News Article

Canada’s Ocean Supercluster Announces $52M In New Project Activity To Build On Success In The Ocean Economy

Published: April 20, 2023

Today, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) announced $52 million in new, expanded project activity for active phase one OSC projects. This new funding is helping member organizations scale up and expand as they continue to gain momentum and develop stronger relationships in the supply chain and ecosystem.

Calls for proposals under the OSC’s 2021 Capacity and Supply Chain Expansion (CASCE) Program were launched under the cluster’s first round of funding. The 16 projects announced today build on the success of active OSC projects with expanded scope and will help industry access and acquire the capability Canadian companies need now to become and stay globally competitive. The CASCE Program is helping to strengthen and grow supply chains and increase the capacity of Canadian ocean-focused companies, de-risking the acquisition of critical assets that are needed to accelerate commercialization and enable existing projects to meet the growing demand for their products and services.

The 16 projects announced today include a total of $52 million in project funding. Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is providing $23 million, with the remainder of funding coming from project teams.

The expanded projects include:

Quotes:
“Our government continues to collaborate with Canada’s Ocean Cluster to strengthen and grow supply chains so that we can support Canadian ocean-focused companies. As ocean-focused projects gain momentum and scale up, our support to expand 16 projects with a total of $52 million in new funding will help those companies as they directly increase commercialization benefits and have positive impacts on Canadian competitiveness in the ocean economy.” – The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

“Through its Capacity and Supply Chain Expansion Program, Canada’s Ocean Cluster has leveraged its ability to foster collaboration and connect key members of the ocean sector to increase their commercialization capacities. The renewed support announced today will help take these successful projects to the next level, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results.” – Andy Fillmore, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and Member of Parliament for Halifax

“OSC projects are lowering emissions, improving processes, and creating a more digital, sustainable, and inclusive ocean economy. We are excited to announce these 16 expanded projects that will build on this momentum, helping existing solutions extend their reach and address the world’s largest ocean challenges.” – Kendra MacDonald, CEO, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster

“We are proud to be able to extend the capabilities of Tech Companion to provide further digitalization of maintenance procedures on complex equipment. By partnering with CarteNav to connect to their network of IoT devices and sensors, operators using Tech Companion are able to visualize surveillance assets in an augmented-reality view, while leveraging real-time data visualization and object recognition.” – Emily Smits, CEO, Modest Tree

“Our Systems Business Unit continues to gain traction by creating and delivering adaptable, flexible solutions to address the constantly growing and evolving ocean acoustic market’s needs and demands.  We’ve been listening, educating, and delivering with promising results.  Our nimble footprint, enabled by the OSC, has allowed us to pivot as the market requires and scale with the opportunity.  There would have been little chance to do so without OSC’s support. In the words of Walter Elliot, “perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” – Niru Somayajula, President & CEO, Sensor Technology

“GIT is excited to continue our collaboration with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and build on our success achieved through the Smart Protective Coatings Technology Project. This new project funding will provide GIT more with resources to expand production capacity, replicate data and improve coating applications globally.” – Mo AlGermozi, CEO, Graphite Innovation & Technologies (GIT)

We are grateful for Canada’s Ocean Super Cluster’s continued support. This grant directly supports the commercialization of R&D developed through the OceanDNA System Technology Leadership project, led by eDNAtec. Our firm has seen increased demand for our biomonitoring services based upon the measurement of environmental DNA (eDNA). The capacity increases developed through this CASCE project will allow us to meet that demand by increasing our analytical throughput by more than 100%. Our partner on the project, the Nunavut Fisheries Association, will benefit through the training of personnel in eDNA sampling; outfitting vessels to perform the sampling; and the continued application of eDNA technologies towards fisheries management.” – Steve Barrett, CEO, eDNAtec – Visit ednatec.com to learn more about the company, its innovations and solutions.

“With the awarding of this second Ocean Supercluster projected, Ashored is pleased to be working once again with our partners at eSonar and sensor technologies to further the advancement of rope-on-command fishing in Canada by expanding our production capabilities and supply chain to meet the growing demand for this innovative technology.” – Aaron Stevenson, CEO, Ashored

“Funding from Canada´s Ocean Supercluster is going to be critical for advancing our R&D in artificial intelligence in the seafood industry. We´re excited to work with our industry partners Orca Specialty Foods in British Columbia and Eurofish S.A. in Ecuador to pioneer new computer vision and machine learning innovations to improve the profitability and sustainability of the seafood industry. Canada´s Ocean Supercluster is helping us become global leaders in AI for seafood.” – Eric Enno Tam, CEO & Co-Founder, ThisFish

“The ongoing support of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster through the Capacity and Supply Chain Expansion program has enabled DeNova to build a new pilot facility and laboratories, expanding our R&D and in-house production capacity of our sustainable aquafeed protein ingredient. This growth has unlocked the ability to distribute large customer samples and validate production processes under industrial conditions, critically advancing the commercialization of DeNova’s sustainable protein and contributing to healthier oceans.” – Brianna Stratton, President & Founder, DeNova

“As Canada’s first living lab for the transportation industry, The PIER is focused on entering the next stage of innovation and technology development. The Data Enhancement Framework, one of the innovative projects taking place at The PIER, will enable the Halifax Port Authority in cooperation with BlueNode and PSA Global to monitor, track and mitigate carbon dioxide emissions through the Port of Halifax, providing cargo owners and global supply chain partners more sustainable shipping options through the Port of Halifax.” – Louis Beaubien, Co-Founder & CEO, BlueNode

“The OSC has been a tremendous development partner. Their support has helped accelerate our commercialization efforts to bring emission reduction solutions to the ocean economy.” – Craig Latimer, CEO, Katal Energy

“Shift, in collaboration with its development partners and end-users, is driving digital transformation in the marine services industry through the implementation of multi-mission and multi-domain autonomous platforms and sensor suites. These innovative solutions aim to enhance the safety, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency of marine services delivery. This CASCE project is a cutting-edge application for port infrastructure inspection and marine incident response, that showcases the expanded capabilities of small uncrewed systems to support enhanced decision making.” – James Spencer, Founder & CEO, Shift Environmental Technologies   

“CoLab is focused on building technology that helps enterprise manufacturing organizations develop better products faster. The support from Ocean Supercluster Phase I has allowed us to accelerate our own product development by at least 12 months and help large manufacturing companies leverage the power of Cloud based collaboration years sooner. Phase II will enable strategic investments in security, integrations, and data analytics to better support current and future customers.” – CoLab Software Management Team

“We’re excited to work alongside our partners at Allswater Marine, helping to lead the Connected Worker (CW) project. This new investment from OSC means that we can expand this ship to shore, modern digital technology to more vessels, reducing the risk to offshore companies, allowing for greater efficiency, and improving the overall health and well-being in the offshore environment. This innovative remote digital support application allows seafarers to connect to shore-based resources when needed and optimizes vessel operations services provided to our customers.” – Steve Widmeyer, CEO Horizon Maritime Services Ltd.
 
About Canada’s Ocean Supercluster
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is a pan-Canadian, industry-led transformative cluster focused on tackling some of the biggest challenges across ocean sectors through a collaborative program designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of globally relevant solutions, while also building a highly-capable, inclusive workforce. The OSC has approved 86 projects with a total value of more than $400 million which will deliver more than 130 new made-in-Canada ocean products, processes, and services to sell to the world. For more information visit oceansupercluster.ca