about our facilities, research programs, or partnership opportunities? Please send us a message, and a member of the CRAFT team will follow up.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨