Over $700 million investment doubles down on driving innovation
OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 13, 2023 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is spurring economic growth, helping create well-paying jobs and growing our competitive advantage by investing in ideas, businesses and communities. Through the Global Innovation Clusters program, the government established a new approach to innovation: building accelerated and strong ecosystems in industries where Canada leads.
Today, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced that each cluster will receive renewed support to expand its national presence and deepen its impact at home and abroad. Following a competitive assessment process, based on financial track record and program metrics, the clusters will be allocated the following funding amounts:
- Advanced Manufacturing Cluster – up to $177 million to support the commercialization of transformative projects that develop, scale up and apply advanced technology solutions in manufacturing, attracting talent and investments from within Canada and around the world
- Protein Industries Cluster – up to $150 million to facilitate investment in Canada's plant-based food and feed ecosystem and in the creation of new products and services, while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with agricultural production and food processing
- Digital Technology Cluster – up to $125 million to mobilize Canadian industry to build world-leading digital technologies that will make Canada a global leader in clean, healthy economic growth and see Canadian companies become digital anchor enterprises
- Scale AI Cluster – up to $125 million to establish Canada as a global hub for artificial intelligence dedicated to business productivity and intelligent supply chains, with Canadian technology setting the world standard and providing a competitive advantage for Canadian businesses
- Ocean Cluster – up to $125 million to accelerate solutions to address global ocean opportunities, building a stronger Canadian economy and a healthier planet
The clusters have adopted the following common missions: expanding their global presence, collaborating among the clusters to deepen their impact, fighting climate change, building more resilient supply chains, and supporting the growth and scale-up of Canadian companies. The clusters will also aim to increase industry co-investment by raising their industry match ratio, which will result in further positive impact on job creation and GDP.
"Since their implementation, the clusters have had positive impacts by fostering collaboration across Canada's innovation ecosystem, supporting hundreds of groundbreaking projects and creating thousands of well-paying jobs. Our government will continue to double down on spurring innovation and strengthen Canada's position as a global innovation leader."
– The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
- Budget 2022 confirmed Canada's commitment to the clusters, with an additional investment of $750 million through to 2028, to support the further growth and development of Canada's Global Innovation Clusters, formerly called the Innovation Superclusters Initiative.
- As of December 2022, the clusters had supported more than 500 projects worth $2.37 billion, involving more than 2,465 partners and generating over 855 patent applications, copyrights, trademarks or trade secrets.
- Clusters are on track to meet or exceed the overall job creation target of 15,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs by 2023 and 50,000 by 2028.
- The clusters are also helping to build a skilled and diverse workforce by creating opportunities for women, racialized Canadians, Indigenous communities and other under-represented groups and offering workshops and formalized training in response to industry's need for members of these groups to develop their talent, learn about topics or gain new skills.
Backgrounder: Global Innovation Clusters selected projects
The Global Innovation Clusters are recognized for their scale, ambition and ability to drive impactful commercialization outcomes. They harness the power of collaboration to help Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) scale up, integrating them into global value chains and building strong innovation ecosystems that attract investment and talent.
Over the last five years, the Global Innovation Clusters have delivered on groundbreaking projects across Canada. Some of these projects include:
- Commercial-scale manufacturing of cell and gene therapies in Canada from a project consortium led by Hamilton, Ontario-based SME OmniaBio and supported by the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster. This project will establish a commercial biomanufacturing facility in Hamilton to supply new advanced therapies for cell and gene-based technologies or produce existing technologies that are not currently available at a commercial scale in Canada. The project will help position Canada as a global life sciences leader.
- A line of sustainably produced plant-based seafood alternatives created by Konscious Foods, Merit Functional Foods and Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds, three SMEs based in British Columbia and Manitoba and all supported by the Protein Industries Cluster. These plant-based seafood alternatives are made by using Canadian-grown crops and ingredients in innovative ways for food that tastes great and is better for both consumers and the environment.
- The world's first Earth x-ray discovery platform, led by Richmond, British Columbia-based SME Ideon Technologies and supported by the Digital Technology Cluster. This platform will allow mining companies to identify density and magnetic anomalies with greater clarity up to 1 km beneath the Earth's surface. This will help companies precisely target deposits of critical minerals and create the environmentally responsible mineral supply needed to fuel the clean energy transition.
- A new tool to optimize the varying workload at ports using artificial intelligence, led by the Montreal Maritime Employers Association with the support of the Scale AI Cluster. This tool uses predictive analytics to determine what cargo is coming into the port and ensures rapid distribution of goods throughout the supply chain while allowing for more accurate labour requirement estimates, saving time and money at ports across Canada.
- An autonomous robotic launch and recovery system for seafloor imaging and mapping, led by Newfoundland and Labrador-based SME Kraken Robotics and supported by the Ocean Cluster. The autonomous underwater vessel has applications in a number of ocean industries, including oil and gas, fishing, and military and defence. The company has signed defence contracts with several countries, leading to its growth in Newfoundland and Labrador as well as Nova Scotia.
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Contacts: Laurie Bouchard, Senior Manager, Communications, Office of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, [email protected]; Media Relations: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, [email protected]
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