UBC Sauder’s CDL-West proud to be a part of new rapid response innovation program: CDL Recovery

UBC Sauder’s Creative Destruction Lab-West objectives-based program is pivoting to help provide an effective response to the global COVID-19 crisis. CDL Recovery will work to transform technological innovations into useful products and services in the areas of public health and economic recovery.

CDL Recovery will be focused on contributing to crisis response where highly skilled teams will provide their expertise to quickly scale up much needed innovations in the fight against COVID-19. With weekly intakes beginning in May, the new program will run online and will flow into monthly cycles aimed at addressing the immediate needs of Public Health (diagnostic tests, vaccines, remote treatments, telemedicine) and Economic Recovery (virtual work, retraining, remote operation, automation, food supply).

CDL’s mission is to transform science projects into massively scalable products and services that benefit mankind. Founded at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and now operating across eight sites in four countries, CDL engages leading entrepreneurs, economists, scientists, inventors, business leaders, and investors from around the world in team-work and cooperation for the purpose of enhancing the idea-to-deployment cycle via a rigorous, objective-setting process.

Paul Cubbon, Assistant Dean of Innovation and Academic Director of Creative Destruction Lab-West at UBC Sauder, says a novel crisis requires a novel response. “During times of great uncertainty and instability, the need for innovation becomes pressing and crucial. Arguably, we need to assume a wartime footing to fight COVID-19. Often the best solutions emerge from science and can be greatly aided by experienced business mentorship. CDL Recovery will enable scientific knowledge to be amplified quickly and effectively to meet the evolving medical and social needs, and to scale products and services for market as quickly as possible.”

UBC Sauder School of Business Dean Robert Helsley says CDL Recovery is a top priority with an urgent mission. “This program will bring together the technology and innovation sectors in a purposeful and nimble way to ensure we can meet both the medical and economic challenges ahead. With this kind of leadership and vision from CDL Recovery, I’m confident this program will quickly make a significant impact in the fight against this virus. UBC Sauder, as a CDL partner, is privileged to play a role in mobilizing a coalition of the willing to tackle these major societal challenges.”

CDL Recovery is designed to address both the immediate priorities and also the dynamically changing landscape six, twelve, and twenty-four months from now. Applications for the program open today. All types of innovative teams may apply – start-ups, corporations, informal collaborations, sole inventors. CDL Recovery follows the traditional CDL program at twice the regular cadence.

About Creative Destruction Lab

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a non-profit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. Its nine-month program allows founders to learn from experienced entrepreneurs, increasing their likelihood of success. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, the program has expanded to eight sites across four countries: Oxford (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), Paris (HEC Paris), Atlanta (Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology), Vancouver (UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia), Montreal (HEC Montréal), Calgary (Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary), and Halifax (Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University).

For more details on this new initiative, please see CDL’s announcement here.