Strengthening links between industry and research!

In June 2011 G360, Center for Applied Groundwater Research at the University of Guelph (G360) and Heron Instruments Ground Water Monitoring, Inc. (Heron) entered into an agreement to conduct research and to develop and test new groundwater monitoring equipment with funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev) under the Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative (ARC).   As a result of this agreement, G360 will be provided funding from Heron and FedDev to conduct research in collaboration with Heron.  As with the other industrial-academic partnerships and collaborations that G360 is involved in, this partnership will benefit both G360 and Heron and will also benefit the environmental community at large through the development of improved groundwater monitoring technology, encouraging private sector investment in academics and innovation and fostering future economic growth for Ontario and Canada.

The partnership involves the development of advanced equipment for groundwater hydraulic monitoring to help facilitate research concerning groundwater contaminant transport, groundwater remediation and source water protection.  This equipment will include adapting standard water level meters and pressure transducers for use with Dr. Parker’s depth discrete high resolution characterization approach to improve characterization of aquifers and aquitards.  One of the key instruments that will be developed for use in Canada through this project will be an advanced pressure transducer that is air-coupled and installed at the top of monitoring or multilevel wells.  Pressure transducers are typically installed 'downhole' in a well, so this new top of well installation will allow the transducers to have very sensitive, high resolution measuring capabilities, as well as provide greater versatility in the diameter and depth of wells in which they can be deployed, and improve access for repair, calibration or replacement.  

G360's involvement in the development of this new instrumentation will benefit the research group and the University of Guelph because students will have the opportunity to apply new state-of-the-science technologies before they are available to the environmental community at large and to take this knowledge with them when they enter the working world. G360 will also benefit from the further advance and fine tuning of the Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) approach through use of these high-resolution instruments.  This partnership will benefit Heron Instruments by providing the opportunity to test their instruments on existing boreholes which have already been well-characterized through G360 research, facilitating the creation and identification of new products, forming new industry relationships with other G360 industrial collaborators and, expanding their market through the training of students who will potentially become future clients.

This partnership with Heron is an excellent example of the type of industry/academic collaborations which allow G360 to thrive and provide an academic experience which is unique in Canada.