RDC Investing $1.9 Million in business-led Research and Development Projects

ST. JOHN'S, NL, March 5, 2014 /CNW/ - The Research & Development Corporation (RDC) is investing $1.9 million in 12 business-led R&D projects that help increase the province's knowledge-based economy for long-term economic benefit. The total value of the research projects is $4.6 million, the majority of which is leveraged from the private sector and federal funding agencies. The announcement was made today at the office of Oceans Ltd. by the Honourable Terry French, Minister of Innovation, Business and Rural Development and Minister Responsible for the Research & Development Corporation.

"These investments align with our long-term strategy to enhance economic growth through research and development. Funding of $1.9 million will support initiatives which will provide the opportunity to expand into new markets, respond to changes in market demand through innovation and technology, and strengthen business opportunities."
- The Honourable Terry French, Minister of Innovation, Business and Rural Development and Minister Responsible for the Research & Development Corporation.  

Through this investment, RDC is contributing to R&D commercialization projects being carried out by the following Newfoundland and Labrador businesses: Oceans Ltd., Kean Marine Inc., Camouflage Software Inc., Indigena Enterprises Inc., Lester Farms Inc., Semintha Nutraceuticals Ltd., Frost Heave Solutions, NOCLAND Business Inc., Beaufort Solutions Inc., Acoustic Zoom Inc., Seamatica Aerospace Ltd., and Seashore Consultants Ltd.

"The common link among these businesses is that they are all responding to local and global market opportunities. RDC invests in R&D projects that are innovative and market driven. I am confident that the R&D outcomes of these projects will strengthen their competitiveness and technical capabilities."
- Glenn Janes, Chief Executive Officer of RDC.

One of the businesses receiving funding is St. John's-based Oceans Ltd. Through this R&D project, Oceans has hired Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Ahmed Zein, to investigate potential medical benefits that could be found within the organic extracts of seaweed species in the province.

"Newfoundland and Labrador has a vast coastline with an abundant seaweed resource. Oceans Ltd. has been investigating this resource for anti-acne, anti-cancer, wound-healing and other bio-activity to create a natural health industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. The investigation has led to positive results with clinical trials and preparation of patents in progress."
- Judith Bobbitt, President, Oceans Ltd.

For a list of projects and project descriptions, please see the backgrounder below. For more information about RDC's research and development investment programs, visit www.rdc.org.

Through sound fiscal management and responsible decisions, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is strengthening the business environment, encouraging the development of innovative industries and building a vibrant economy.

QUICK FACTS

• RDC is investing $1.9 million in 12 in business-led R&D projects.
• The total value of the R&D projects is $4.6 million, including investments from the private sector and federal funding agencies.
• Businesses receiving R&D funding are: Oceans Ltd., Kean Marine Inc., Camouflage Software Inc., Indigena Enterprises Inc., Lester's Farms Inc., Semintha Nutraceuticals Ltd., Frost Heave Solutions, NOCLAND Business Inc., Beaufort Solutions Inc., Acoustic Zoom Inc., Seamatica Aerospace Ltd., and Seashore Consultants Ltd.
• The Research & Development Corporation is a provincial Crown corporation responsible for improving Newfoundland and Labrador's research and development performance. RDC works with research and development stakeholders including business, academia and government agencies and departments to make strategic investments in highly qualified people, innovative research and R&D infrastructure.

BACKGROUNDER
Businesses Receiving R&D Funding

This backgrounder provides information about individual projects funded by Research and Development Corporation programs which include the R&D Proof of Concept, R&D Vouchers, Industrial R&D Fellowships, and GeoEXPLORE programs.

R&D Proof of Concept

R&D Proof of Concept increases technical capacity and reduces the financial risk of performing research and development activities through to proof of concept.

Seashore Consultants Ltd.
Seashore Consultants Ltd. (Seashore) provides marine management and consulting services for offshore vessels during inspections and refit. Seashore is in the final stages of developing a Vessel Safety Management System (VSMS), a software program designed to assist vessel captains with ensuring that safety and quality certification processes are met. Through this project, Seashore plans to integrate their VSMS software with commercially available hardware to perform operational prototype testing onboard a 28-metre factory freezing vessel. If this project is successful, Seashore will have a turn-key VSMS with real-time reporting capabilities that can be tailored specifically to meet the needs of individual vessels. RDC's investment is $239,579 with total project costs of $385,770.

Seamatica Aerospace Ltd.
St. John's-based Seamatica Aerospace Limited (Seamatica) produces collision-avoidance systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). For this project, Seamatica will purchase and modify an existing air weather radar system from an international manufacturer. The modified system will be used in the development of a new short-range (up to 40 kilometres) ground-based air traffic collision-avoidance system that can be used to clear the airspace at UAV test sites. If this project is successful, Seamatica will have developed an aircraft-detection system that is able to protect all air traffic within the range of a test site from unannounced intruding aircraft. Seamatica will market the system to government operated UAV test centres and agencies in Canada and the United States. RDC's investment is $249,670 with total project costs of $389,445.

Beaufort Solutions
St. John's-based Beaufort Solutions Inc. provides photo technology that enables and supports the transformation of digital media into photo prints and gifting merchandise. Through R&D, Beaufort is planning to build on three features of its Photo Commerce Server technology to: integrate its photo imaging kiosk software directly with customer websites; allow the existing website technology to more easily support multiple customer sites from the same core; and, create the groundwork for a new photo product builder on mobile devices for greeting cards, calendars, t-shirts, etc. These three software enhancements will allow Beaufort to expand existing large retail markets and to target new markets such as professional photographers, theme parks, resort destinations, conventions, festivals and other events like weddings and graduations. RDC's investment is $163,152 with total projects costs of $658,162.

Kean Marine Inc.
Kean Marine Inc. (KMI) is a Conception Bay South-based company that harvests icebergs off the northeast coast of Newfoundland for commercial use in consumer beverages. For this project, KMI is undertaking R&D to improve the efficiency of iceberg harvesting operations through the development of an on-board ice melting system. Currently, the company harvests pieces of icebergs using a barge equipped with a hydraulic excavator arm. Ice is then brought back to port, where KMI must wait until the ice has melted before returning to sea for further harvesting. On-board ice melting will significantly increase maximum payload and increase turnaround time for product delivery. KMI is experiencing growing customer demand in local and international markets. This project has the potential to assist Kean in increasing its client base and economic activity in this sector. RDC's investment is $248,700 with total project costs of $333,000.

Camouflage Software Inc.
St. John's-based Camouflage Software Inc. (Camouflage) is a software and service provider with an international client-based flagship product, the Data Masking Lifecycle Management (DLM) Suite, is the focus of this project.  Camouflage DLM Suite is an enterprise-wide data masking solution designed to help organizations protect their sensitive information and meet data privacy and security requirements. Data masking is typically done so the masked data can be used to support the business functions of training, testing, software development or outsourcing, while not exposing sensitive information.

The objective of this project is to develop a high performance Structured Query Language based data masking engine for the company's data masking software that will expand the functionality of the technology to allow Camouflage to meet growing industry demands to process significantly larger amounts of data at a faster rate. RDC's investment is $87,968 with total project costs of $207,277.

Lester Farms Inc.
St. John's-based Lester Farms Inc. is a family-owned business that supplies fresh vegetables that are available for purchase through wholesale, u-pick, direct retail and farmers market sales. Lester Farms Inc. also owns and operates the Lester's Farm Chalet, which serves their produce in an on-farm restaurant and banquet facility. Through this project, Lester Farms Inc. plans to expand its production and sales of fresh produce by developing an aquaponics system, which combines aquaculture and agriculture in a symbiotic ecosystem. Aquaponics is based on the principle that plants have the ability to filter out all-natural nutrients from fish water while simultaneously rendering the water pristine for raising fish. Aquaponics has proven to be the most sustainable food production system available to-date, and this project represents the first large-scale aquaponics operation to be introduced in Newfoundland and Labrador. If this project is successful, it would enable Lester Farms Inc. to provide premium quality pesticide and fertilizer-free fresh fish and fresh vegetables 12 months of the year. RDC's investment is $249,859 with total project costs of $958,681.

NOCLAND Business Inc.
Based in Goulds, Newfoundland and Labrador, NOCLAND Business Inc. is developing information technology (IT) monitoring services for medium-to-large clients using 'cloud-based' infrastructure; an integrated solution that enables IT administrators to streamline and manage their company's critical network infrastructure from anywhere, or any device, as a single management console. For NOCLAND, such services include proactive monitoring and capacity planning for routers, switches and servers.  Building on its existing research, NOCLAND is creating a small scale Network Operations Centre at Memorial University's Genesis Centre that will simulate and monitor the network traffic of a large enterprise. This simulation will be used to demonstrate that this level of network traffic can be monitored from NOCLAND's cloud-based software. If this project is successful, NOCLAND will have developed a working prototype that will enable them to market their services to large organizations worldwide. RDC's investment is $84,300 with total project costs of $208,393.

R&D Vouchers

R&D Vouchers facilitate business access to local, national and international scientific/technical equipment, expertise and research facilities.

Indigena Enterprises Inc.
Indigena Enterprises Inc. (Indigena skincare) is a Canadian skincare brand known for its chemical free formulations incorporating natural and organic bases with land and sea botanicals indigenous to Newfoundland and Labrador. Indigena's manufacturing facility is located in Conception Bay South, and is its products are sold online throughout North America, at over 50 retailers in the province and at its flagship store in St. John's. In collaboration with Memorial University's Department of Biology, Indigena will be conducting testing to determine the optimal temperature at which native leaves and fruits should be extracted to maximize their antioxidant potential. This research will provide Indigena with a unique advantage in the market and contribute towards the production of innovative, rare, antioxidant-rich personal care products. RDC's investment is $15,000 with total project costs of $22,375.

Semintha Nutraceuticals Ltd.
Semintha Nutraceuticals Ltd., a St. John's based new health products company deriving products from birch tree by-products, is investigating the formulation and commercialization of value-added health products containing birch tree sap and other natural biomass bio-actives. Through the Voucher project Semintha will engage the services of Bio|Food|Tech (BFT), a nationally accredited food and bio-processing lab owned by the Government of Prince Edward Island. BioFoodTech will provide technical assistance in developing a birch sap beverage product blended with fruit concentrate. RDC's investment is $12,437 with total project costs of $16,583.

Frost Heave Solutions Ltd.
Frost Heave Solutions Ltd. of St. John's is partnering with the Centre for Cold Ocean Research Engineering (C-CORE) to conduct testing on its Frostwick PermaShield, a patented product used as a barrier between soil and roadways to protect the surface from frost heave damage. Along with testing and evaluating the Frostwick PermaShield product, C-CORE will also measure its performance against traditional products currently used for installation. RDC's investment is $15,000 with total project costs of $21,525.

Industrial R&D Fellowships

RDC partners with Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's (NSERC) Industrial R&D Fellowships program to provide financial support to companies to hire recent doctoral graduates in support of their research and development activities. It also encourages recent PhD graduates in science and engineering to seek first time careers in the private sector.

Oceans Ltd.
Oceans Ltd. is a research and technology company offering a wide range of ocean research and analysis services in the areas of physical oceanography, marine weather forecasting, and environmental effects monitoring. Over the past five years, Oceans has been screening coldwater seaweed species to determine which contain extracts that may provide health benefits such as anti-cancer, anti-microbial, wound healing and acetycholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity. For this project, Oceans has hired Dr. Ahmed Zein, a Post-Doctoral Fellow, to continue this research.  Dr. Zein completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Memorial University and offers extensive practical experience in the syntheses of natural product compounds. Dr. Zein's addition to the Oceans team will allow the company to complete this research, and put a concentrated focus into developing seaweed products. If this project is successful, it has the potential to expand Oceans' operations and allow them to enter a new market. RDC's investment is $37,000 with total project costs of $117,000.

GeoEXPLORE

GeoEXPLORE is a directed research program intended to enhance geoscience research and development capacity, collaboration and industry innovation in support of mineral and petroleum exploration and development in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Acoustic Zoom Inc.
Paradise-based Acoustic Zoom Inc. (AZ) specializes in developing and commercializing innovative acoustic geological imaging tools. AZ's unique seismic imaging system expresses and captures very high-frequency signals, enabling them to deliver exceptionally high-resolution imaging of the subsurface. By enhancing these details via proprietary processing methods, AZ will provide detailed subsurface surveys that can improve the development of existing resources and bolster the exploration methods in areas of potential economic interest. This RDC project will provide the hardware to allow for improved data processing needed to verify enhanced geological detail. If this project is successful, it will significantly reduce data processing times and provide an important modeling capability, leading to a commercially enhanced seismic data processing centre. RDC's investment is $475,000.00 with total project costs of $1,250,000.

SOURCE: Research & Development Corporation

Media contacts:

Chris Flanagan
Director, Marketing & Communications
Research & Development Corporation
709-758-1021, 691-1009
[email protected]

Heather Maclean
Director of Communications
Department of Innovation, Business
and Rural Development
709-729-4570, 697-4137
[email protected]

Judith Bobbitt
President, Oceans ltd.
709-753-5788
[email protected]