Ontario manufacturing ‘Supercluster’ among big federal funding winners
by The Canadian Press
Five separate Superclusters in five regions of the country will split $950 million in federal funding
The Ontario Supercluster will focus on advanced manufacturing to prepare the sector for major industrial changes
OTTAWA—Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains has named five technology groups that will each get a piece of up to $950 million in what the government calls its “superclusters” initiative.
The winners:
- The Ocean Supercluster based in Atlantic Canada will use innovation to improve competitiveness in Canada’s ocean-based industries, including fisheries, oil and gas and clean energy
- The Scale AI Supercluster in Quebec will work on building intelligent supply chains through artificial intelligence and robotics
- The Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster in Ontario will connect technology strengths to manufacturing industry to prepare for the economy of tomorrow
- The Protein Industries Supercluster in the Prairies will work on making the country a leading source of plant proteins
- The Digital Technology Supercluster in British Columbia will use big data and digital technologies to unlock new potential in important sectors like health care, forestry, and manufacturing.
The concept of the supercluster is to bring together small, medium-sized and large companies, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations to generate forward-looking, job-creating ideas and innovation.
“Today we are investing in five superclusters so that tomorrow we will be more than 50,000 jobs richer and benefit from an even stronger economy _an innovation economy,” Bains said in a statement.
The government is betting on Canadian expertise, he added.
“We looked at what we did well across our great nation and we asked industry, academia and NGOs how we could do it better. The response was impressive and the ideas were remarkable.”
