University Corner: Thierry Heles interviews Raphael Hofstein, president and chief executive of Mars Innovation, to learn more about how the organisation commercialises research in Toronto.

Mars Innovation is a non-profit organisation set up in 2008 to handle commercialisation of discoveries made at its 15 member institutions in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which include several universities, hospitals and research institutes.

Mars’ university members are University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University. OCAD University was previously also a member, but dropped out in 2013.

The organisation is part of a wider programme dubbed Centres for Excellence in Commercialisation and Research (CECR, pronounced “Cesar”), made up of 21 such…