For the second year in a row, a group of fourth-year marketing students at UPEI's School of Business have been learning first-hand the business of bioscience, and as a result have earned recognition for their efforts from the Island's bioscience industry. Working with three local bioscience companies, eleven teams of business students have been designing marketing strategies for the companies' products and services that may be used in national and international promotions and sales activities.

This is the second year for the program, organized by the PEI BioAlliance and the UPEI School of Business. The purpose is to engage local bioscience companies and UPEI business students in a project that gives the students real marketing experience with products being produced by the growing PEI bioscience industry for global markets.

"This project is a terrific learning exercise for our students, and provides a great opportunity for them to showcase their talents," says Dr. Don Wagner, acting dean of the UPEI School of Business.

Rory Francis, Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, said the interest and response was so positive last year, that both companies and faculty were anxious to incorporate the program into the UPEI Business curriculum again this year.

"We want the students to see and feel for themselves the exciting business opportunities that bioscience companies are creating here in PEI. Bringing new products to life is challenging and fascinating, and we hope this experience motivates these students to be part of PEI's future prosperity."

The National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) provides support to the BioAlliance in carrying out this and other initiatives that help grow small and medium sized bioscience enterprises in PEI.

Awards were presented for the Best Marketing Strategy for each of the three companies' products, and to overall winners at a reception held at the UPEI School of Business yesterday. The overall winning team included: Cayla Leger, Jennifer MacLean, and Brad Gallant for their marketing strategy developed for AquaBounty Canada Inc..

Participating companies for the Second Annual UPEI School of Business/PEI BioAlliance Marketing Strategy Competition included: AquaBounty Canada Inc., Atlantic AgriTech, and Tube Fab Ltd.

The Prince Edward Island BioAlliance is the cluster of individuals and organizations dedicated to building the bioscience-based economic sector in PEI, with an emphasis on collaborative initiatives in research, business, education, and supporting infrastructure.

For more information about the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, contact rose@peibioalliance.com or by calling (902) 367-4403.

Photo: Rory Francis, Executive Director of the PEI BioAlliance (far left), and Valerie Barbosa, AquaBounty Canada Inc. (far right), present the BioAlliance Award for the UPEI School of Business Best Bioscience Marketing Strategy to the winning team comprised of Cayla Leger, Jennifer MacLean and Brad Gallant.

The Tourism Research Centre (TRC) at UPEI's School of Business has released two reports based on the 2007-2008 Visitor Exit Survey. The first looks at summer visitors (July and August 2007) and the other examines fall visitors (September and October 2007).

Visitor origin shifts slightly in the fall. Of total travel parties, the percentage visiting from Quebec and Ontario decreases substantially, but the remaining markets (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the rest of Canada, US, international,) all make gains. This is not to say, for example, that there are more international travel parties in the fall, but they increase as a percentage of total travel parties.

One of the biggest differences noted between summer visitors and fall visitors was party composition. The family market is still very important for P.E.I. tourism, but it is not as prevalent in the fall season. Most of the fall visitors travel in parties of two adults.

The shift in travel party type is also reflected in the increase in the age of the average visitor. Unlike visitors in the main season, of whom the majority were between the ages of 35 to 54, visitors in the fall were largely over the age of 55. Only those of New Brunswick origin were slightly more likely to be in the 35 to 54 age bracket.

'The mature adult market in the fall is an opportunity for P.E.I.,' said Dr. Paul Lewis, Director of the TRC. 'We would do well to create sophisticated tourism experiences aimed at this market, and certainly things seem to be moving in this direction with initiatives like the Shellfish Festival and Fall Flavours. Opportunity also lies, however, in growing the fall-season family market. Though the fall presents more difficulty for families because of school schedules, family-oriented weekend getaway packages or similar tourism experiences might prove attractive to these visitors, particularly those from the Maritimes.'

Despite a perception that P.E.I. is a summer-only destination, fall-season visitors from New Brunswick, Ontario, the US and other international countries actually record longer stays in P.E.I. during September and October than in the main summer season. In addition, fall visitors from Ontario, Quebec and international countries (excluding the US) spend more per person per night than visitors from those regions in the main summer season.

In terms of activities, the percentage of travel parties going on a sightseeing/driving tour remains relatively constant over the two seasons, and it is still the most participated-in activity. Naturally, going to the beach and visiting national/provincial parks is less popular in the fall along with other traditional tourist activities. Overall, a higher percentage of parties visit family or friends in the fall, and a higher percentage of travel parties from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec play golf.

Both reports are available on the exit survey section of the TRC's website: www.trc.upei.ca/exitsurvey. Further information about the report can be obtained from the Tourism Research Centre, School of Business, University of PEI, at (902) 566-6096 or trc@upei.ca.

Dr. Randolph Seidler, Head of Corporate Department, Research and Development, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc., will give a public presentation at the University of Prince Edward Island on Tuesday, April 14.

Seidler's presentation, entitled 'Research and Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health-Innovation as a key driver for success,' will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in the Alex H. MacKinnon Auditorium (Room 242), McDougall Hall. The UPEI School of Business and the Atlantic Veterinary College, in collaboration with the Province of Prince Edward Island, NSERC and the P.E.I. BioAlliance, are hosting this event.

The veterinary pharmaceutical and vaccine industry has worked together with clinicians and academic experts to improve patient care and greatly contributed to finding new treatment modalities. Seidler will give an overview about the requirements for drug discovery and development in the veterinary industry and the framework for bringing innovative and improved treatments to patients.

Seidler received his training in veterinary medicine from the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany. He did his PhD research at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and LMU in the area of cardiac physiology and pharmacology. He joined Boehringer Ingelheim's (BI's) R&D group in Biberach, Germany, and worked in the area of general pharmacology and cardiovascular drug discovery. This was followed by an assignment at BI's R&D center in Ridgefield, Connecticut, in the field of cardiovascular research. During this time, Seidler headed a group of scientists in the area of heart failure research and led several drug discovery projects that progressed to clinical development. In July 2007, he was appointed head of Corporate Department, R&D, at BI's Animal Health, overseeing global R&D. The R&D group at BI Animal Health currently consists of approximately 190 employees located on three continents.

Lunch will be provided in Schurman Market Square. To register, please contact Tammie Rose by Wednesday, April 8, at (902) 566-0564 or tmrose@upei.ca.

Mothers who are in Canada's prison system are usually separated from their children, but the Elizabeth Fry Society of Saint John New Brunswick has a program that keeps the connection between mothers and children alive through reading.

For the past nine years, the society, which is dedicated to supporting women who are in prison or at risk, has operated a program called Mother/Child Read Aloud. Mothers in prison record themselves reading children's books, using books and equipment provided by the society. Those books, the recording and the equipment to play the recording are given to their children, so that they can have books read to them in their mothers' voices.

Dr. Shannon Murray, professor of English at the University of Prince Edward Island, heard about this project and decided to get her students and the campus involved. She asked Elizabeth Fry Society representatives Marianna Stack and Denise Durette if they would speak to two of her classes before the end of the semester. When they agreed, Murray put out a call for new children's books and ended up with a donation of 130 for the project.

'Anyone who has ever read to a child knows how powerful and important that experience is. I was thrilled with the response of UPEI and its students to this wonderful program,' says Murray.

Stack and Durette were elated to get the new books.

'It has been a struggle to secure funding and new books since we began in 2000,' she says.'We have received many wonderful one-time donations of books from authors and publishers. Often people who hear about this program donate. Every bit helps.'

She estimates that through this volunteer-run program, the society has reached over 1,000 children and 500 mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, godparents and friends.

'We cannot even begin to measure the others that we reached such as older siblings, caregivers, school friends, etc. The list could go on and on.'

In 1999 Stack, who volunteered with women in prison, learned about a similar program for women in prison in Oklahoma. An educator, she felt that it had possibilities for mothers in prison in New Brunswick. She received permission from the original creator in the U.S. to go ahead with it in Canada, and after eventually securing funding from the Greater Saint John Community Foundation, Mother/Child Read Aloud was born the following year.

Since then, the program has grown to include the Nova Institution in Truro, Nova Scotia, in addition to mothers in prison in New Brunswick, says Stack. In New Brunswick, four to six women in the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre read to their children each week, and then the society mails the books throughout it and other provinces where the children are living. Volunteers also take the program to the Nova Institution six times a year. On their last visit they sent 190 books, tapes and Walkmans to 63 children in seven provinces and even to faraway Portugal.

Stack is proud to say that the Mother/Child Read Aloud program is expanding. After attending a workshop given by the New Brunswick group, the Elizabeth Fry Society of Quebec now offers the program in a provincial jail and in the Joliette Institution for Women in Quebec.

Families who have been involved in the program show their appreciation through letters, pictures and cards, which are carefully preserved in scrapbooks.

'I was at the post office two weeks ago, mailing books, when a former woman prisoner came in with her teenage son,' she says. 'We were chatting, and she said to him, ‘Do you remember all the books and taped stories you got in the mail when you were little? Well, this is the lady who sent them.' He remembered. It made it all worth it for me.'

Photo: Dr. Shannon Murray (left), of UPEI's Department of English, and Marianna Stack (centre) and Denise Durette (right), of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Saint John New Brunswick, display some of the 130 children's books collected by the UPEI campus community for the society's Mother/Child Read Aloud program.

With interest in water problems increasing across Prince Edward Island over the past few years, there is still much to learn about protecting and enhancing this important natural resource. As an aid to this learning process, award-winning author Marq de Villiers will give a talk about water issues in the Alex H. MacKinnon Auditorium (Room 242), McDougall Hall at UPEI on Friday, April 24, at 7 p.m.

In his book, Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, de Villiers says water is still undervalued, but it is becoming more precious. It's not that the world is running out of water, he says, but "it's running out in places where it's needed most."

First published in 1999, the book is now in print in 11 languages. It won a Governor General's Award and earned glowing praise from such respected figures as Maurice Strong, now of the Earth Council, who called it 'timely, authoritative, and eminently readable.' Water also won the 1999 Canadian Science Writers Award and was nominated for the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction. Copies of the book can be purchased at the talk.

One reviewer noted that 'de Villiers has a keen eye for detail and a solid command of the scientific literature on which his argument is based. He's also a fine storyteller, and his wide-ranging book makes a useful companion to other works that call our attention to a globally abused - and vital - resource.'

A veteran journalist, magazine editor and writer, de Villiers has worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow, South Africa and other places. He has travelled extensively, especially in Africa, and has written 13 books on travel, history and natural history. He lives in Nova Scotia.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Environmental Coalition of Prince Edward Island, the Environmental Studies Program at UPEI and the provincial Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry. There is no charge for admission, and everyone is welcome.

The University of Prince Edward Island's Department of History will host the 18th Atlantic Canada Studies Conference (ACSC) from Thursday, April 30, to Sunday, May 3, in McDougall Hall.

Held every two years since the 1970s, the ACSC has gained a prominent place within Canada's scholarly landscape. Although physically grounded in the region, the ACSC pursues universal themes and spans a variety of disciplines, including History, Canadian Studies, Economics, English, Folklore and Environmental Studies. In the process, it brings together university researchers, public history practitioners, policy-makers, volunteers and students.

'Regional boundaries, like regional identities, are tantalizingly imprecise,' says UPEI history professor Edward MacDonald, chair of the conference organizing committee. 'Through its conference theme, ‘Unpacking' Atlantic Canada, this year's conference confronts the very notion of region, both internally, in terms of themes and issues that define our past, and externally, by examining the fluid boundaries of that thing we call ‘Atlantic Canada.''

The diversity of approaches and disciplines in this year's program encourages fresh insights into the nature of Atlantic Canada and its relationship with other regions within and beyond Canada, says MacDonald, including those borderlands where physical, cultural, and economic boundaries tend to blur. In the process, 'region' reaches out to the global, and 'local' conjures the universal.

During the conference, over 75 papers will be given by presenters from across Canada. In addition, it will feature a special panel on the career of Dr. Margaret Conrad, Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). Conrad is retiring after a distinguished career as a Canadian historian and a staunch advocate of the Atlantic region as an important field of study.

On Saturday, May 2, Conrad will officially launch a digitized collection of important letters from the Public Archives and Records Office of P.E.I. at the conference banquet at the Confederation Centre of the Arts. This collection is part of a larger initiative at UNB called the Atlantic Canada Virtual Archives. In this project, important archival collections from each Atlantic province have been digitized, making them available online to researchers.

Among the letters that have been digitized, transcribed and annotated for the virtual archives are some written between Captain John MacDonald who brought over 200 Highland Catholic settlers to his estate around Tracadie, P.E.I., in 1772, and his sister Nelly, who supervised the estate during his extended absence from P.E.I. The letters give researchers a rare glimpse of a woman in a position of authority during this period in Island history.

Delegates will also have the opportunity to tour the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation's new exhibition, 40 Years and Counting: Celebrating the Provincial Collection, now on display at the Centre's Art Gallery, before the banquet.

For more information and registration, please contact Sharon Currie at the Department of History, at (902) 566-0493, or visit http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Acadiensis/ACSC.htm.

Photo: Dr. Sharon Myers, Dr. Edward MacDonald and Dr. Lisa Chilton, of the UPEI history department, look over the program for the 18th Atlantic Canada Studies Conference, which will be held at UPEI from Thursday, April 30, to Sunday, May 3.

The University of Prince Edward Island has signed agreements for programs of academic linkage and cooperation with Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey, and Fernando Pessoa University in Porto, Portugal.

The agreements will facilitate academic cooperation between UPEI and the two institutions through joint research, and faculty and student exchanges at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

'By participating in exchange programs, UPEI students will learn to work through the challenges of living in different cultural settings and thus develop a better understanding of the world. Along with the benefit of learning a foreign language, students will also develop a great deal of independence, increased maturity and confidence,' said Mamdouh Elgharib, Manager of International Development at UPEI.

Koç University was founded in 1993 with the mission "to produce the most capable graduates by providing a world class education; to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and to contribute to the benefit of Turkey and humanity at large.'

In 1993, Koç University opened with 233 students and 35 faculty members in two colleges. Today, the University has 3,527 students and 281 faculty members in four colleges. For the last five years, Koç University has ranked in the top three Turkish universities for the number of published articles per faculty member.

Fernando Pessoa University was created in 1992 as result of the merger of two innovative institutes of higher education: the Instituto Superior de Ciencias de Informacao e da Empresa and the Instituto Erasmus do Ensino Superior, created in 1988. The university has 4,200 students who are enrolled in three faculties: Human and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, and Health Sciences.

For more information about UPEI's student exchange programs, please contact Sherilyn Acorn-LeClair, the Student Mobility Coordinator at 894-2837 or sdacorn@upei.ca.

The UPEI School of Business and Holland College are collaborating on a joint Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) degree program beginning in September of 2009.

Students who have completed a two-year Accounting Technology, Business Management or Retail Management diploma program at Holland College will be eligible to complete the degree with only an additional two years of study at UPEI.

The BBS program allows Holland College graduates to transition into a degree program. It is designed to help students with their career development while taking into account their prior learning. With many career choices requiring a degree, such as some accounting designations, this degree program empowers students to move forward with the requirements of their chosen career paths expeditiously.

'This is a great opportunity for students to continue their education,' says Donald Wagner, Acting Dean of the UPEI School of Business. 'The new program provides qualifying Holland College graduates with the opportunity to complete a business degree with only two years of further study.'

Michael O'Grady, Vice President of Innovation, Enterprise and Strategic Development for Holland College, said the college is pleased to be able to provide another educational pathway for its graduates.

"There has always been great interest on the part of Holland College graduates to pursue a business degree at UPEI. The new BBS degree offers a tremendous option for our students to realize their educational objectives. This new degree is another instance of cooperation between our two institutions to the benefit of Island students."

UPEI and Holland College have numerous other educational partnerships, for which both institutions are recognized nationally.

For more information about the Bachelor of Business Studies program, contact Chris Power, UPEI Recruitment Coordinator, by phone at (902) 628-4352 or cjpower@upei.ca, or the Registrar's Office at Holland College by phone at (902) 566-9517, toll-free at 1-800-446-5265, or by e-mail at getready@hollandcollege.com.

The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) is proud to learn that it has successfully entered Phase 2 of a national competition for funding under the newly created Canada Excellence Research Chairs program.

The Canada Excellence Research Chairs was established by the Government of Canada in 2008 to establish 20 prestigious research chairs in universities across the country. The program invests $28 million a year to attract and retain the world's most accomplished and promising minds to help Canada build a critical mass of expertise in priority research areas. UPEI's submission to the program was for funding to further its aquatic epidemiology expertise.

'The University of Prince Edward Island, supported by its veterinary medicine faculty (the Atlantic Veterinary College), is a global leader in aquatic epidemiology and a national leader in research excellence,' says Dr. Katherine Schultz, Vice President of Research Development.

'Our expertise in aquatic species health and epidemiology advances basic and applied science, strengthens industry both within Canada and internationally, and makes a healthy, sustainable source of food a possibility. We are excited and proud of this opportunity to further expand our strengths by competing to recruit a world leading researcher in this field.'

If successful in Phase 2 of the competition, UPEI will receive up to $1.4 million annually for seven years to develop an ambitious research program to contribute to Canada's global competitiveness, future prosperity and well-being.

The UPEI and Atlantic Veterinary College researchers, all of whom are professors of epidemiology, involved in the development of the Canada Excellence Research Chair submission for a UPEI-based world leader in aquatic epidemiology include: Drs Larry Hammell (Director of the Atlantic Veterinary College's Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences), Crawford Revie (Canada Research Chair in Population Health/Epi-Informatics ), Ian Dohoo (Director of the Atlantic Veterinary College's Centre for Veterinary Epidemiological Research) and John VanLeeuwen (Chief Research Officer of the PEI Health Research Institute).

UPEI is one of the top ten universities in Canada for undergraduate research, and the number one Canadian undergraduate university for research income growth over five years. External grants and contracts for all research areas at UPEI totaled $16.4 million in 2008. UPEI has seven Canada Research Chairs in the sciences and the social sciences and humanities.

For the complete list of competition results, please visit www.cerc.gc.ca.

The Tourism Research Centre (TRC) at UPEI has released a new report profiling cruise ship passengers to PEI in 2007 and 2008. The survey was conducted by distributing it to passengers who disembarked in September and October of 2007, and again in May and June of 2008.

The cruise ship passenger to PEI has quite a different profile than the typical overnight pleasure visitor to PEI. 'While only seven percent of our overnight pleasure visitors for the year come from the US,' stated TRC Research Director Dr. Monica MacDonald, 'over 80 per cent of cruise ship passengers to PEI are from the US.' Cruise ship passengers also tend to be older: in 2007 86 per cent of passengers to PEI were 55 or older, although in 2008 this figure dropped to 69 per cent.

Results also show that many of the passengers had not been to PEI before. Typically, about 20 per cent of overnight pleasure visitors to PEI are visiting the province for the first time, whereas about 85 per cent of the cruise ship passengers were first-time visitors. In the survey, passengers were asked if they would return to PEI for a vacation. While few (less than two per cent in 2008) said they would return in the next year, approximately 15 per cent (averaged over 2007 and 2008) said they would return sometime after a year, and 43 per cent said they may return at some point in the future.

'It would be worthwhile to follow up with these potential visitors and encourage them to return to PEI for a full vacation,' said Dr. MacDonald. 'Our cruise ship passengers have higher incomes than our typical overnight pleasure visitors to PEI, and gave good ratings when evaluating their short experience here.'

In 2008 cruise ship visitors to PEI spent an average of almost six hours away from the ship - minimal time for the province to leave a lasting impression. Nevertheless, in 2008 about two thirds of passengers chose to participate in an organized shore excursion, an increase from 58 per cent in 2007. Many of those (about 62 per cent) not taking organized excursions explored Charlottetown on foot and/or visited historic sites in the city. About 38 per cent shopped, and the percentage of passengers who chose to dine at a restaurant increased from 14 per cent in 2007 to 32 per cent in 2008.

Average spending per passenger increased from $39.04 in 2007 to $47.75 in 2008. To compare, the average overnight pleasure visitor to PEI spends $49.46 when accommodation is omitted. On average, about one third of spending by cruise ship passengers goes toward organized tours, and almost $6.00 per passenger is spent at a restaurant.

The full report is available on the exit survey section of the TRC's website: www.trc.upei.ca/exitsurvey. Further information about the report can be obtained from the Tourism Research Centre, School of Business, University of PEI, at (902) 566-6096 or trc@upei.ca.