Industry Partnerships

Industry partnerships are a critical ingredient of Wilfrid Laurier University’s academic excellence. Through philanthropy, mentorship, research and co-operative education, Laurier fosters mutually beneficial opportunities for growth and success.

Connect with us to explore how Laurier can meet your needs.

Philanthropy

Donations to Laurier support much-needed scholarships and bursaries, attract top faculty, and pay for laboratory equipment, buildings and so much more. Gifts of all sizes make a direct and positive difference. Laurier donors truly help Laurier students and the university.

Many Laurier donors designate their gifts to areas that are important to them, such as scholarships, capital projects, programs or athletics. Alternatively, other donors decide against putting restrictions on their gifts, which allows the university to apply the funds to its highest priority needs.

Discover different areas of campus that you can support and learn about various ways to donate to Laurier. To connect with a staff member from Laurier’s Advancement team to discuss your giving options, please contact give@wlu.ca.

Co-op

Co-operative education alternates a student's classroom learning with paid work terms in fields relevant to their academic and personal goals. For more than 45 years, Laurier has been meeting employer needs by connecting them with bright, talented students who have been pre-screened through a competitive admissions process. Our Lazaridis School of Business and Economics is home to the largest business degree co-op program in Canada and the first of its kind in Ontario.

Learn more about co-op at Laurier
Contact lauriercoop@wlu.ca to discuss your needs

Research

Laurier researchers collaborate with industry to address local and global challenges. Companies can sponsor and participate in research that addresses their needs or hire student researchers as interns. Past Laurier industry partnerships have resulted in research commercialization, patents, product testing and co-development of knowledge.

Our industry liaison specialist can help connect you to Laurier researchers and leverage research funding opportunities from organizations such as NSERC, Mitacs and the Ontario Centre of Innovation.  

Hiring Interns 

If you wish to hire a student intern to work on an innovation or research project within your company, we can connect you with Laurier researchers and students or with Laurier’s Co-op Centre. Your funds may also be leveraged through Mitacs programs to support an intern’s research or product, process or service improvements under the supervision of a faculty member. 

Commercialization 

We’re here to bridge the translation from creation to commercialization. Our industry liaison specialist provides education and advice to researchers on all matters related to the creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property via patents, trademarks and copyrights. We even assist researchers with company start-ups, fundraising and invention marketing.

Intellectual Property 

Laurier researchers develop intellectual properties through their research and our industry liaison specialist can help research collaborators understand Laurier's intellectual property policies.