Created as a lean startup in 2012, the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre is now a driver of innovation and entrepreneurship activity across Queen’s, Kingston and the southeastern Ontario region. The mission of the Centre is to encourage, enable and support the innovation activities of students, professors, entrepreneurs, regional and Canadian companies through incubators, accelerators, joint courses, workshops, internship opportunities, seminar series, conferences and business plan competitions.
Receive no-cost training, mentorship, seed funding, and office space to build a venture that makes an impact. Develop your creativity, broaden your skillset, and pursue your passion. Applications are now open for the Queen's Innovation Centre Summer Initiative (QICSI). Apply now!
Join the DDQIC team for an information session where you can learn all about QICSI 2020 and how to prepare your application as an individual or a team. The event is November 6th, 2019 at 5:30PM in the Event Commons in Mitchell Hall (69 Union St W, Kingston).
QyourVenture helps students and community members turn their idea, technology, or inspiration into a venture. Whether you're an artist, designer, inventor, coder, or builder, we support every kind of entrepreneur. Learn more about QYourVenture and join a diverse community of changemakers.
Backr won the $30,000 Grand Prize at the Dunin-Deshpande Summer Pitch Competition for their tool that promotes fan engagement while creating revenue for online content creators. Read more about the competition results.
Inspiring investment for innovation
Innovation and entrepreneurship programming at Queen’s University has received support from distinguished alumni.
The Dunin Foundation – established by Andrew Dunin, Sc’83, MBA’87, and his wife Anne Dunin, Artsci’83 – and Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, PhD’79, and his wife Jaishree Deshpande jointly have provided a significant gift to Queen’s Innovation Connector. In recognition of this support, the university-wide initiative to support student innovation and entrepreneurship will now be known as the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre.
“Since our founding several years ago, we have encouraged, enabled, and supported the innovation activities of student, professors, entrepreneurs, and Canadian companies,” says Greg Bavington, Executive Director, Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre. “With the generous support of the Dunins and the Deshpandes, we will move beyond the lean start-up phase of this initiative and rapidly increase Queen’s capacity to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across the region.”