NanoCanada seeks to unify extensive nanotech assets to assist industry

Six hubs may expand to eight

Canada is racing to pull the country's disparate nanotech hubs together in a unified whole to catch up with the world's leading nanotechnology nations. NanoCanada — officially launched earlier this year and currently applying for not-for-profit status — is positioning itself to be that unifying vehicle by emphasizing industry commercialization and connections between nanotechnology hubs across Canada and the globe.

Canada is one of the few nanotech-endowed nations without a national strategy, making the initiative all the more critical as nanotechnology rapidly evolves into myriad sectors with new applications emerging with increasing frequency.

Spearheaded by Dr Marie D'Iorio, executive director of the Edmonton-based National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT), the initiative has attracted interest from all sectors. NanoCanada and Industry Canada held a successful workshop in Ottawa last March — Commercialization of Nanotechnology in Canada — and is leveraging that insight to develop and implement a strategic plan.

"Nanotechnology is disruptive and will be embedded in everything we do. The changes in the field over the past few years have been dramatic," says Patricia Tokunaga, NanoCanada's partnership manager. "Having that national unified voice on the international stage is something we need to emphasize and work towards. It's also about helping industry focus and have the tools to solve their problems."

NanoCanada currently links six nano-tech hubs across Canada — the latest being NanoAtlantic which self-organized just two months ago. Hubs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are expected within the next 12 months. (Saskatchewan is currently using the Canadian Light Source as a de facto hub).

NanoCanada anticipates an annual budget of between $600,000 and $1 million and is currently seeking funding from public and private sources.

Underpinning the Canadian nanotech ecosystem is a bedrock of relatively well funded research and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Accurate and up-to-date data are hard to come by, but the best estimates indicate that government funding reached $232 million in 2011 and $263 million in 2012 with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canada Foundation for Innovation as primary sources.

"There's no actual NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) for nanotechnology so it's hard to say exactly how much is being invested," says Tokunaga. "Aerospace does nanotech but it's not broken out. Industry Canada wants the data but it's hard to pinpoint. Statistics Canada provides a ballpark but not an individual figure."

While NanoCanada's biggest opportunity is realizing the ability of the nanotech community to speak with a unified voice, its biggest challenge is research funding. Tokunaga says that while the research community should look to industry to inform its work, the research base needs increased support to keep the pipeline flowing. She adds that industry will go wherever the best solutions emerge.

"Industry needs answers and they could be here in Canada. But they could also be elsewhere so we need to connect with bigger, more established networks," she says.

That's why NanoCanada is pushing for an international conference in Canada within the next 18 months. Inspired by the bi-annual Nano-Israel conference, the conference would address what's perceived to be nanotech's poorly understood value proposition, and the need for public support for a nascent field.

Powerful clusters

Arguably the two largest nanotech hubs in Canada are NINT and the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology (WIN).

NINT is a joint initiative of the Univ of Alberta, the National Research Council and the Government of Alberta, which launched nanoAlberta in 2007 and provided it with $130 million over five years. nanoAlberta is now under the umbrella of Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.

WIN is situated in a new $160-million facility and — like NINT — helps to anchor a growing regional nanotech cluster.

"Canada is very well equipped," said D'Iorio at a recent CMC Microsystems symposium in Gatineau, adding that all science-based departments and agencies are engaged. D'Iorio said NanoCanada will be promoting Canadian expertise at a major trade show in Sao Paulo Brazil later this month as well as at Nano Tech 2016, the 15th International Nanotechnology Exhibition & Conference in Tokyo in January.

"NanoCanada will help SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) to grab on to what's out there, whether its networks or bigger players," says Tokunaga. "Marie (D'Iorio) is the glue that holds it all together. The calibre of people she has brought together is extremely high and she has a passion for unifying expertise across the country."

For the time being, D'Iorio will serve as NanoCanada's interim executive director.

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