Mentoring academic entrepreneurs at the University of Calgary

The University of Calgary’s Academic Entrepreneurs in Residence (Aeir) addresses a critical gap in academia: Supporting researchers to transition their research and innovations from lab to market. Traditional university mentorship offerings often emphasise academic career development or knowledge dissemination but rarely address the nuanced challenges of commercialisation, particularly for research-intensive ventures. Aeir was established to fill this void by offering a tailored approach that bridges academic expertise with entrepreneurial action.

Mission and objectives of Aeir

Aeir’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship in action, empowering academic entrepreneurs with the skills, resources, and networks necessary to transform their research into scalable, impactful solutions. Its core objectives include facilitating market validation, enhancing entrepreneurial capacity, and preparing researchers for the realities of the tech startup world and external opportunities such as accelerator programs, entrepreneurial fellowships and competitive programs, and investment readiness.

The University of Calgary aims to be Canada’s most entrepreneurial university as part of its “Ahead of Tomorrow” strategic plan, and Aeir plays a pivotal role in achieving this vision. By focusing on empowering researchers to take actionable steps toward commercialisation, Aeir supports the university’s efforts to position itself as a leader in enabling impactful ventures. This focus is grounded in the belief that impactful entrepreneurship goes beyond technical expertise to include real-world application, strategic market understanding, and the ability to scale innovations effectively.

The initiative is deeply rooted in addressing systemic barriers academic innovators often face, such as limited exposure to entrepreneurial ecosystems, lack of tailored mentorship, and insufficient resources for early-stage ventures. By tackling these challenges, Aeir seeks to unlock the potential of academic research, ensuring that innovations are transformed into tangible societal and economic benefits. With a vision of making the University of Calgary a leader in Canada’s innovation culture, Aeir focuses on enabling market validation, advancing entrepreneurial capacity, and preparing researchers who are committed to taking actionable steps toward commercialisation for opportunities like Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) and investment readiness.

A mentorship-first approach

Aeir offers a range of meticulously designed activities focused on mentorship, tailored to the specific needs of research-intensive ventures. Central to its approach is the pairing of participants with seasoned academic entrepreneurs who possess firsthand experience in navigating the transition from lab to market. Aeir’s mentorship team has collectively secured over $100 million in research funding, founded and grown multiple startups, achieved successful exits, and contributed as industry mentors, advisors, and startup investors. This depth of experience ensures that Aeir provides participants with unparalleled guidance in navigating the challenges of commercialisation, ensuring consistent quality across the program. The mentors provide one-on-one guidance, helping participants refine their ideas, address the realities of startup operation, identify potential markets, and develop actionable commercialisation strategies. This personalised mentorship is complemented by a group mentoring model that fosters collaborative learning, encourages the exchange of diverse perspectives, and ensures consistent quality across the mentoring.

Unlike other initiatives that rely heavily on workshops or lectures, Aeir is distinguished by its exclusive focus on mentorship. These mentoring sessions are also seamlessly embedded into other innovation and entrepreneurial programs within the UCalgary ecosystem, enhancing their reach and impact. This integration ensures that Aeir participants benefit from a cohesive support network while accessing a diverse range of resources and opportunities available across the university. Participants gain actionable strategies for market validation, navigating funding opportunities, and securing partnerships to commercialise their innovations effectively.

A key innovation within Aeir is its nascent peer-to-peer mentoring initiative, designed to enhance the collaborative ecosystem among participants. This initiative is rooted in the belief that entrepreneurship does not thrive in isolation but flourishes within a community of like-minded individuals ready to support one another. By facilitating networking through events and peer-to-peer introductions, Aeir creates opportunities for participants to share experiences, learn from each other’s challenges and successes, and build a strong entrepreneurial network. Furthermore, Aeir is actively developing content and resources to address recurring questions, allowing mentoring sessions to focus on addressing specific, high-impact challenges rather than repeatedly revisiting foundational topics.

These activities are underpinned by a commitment to authenticity, trust, and mutual respect, ensuring that mentorship relationships are productive and empowering. By addressing both the technical and entrepreneurial aspects of commercialisation, Aeir’s activities focus on driving actionable outcomes, equipping academic innovators to transition their research into tangible, market-ready ventures.

Support mechanisms and resources

Aeir provides key mechanisms tailored to the needs of research-intensive ventures. These mechanisms include access to a network of mentors with diverse expertise, many of whom combine academic and entrepreneurial backgrounds, offering tailored insights into commercialisation. Aeir supports participants in accessing pre-seed investors and competitive programs like the CDL, enabling them to secure critical funding and resources. Additionally, Aeir collaborates with the University’s innovation ecosystem, including incubators and accelerators, to strengthen participants’ readiness for market entry and growth.

Showcasing the success of Aeir participants is another critical support mechanism. Through news features, social media highlights, and university events, Aeir raises the profile of its teams, helping them gain visibility and credibility both within and outside the academic community. This visibility often opens doors to new opportunities, partnerships, and additional funding.

A crucial enabler of Aeir’s success is the support and funding provided by the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary. This foundational backing ensures the initiative’s sustainability and allows Aeir to continuously refine its offerings and expand its reach. Aeir also plans to develop resources that address recurring questions and challenges faced by academic entrepreneurs. By creating accessible materials on common topics, mentoring sessions can focus more on high-impact, specific challenges, maximising the value of personalised guidance for participants.

Together, these support mechanisms create a robust foundation for Aeir participants, equipping them to navigate the complex journey from research to impactful, market-ready innovations. Aeir recognises that research-based innovations often take years to mature and scale due to significant technical challenges and the time required to build a complete founding team capable of commercialising the innovation. Furthermore, researchers face demanding academic responsibilities that limit the time they can dedicate to entrepreneurial endeavour. Aeir mentors are deeply aware of these realities and adapt their mentoring approach to accommodate the cadence and needs of the founding research teams. This flexibility ensures that researchers receive sustained, meaningful support throughout their entrepreneurial journey, tailored to their unique challenges and schedules.

Growth, results, and measurable impact

For the past three years, Aeir has demonstrated consistent growth and impact. In its inaugural year, Aeir supported six teams. This number has since grown exponentially, with over 50 teams now participating annually. The mentoring pool has also doubled, expanding from four to eight seasoned academic entrepreneurs all with startup experience and several with exit experience. In the last year alone, mentors dedicated over 620 hours to supporting teams.

These efforts have yielded remarkable results. More than 30 teams have accessed competitive entrepreneurial fellowships and programs, including 13 ventures that entered CDL. Aeir-supported teams have collectively raised over CA$12.6 million in funding, both dilutive and non-dilutive. Among these, 9 teams secured dilutive funding, 32 ventures incorporated, and five ventures have already achieved revenue-positive status. Collectively, these companies have created over 105 jobs, contributing significantly to economic growth.

Aeir’s impact extends beyond metrics, fostering stronger university-industry collaborations and establishing a robust ecosystem that supports academic entrepreneurship. Aeir actively measures its impact through participant feedback, venture progression tracking, and readiness assessments, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with the needs of academic innovators. Aeir also gathers and incorporates external feedback from early-stage investors and entrepreneurial programs that evaluate participating teams. This feedback helps refine Aeir’s approaches, ensuring they remain relevant and effective in meeting the challenges faced by academic entrepreneurs. By cultivating a sustainable ecosystem, Aeir empowers researchers to transition their innovations from lab to market, delivering lasting societal and economic benefits.

Scaling challenges and strategic responses

Aeir proactively addresses the challenge of scaling its highly personalised mentorship approach while preserving the authenticity and tailored approach that define its success. Balancing scalability with meaningful mentor-mentee relationships requires continuous innovation and strategic resource allocation. Additionally, academic researchers often face demanding workloads that limit their availability for entrepreneurial endeavors, further complicated by the long development timelines required for research-intensive ventures to mature and scale.

Despite these hurdles, Aeir has developed effective strategies to mitigate them. Its flexible mentoring model adapts to the schedules and needs of researchers, providing sustained support over time. By embedding mentoring sessions into UCalgary’s broader entrepreneurial ecosystem, Aeir maximises its reach while maintaining its personalised focus.

Key success factors include Aeir’s unique combination of group mentoring and individualised guidance, delivered by mentors who possess both academic and entrepreneurial expertise. This dual perspective ensures that participants receive actionable insights tailored to their needs. Proactive engagement with external stakeholders, such as early-stage investors and competitive entrepreneurial programs, further enhances Aeir’s value. Feedback from these external sources is actively incorporated to refine Aeir’s methodologies and maintain alignment with evolving market demands.

Fostering a collaborative ecosystem

Another cornerstone of Aeir’s success is its ability to foster a sense of community among participants. Peer-to-peer mentoring and networking events encourage knowledge sharing and mutual support, creating a collaborative ecosystem. Aeir’s achievements are further bolstered by the strong support of the Hunter Hub, which provides critical funding and strategic backing.  The leadership team at the University of Calgary also plays a pivotal role in championing Aeir, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities and effectively leveraging university resources, such as Innovate Calgary.

These combined efforts have established Aeir as a replicable model for fostering impactful academic entrepreneurship while addressing the unique challenges faced by research-based ventures. By tackling these challenges effectively, Aeir continues to drive innovation and empower academic entrepreneurs.

Looking ahead

Aeir exemplifies the University of Calgary’s commitment to fostering academic entrepreneurship. It addresses scalability challenges through peer-to-peer mentoring and curated resources for recurring questions, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. Future plans include expanding the mentor network, deepening collaborations with industry partners, and adopting digital tools to enhance accessibility. By refining its approaches and integrating feedback from stakeholders, Aeir will continue to empower researchers to transform innovations into scalable, market-ready solutions, contributing to a thriving culture of innovation and driving societal and economic impact.

Ready for more?

In our podcast episode, From research to real-world impact: Inside the Hunter Hub Model, we explore in detail how the Hunter Hub shifts the focus from startups alone to entrepreneurial thinking as a mindset, building confidence, communication, and collaboration skills across disciplines. She discusses tailoring programmes for researchers, creating one-to-one mentoring with empathy, opening multiple pathways to impact (venture, policy, partnership, community), and working with faculties to bring entrepreneurial learning into curricula and co-curricula.

This case study was presented by Paula Berton, Research Associate & AEiR Innovation Manager at University of Calgary; Adam Pidlisecky, Professor and Director of AEiR at University of Calgary; and Jeff Ryzner, Innovation Specialist at University of Calgary; during the 2025 UIIN Conference that took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands.