CALGARY, Alberta and EDMONTON, Alberta, Nov. 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alberta's two leading university business incubators, Innovate Calgary and TEC Edmonton have been named the third and fourth best university business incubators in North America by the 2015 North American UBI Global Awards.
UBI Global is a global benchmarking company for business incubators and accelerators. Using established performance markers, its UBI Awards recognize and rank top performing university business incubators, both in regions around the world and then internationally.
The North American awards ceremony, held on November 3, 2015 in Toronto, announced the 2015 top performing university business incubators in North America.
The third-ranked Innovate Calgary was praised for exceptional performance in competence development and post incubation performance indicators. According to the awards, Innovate Calgary is making a significant contribution to the development of the local economy and has a great potential to incubate growth companies.*
TEC Edmonton ranked fourth in North America as a high performance business incubator. TEC Edmonton performed well in providing value for client indicators, in addition to positively developing the local economy by catalyzing job creation.**
TEC Edmonton and Innovate Calgary are leading innovation to help diversify Alberta's economy by working together to deliver services across the province, and through support provided by a number of funders.
"This award demonstrates the value of organizations such as Innovate Calgary and TEC Edmonton in supporting the University of Calgary and University of Alberta to extract economic and social value from the outstanding research at each institution in addition to driving the entrepreneurial spirit within our community," says Peter Garrett, president, Innovate Calgary.
"The UBI Index awards to TEC Edmonton and Innovate Calgary are a key indication that Alberta's university business incubators are effectively contributing to the diversification of Alberta's economy, increasing our provincial economic growth and helping to build Alberta's reputation as a great place to grow a business," states Chris Lumb, CEO, TEC Edmonton.
The North American 2015 UBI Awards held special significance for Canada. Not only did Innovate Calgary and TEC Edmonton rank third and four respectively for North America's university business incubators, Ryerson University's DMZ incubator in Toronto ranked #1.
TEC Edmonton and Innovate Calgary
*Source: UBI Global
**Source: UBI Global
Global Insights: Celebrating the future of academic incubators - UBI Awards in North America: Innovate Calgary and TEC Edmonton rank among top five in North America
| Source: Innovate Calgary