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The public/private collaboration, led by U of T and Western on the academic side, is expected to create 145 high-level research jobs in Ontario, whether at IBM Canada’s facilities themselves or the universities in its consortium.

Also involved are McMaster University, Queens University, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo.

But the consortium is not closed, said John Lutz, president of IBM Canada, noting that other schools and businesses could join over time.

“A lot of the great innovations come from smaller firms so we want to be sure we allow that,” he said.

The research focus is broad but the company said it would use these tools for analysis of massive data sets and work on problems around urbanization, health care, water and energy conservation and management, and software innovation.

“We consider Canada to be the home of IBM Analytics,” Mr. Lutz said at the announcement of the project in Toronto.

The company has software development labs in Toronto, Ottawa and London in Ontario, as well as Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria outside the province. Its Canadian corporate headquarters are in Toronto.

“Analytics can be used for many practical purposes,” Mr. Lutz said, pointing to research on how to improve the outcomes for premature babies, manage traffic congestion and track patterns of criminal activity to fight crime.

The province of Ontario has partnered with private enterprise to encourage homegrown innovation in the past; for example, it announced an alliance with Cisco Canada to create and retain R&D jobs in Toronto and Ottawa in August 2011.