Canadian government announces winners of C$950 supercluster initiative

While the United States grapples with yet another proposed budget that drastically reduces investments in innovation, Canada’s federal government has announced that five industry-led organizations will share up to C$950 million as part of the country’s supercluster initiative. The superclusters program, a part of the Trudeau government’s innovation and skills agenda announced last year, seeks to encourage leaders from business, research institutions, and the public sector to support the growth of targeted industry sectors. Other elements of the strategy include investments in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and collaborative R&D projects. Although there were originally nine semi-finalists for the superclusters awards, many of the losing bids ended up joining forces with the five winning initiatives: 

• An “AI-powered supply chain” supercluster led by Quebec City’s Optel Group and other research organizations and companies;
• An “advanced manufacturing” supercluster, led by key stakeholders from the Toronto-Hamilton-Waterloo corridor and led by innovation hub organizations Communitech of Waterloo and MaRS Discovery District in Toronto;
• A “Digital Technology Supercluster” in British Columbia led by large technology companies, with a focus on projects related to health, natural resources and industrial applications;
• An “ocean supercluster” in Atlantic Canada, led by companies in the energy, seafood, and shipbuilding industries, as well as Atlantic Canada’s main research universities; and,
• A “protein innovations” supercluster from Saskatchewan, led by leading agriculture companies, and with a focus on plant proteins and related food ingredients.