Lambton College has maintained its reputation as a leading research college in Canada.
For the seventh consecutive year, the research and innovation department has made the top five on the list of Canada's Top 50 Research Colleges by Research Infosource Inc.
Vice President of Research and Innovation Mehdi Sheikhzadeh said it was ranked as the second research college in Ontario and third in Canada overall.
"Based on our knowledge, we are the only college that kept it at that level," said Sheikhzadeh. "It means a lot to the college. It shows the strategic focus, and attention, and the support that the college put toward research has paid off."
In fact, Sheikhzadeh said it shows the "good work that everybody is doing is paying off."
"The ranking is the indicator of the number of projects that we are doing. Almost 300 projects we do per year. All of these projects are in collaboration with industry and organizations and government. The benefit directly goes to the citizens, and our community, and beyond."
Lambton also ranked first in Canada for the number of paid student research positions and the number of research partnerships at a medium-sized college.
"It just simply shows that this is almost like an enterprise within the college that becomes a job creation engine, but at the same time an economic developer for the community and the province."
He said the interest from local industry has been a key enabler.
"If you look at the history of research in the college system, Lambton was one of the smaller size colleges that embraced the research, and started the research, and that was because of the local demand at the time."
Sheikhzadeh said over 320 students and graduates are currently hired to work on their projects.
The yearly rankings also revealed Lambton as the top medium-sized college in Canada for the amount of research income from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). In the last three years, Lambton has received over $10 million from NSERC to support applied research projects with small and medium-sized enterprises and industry.
Lambton also ranks third in Canada for the amount of research income received from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, amounting to over $3.2 million over the past three years.
Sheikhzadeh said they're sharing their practices and operation models with other groups and colleges hoping to collaborate down the road.