Inventor Name
Unknown
Repository
Archives of Ontario
77 Grenville Street, Unit 300
Toronto, ON
M5S 1B3
416-327-1600
www.archives.gov.on.ca
Physical Description
54.8 metres of textual records
Summary
The IDEA Corporation was designed to locate innovative ideas and bring together business, labour, and universities to convert them into creative, commercial opportunities. This was accomplished through a number of funding programs, including the IDEA Research Investment Fund, Inc., which focused on the "pre-venture capital" stage of development, typically dealing with researchers and inventors whose ideas have not yet evolved into full commercial operations. There were five additional funds dealing with various types of technology: biological and medical; chemical and process technology; information processing technology; machine and automation technology; and electronics. The final general fund was an IDEA Innovation Fund Inc. IDEA was an acronym for "Innovation Development for Employment Advancement". The corproation reported through the Ontario Ministry of Industry and Trade from 1982-1985, and through the Ontario Ministry of Industry, Trade and Technology, from 1985 to 1986. The IDEA Corporation ceased to exist in June 1986. Series consists of files documenting the planning, development and delivery of programs and services of the IDEA (Innovation Development for Employment Advancement) Corporation. The files contain: documentation about clients; correspondence with associations, private business and other levels of government; documentation used in the research and development for proposals for government funding of technology advancement projects; and communications strategies. The IDEA Corporation was subject to a provincial audit following the creation of these records. During the audit, the records were inter-filed alphabetically within years without regard to the original office order and then deposited with the Ontario Development Corporation.