(Wines&Vines) - Research pays, according to a study assessing the economic impact of Ontario’s 20-year-old Cold Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI).

Toronto management consulting firm MDB Insight examined the activities of the institute, located at Brock University, and determined that its economic contribution to the province in 2015 was $91.1 million (all values in Canadian). This includes 307 jobs within the industry and ancillary sectors.

“We thought that it was time for us to assess, in dollar values, the kind of impact the institute is now having in the province,” Debbie Inglis, director of CCOVI, told Wines & Vines.

Brock University established CCOVI in fall 1996, and the first undergraduate students to benefit from the institute began classes a year later. While CCOVI doesn’t have students itself (they’re officially part of Brock’s Department of Biological Sciences), their presence is tied to the institute.

MDB Insight pegged the annual economic benefit of CCOVI’s research activities to the industry at $86.3 million in the form of climate and pest research; studies of ice wine and new styles of wine such as appassimento; as well as education and extension work.

Research into grapevine cold hardiness, for example, is estimated to prevent the loss of 1,502 tonnes of grapes annually (1 tonne equals 1.1 tons), resulting in $22.2 million more in revenues for the sector as well as savings on inputs.