Research and development across Atlantic Canada is benefiting from an important federal investment of $62.4 million under Round VII of the Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF). In Newfoundland and Labrador, a total of seven R&D projects, representing both private and public sector research, will benefit from $13.8 million in AIF support in this round. The announcement was made today in St. John’s by the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence, on behalf of the Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of National Revenue, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway.

“Productivity and innovation are key factors in Canada’s economic success,” said Minister MacKay. “The Atlantic Innovation Fund is an important catalyst for building research and development capacity in our region. This latest round of funding ensures that more research will continue to be undertaken, and more innovative ideas commercialized, so that Atlantic businesses continue to grow, adapt, diversify and become more competitive.”

Today’s announcement is part of a series of announcements highlighting 30 innovative R&D projects selected from across Atlantic Canada that will benefit from AIF support available under Round VII of the program. In addition, as the project proponents lever more funding for their research work from a variety of other private and public sector sources, the total value of the R&D investment generated in this round is expected to rise to nearly $112 million. The Fund has generated a measurable increase in investments in research and development in Atlantic Canada. Since 2006, every AIF dollar invested has leveraged an additional $1.26 in funding from other sources.

The projects selected in Newfoundland and Labrador include bottom trawl fishing technology, autonomous underwater vehicles, high frequency radar applications, and genetics.

“We are investing in realistic and achievable projects,” said Minister MacKay. “Projects that will advance our innovation and knowledge capacity, generate a range of alternative technologies, and develop leading-edge products and processes.”

Since 2006, more than $343 million has been invested through the AIF in 145 R&D projects throughout Atlantic Canada. During that time, 34 highly innovative Newfoundland and Labrador projects have benefited from that investment. Several of these projects have already resulted in new products, technologies and services that are now being marketed to the world. Among them are the Philadephus Starbright, a hardy ornamental plant exported from Memorial University’s Botanical Gardens to commercial horticulture operations across Canada, and software by Verafin that helps clients throughout North America detect fraud and money laundering.

ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund encourages the commercialization of research in Atlantic Canada and has been a key driver for many Atlantic Canadian businesses, universities and research institutions. It has enhanced Atlantic Canada’s reputation for innovation and, through the success of the projects it has funded, the AIF contributes significantly to the region’s research and development capacity and its economic performance.

The seven projects selected for AIF funding in Newfoundland and Labrador include:

PanGeo Subsea (St. John’s) Project: Acoustic Zoom® – A Transformative Deep Imaging Method for High-Resolution Reservoir Characterization PanGeo Subsea will develop the Acoustic Zoom® Method – an innovative seismic exploration tool. The Acoustic Zoom® Method will be used on oil and gas wells in production to provide real-time information to operators on the location and size of the reservoir reserves in 3D. A better, more accurate picture of the reservoir and small pockets can result in more accurate drilling and well completion with a substantial economic benefit. This project, with total estimated costs of $6 million, will receive approximately $3 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a three- year period.

C-CORE (St. John’s) Project: Integrity and Security of Critical Infrastructure C-CORE, in partnership with national and international partners, will conduct R&D in next generation satellite imaging, ground radar technology, and geoscience methods capable of predicting subsurface ground movement. C-CORE will seek to combine the three existing technologies to create a unique space-ground-subsurface method of monitoring critical infrastructure, for structural stability and security purposes. This project, with total estimated costs of $5.3 million, will receive approximately $2.2 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a four- year period.

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
(St. John’s) Project: Responsive Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Localization and Mapping (REALM) Memorial’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science will integrate sonar and advanced navigation and adaptive mission control systems for its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The new technology will enable the AUV to perform high quality seabed surveys to focus on areas of interest, thereby reducing time, energy, cost, and risk of vehicle loss. This project, with estimated total costs of $4 million, will receive approximately $2.1 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a four-year period.

Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John’s) Project: Reducing Seabed Impacts of Bottom Trawls The Marine Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources (C-SAR) will work with its commercial partner Vónin Canada Ltd. in developing and commercializing new bottom trawl fishing technology capable of catching commercial quantities of finfish and shellfish with reduced seabed contact, thereby reducing environmental impact on the seabed. This project, with total estimated costs of $4.2 million, will receive approximately $1.8 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a five-year period.

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Faculty of Medicine, Population Therapeutics Research Group (St. John’s) Project: The Newfoundland Genealogical Toolkit In this project, Memorial’s Population Therapeutics Research Group (PTRG) will develop the Newfoundland Genealogical Toolkit – a state-of-the-art information technology platform able to generate large sample groups (family trees) to conduct studies on the identification of genes implicated in common diseases and research on undesirable drug reactions. The research will help make drugs more effective, optimize drug dosage decisions, and enhance drug therapy. This project, with total estimated costs of
$3.1 million, will receive approximately $1.8 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a three-year period.

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
(St. John’s) Project: High Frequency Radar Ocean Surface Applications (HF-ROSA) Memorial’s Faculty of Engineering and industry partner Northern Radar Inc. will develop software to exploit High Frequency (HF) radar signals to monitor ocean activities, such as identifying the path and speed of ships and icebergs; tracking the drift of oil spills, sediment or other pollution in the upper ocean; assisting search and rescue planning; and supporting oceanographic and climate change research. This project, with total estimated costs of $2.9 million, will receive approximately $1.7 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a four-year period.

AMEC Americas Limited (St. John’s) Project: Net Available Wind Power Forecasting AMEC will develop a unique Net Available Power (NAP) forecasting service that will provide real-time forecasts of the actual power supplied by a wind farm to the local energy grid. With this project, AMEC will set out to address the wind energy industry challenge of accurate forecasting. This project, with total estimated costs of $2.4 million, will receive approximately $1.3 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund over a three-year period.

FOR BROADCAST USE:

National Defence Minister Peter MacKay today released the details of seven projects in Newfoundland and Labrador that are getting up to $13.8 million from ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund.

The Newfoundland and Labrador projects are part of a larger contribution that will see 30 innovative R&D projects receive up to $62.4 million in AIF funding throughout   Atlantic Canada. Project proponents are expected to leverage an additional $49.4 million in funding from a variety of private and public sector sources, bringing the total value of the projects to nearly $112 million. Among the projects funded is bottom trawl fishing technology, as well as autonomous underwater vehicles, high frequency radar applications, and genetics.

The Atlantic Innovation Fund plays an important role in enhancing Atlantic Canada’s ability to carry out leading-edge R&D and bringing new knowledge, new jobs and new business opportunities to Atlantic Canada.

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INFORMATION:
 
Erin Filliter
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of National Revenue, Minister of the 
Atlantic Canada Opportunities
Agency, and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway
613-941-7241

Krista Kelly
Director of Communications, Client Services
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Moncton, New Brunswick
506-851-6403

Dan Dugas
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of National Defence
613-996-3100

Doug Burgess
Director, Communications
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
St. John’s, NL
709-772-2935

 
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR PROJECTS SELECTED FOR AIF FUNDING 
IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR:
 
PanGeo Subsea
Catherina Kennedy
Manager, Corporate Affairs
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-749-1419

C-CORE
Charles Randell
President & CEO
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-737-4011

Faculty of Engineering (REALM)
Dr. Dan Walker
Associate Professor, Ocean and Naval Architectural 
Engineering
Principal Investigator
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-737-8967

Fisheries and Marine Institute
Dr. Paul Winger
Director, C-SAR
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-772-0430
 
Faculty of Medicine
Catherine Street
PTRG Project Manager
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-777-7282

Faculty of Engineering (HF-ROSA)
Dr. Eric Gill
Principal Investigator
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-737-8922

AMEC Americas Limited
David Robbins
Vice President – Technologies
AMEC Earth & Environmental
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
709-722-7023


MEDIA BACKGROUNDER

Bringing Big Ideas to the Marketplace: Atlantic Canada – a 
centre for innovation and commercialization

Atlantic Canada is home to leading-edge research and 
development (R&D) – innovative and successful ideas and 
technology that are essential to the competitiveness and 
productivity of a thriving regional economy. Since 2001, 
the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Atlantic 
Innovation Fund (AIF) has been a primary catalyst in 
promoting innovation throughout Atlantic Canada.

Through the AIF, researchers and entrepreneurs are pursuing 
their goal of bringing ideas to life. These leading-edge 
projects are helping to create jobs, retain and attract top 
talent, and develop and commercialize new, innovative 
technologies that are contributing to Atlantic Canada’s 
economic performance.

In this round, Newfoundland and Labrador’s successful AIF 
proponents will focus their R&D efforts on projects such 
as, improved bottom trawl fishing technology, autonomous 
underwater vehicles, high frequency radar applications, and 
genetics. Atlantic Canada’s innovation capacity is growing 
with critical private-public sector partnerships helping 
drive the development of industry sectors and the region’s 
growth.

Helping to bridge the gap
Researchers and entrepreneurs know there’s no single 
roadmap to commercial success, but the AIF is helping 
bridge the gap from the lab to the marketplace. The AIF is 
enabling the creation and improvement of products, the 
streamlining of processes, the development of a skilled 
workforce, and the commercialization of research.

Many steps and factors must be weighed when commercializing 
knowledge, including the development of ideas and 
partnerships, product development and testing, and market 
launch and production. With support from the AIF, coupled 
with the right mix of talent, timing, hard work and 
determination, Atlantic Canadian ideas are successfully 
navigating the journey from innovation to commercialization.

Innovation at work in Atlantic Canada
One Nova Scotia company that has been pursuing the “big 
idea” with support from the AIF is ImmunoVaccine 
Technologies Inc. (IVT) of Halifax. Incorporated in 2000, 
IVT is dedicated to the commercialization of vaccine 
research carried out at Dalhousie University. The company 
has since patented an innovative vaccine called VacciMax™ 
that has enormous potential for the treatment of various 
forms of cancer. In contrast to chemotherapy, IVT’s vaccine 
works efficiently on the patient’s immune system to destroy 
cancer cells.

Partnerships are key to building the expertise and 
knowledge needed to move R&D projects forward. One such 
partnership has evolved into a business that has caught the 
eyes of the billion dollar petroleum exploration industry. 
The University of New Brunswick, with help from the AIF, 
has created the Institute for Materials Visualization and 
Analysis. After developing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging 
(MRI) technology, researchers at the Institute struck a 
partnership with UNB graduates, Jill and Derrick Green, to 
market the technology under Green Imaging Technologies, 
Inc. (GIT). Already GIT is generating profits, with major 
sales of software products and services throughout the 
world. Building on the success of this partnership, the 
Institute has more recently formed a new partnership with 
GIT and Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Saudi Aramco to 
develop a whole new generation of MRI-based technology for 
petroleum exploration.

Verafin Inc., of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, is 
one of the fastest growing companies in Atlantic Canada. 
Verafin takes artificial intelligence technologies and 
combines them with pattern recognition techniques to 
protect their clients in the financial services industry 
against bank fraud and money laundering. Verafin’s software 
helps nearly 500 financial institutions across North 
America. Verafin currently employs
86 full-time, highly skilled employees including software 
engineers with specialties in artificial intelligence, 
  anti-money laundering and fraud detection. Thanks to 
support from the AIF, Verafin has created opportunities for 
home-grown talent to stay and work here in Atlantic Canada.

A Charlottetown-based company is helping to grow   
Prince Edward Island’s bioscience sector. Thanks to the 
production of novel yeast strains, Phyterra Yeast Inc. is 
helping wine producers prevent the kind of spoilage that 
often occurs during the fermentation process. One Phyterra 
strain is the world’s first and only yeast that reduces the 
formation of ethyl carbamate, a probable human carcinogen 
(a substance that can cause cancer in humans, animals and 
plants)produced by yeast in the fermentation process. With 
support from the AIF, Phyterra completed the critical R&D 
phase of this product, and response from the wine industry 
has prompted Phyterra to go into full-scale production. The 
company recently opened a new manufacturing facility in 
Summerville, Prince Edward Island, and will add 15 new 
employees. Phyterra Yeast Inc. is making fine wine out of 
yeast – we can all toast to that.

Contact information:
Verafin Inc.
Gord Caines
Marketing Department
709-752-3050, ext 3139
Gord.Caines@verafin.com