Backgrounder: Global Innovation Clusters selected projects

The Global Innovation Clusters are recognized for their scale, ambition and ability to drive impactful commercialization outcomes.

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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