AUTO21 stops operating as federal funding ends

The Windsor-based national automotive research network called AUTO21 is slowly winding down operations after 14 years because federal funding is no longer available.

Scientific director and CEO Peter Frise knew this day would come.

"When we applied for money to get started back in 2000, we knew the last day would be March 2015, with a wind-down period after that," he said.

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AUTO21 was eligible for two seven-year cycles of federal funding - and no more - through the Networks of Centres of Excellence program.

"Then they shut down, good bad, or indifferent," Frise told CBC's Windsor Morning of the centres of excellence.

AUTO21 has been headquartered at the University of Windsor since 2001.

It brought together nearly 200 top Canadian researchers at 48 universities and partnered those researchers with more than 130 industry and government partners.

Now that the federal funding has ended, researchers must part ways with the network.

"This is entirely a personal remark ... but I think organizations should exist as long as their purpose is viable and there's a need for them and they're being used and taken up by the community," Frise said. "To choose in advance a certain number of years of life for them and shut them down whether they're functioning or not, I'm not sure what the rationale would be for that.

"The need for innovation in key sectors of the economy doesn't start and stop in synchronization with government programs."

Frise said AUTO21's purpose was never to provide jobs for university staff and faculty.

"The purpose was to promote research and development within Canada's automotive industry and use the university system as an asset for the [auto] system," he said.

AUTO21 worked with 300 auto supply companies and "all the automakers."

"There's been a great deal of linkage built between the universities in Canada and the industry and I think that's been the key contribution," Frise said.

Frise said AUTO21 helped developed technology and parts used in today's auto industry.

AUTO21 in today's cars

Two innovations stand out for Frise.

The first is the Clek booster seat, which is a division of auto giant Magna.

Frise says the booster seat was developed in part with the University of Windsor's faculty of nursing.

"A lot of that technology was based on AUTO21," Frise said.

The second innovation has to do with replacing oil in plastic parts with other naturally occurring substances.

"If you buy a Ford Flex, it has a [plastic] cargo bin based on AUTO21 work," Frise said.

According to a report by AUTO21, the network received $81.2 million in federal investment and an additional $68.4 million of industry investment.

More than 400 researchers and students and 55 professors at the University of Windsor alone worked with AUTO21.

"The lifeblood of this city is the auto industry. A large part of our city derives its living from the auto industry," Frise said of Windsor. "I always thought it was important Canada have an automotive program based at a large university and that's what we did here."