The Government of Canada is awarding more than $39 million over three years to doctoral and post-doctoral recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships and Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, which help Canadian institutions attract and retain highly qualified doctoral students in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering and health research fields. The programs are administered by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and funded through CIHR, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. – GoC
Organizations:
Alberta Data Institute, Algolux, Atlas Aéronautik, Autism Sharing Initiative, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, BDC Capital, Business-Led Network of Centres of Excellence, CAE, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Canadian Aviation Electronics, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, CBRE, Chrysalis Ventures, Claritas Capital, Collins Aerospace, COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, DCVC (Data Collective), De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, diaMentis, Drive Capital, Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative, Eureka, Export Development Canada, Forte Ventures, Government of Canada, Government of Quebec, Green Aviation Research & Development Network (GARDN), Innovation, ITEA3, National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, Natural Resource Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Pender Ventures, Philips, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Protein Industries Canada, Réseau des Femmes d’affaires du Québec, Science and Economic Development Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Swift Medical, Symvivo Corporation, The Ottawa Hospital, University of British Columbia, University of Ottawa, Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group, Virgo Investment Group, and XCO Tech
People:
Topics:
aeronautics, artificial intelligence, Autism Sharing Initiative, aviation technology, Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster, carbon offsetting, clean energy innovation, Climate Change, Copyright Act, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine development, data use, National Quantum Strategy, National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, protein industries supercluster, public consultations, technology and innovation, and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
The Short Report - July 21, 2021: Canada's fast-growing tech talent, UBC joins global autism initiative, and more
Cindy GrahamJuly 21, 2021
COLLABORATION, INNOVATION & FUNDING
The Government of Canada is investing $2.6 million to support Canadian Forage and Grassland Association projects that will use artificial intelligence to improve alfalfa growth and survival rates. The Canadian Agricultural Strategic Priorities Program is contributing nearly $2 million to develop tools to improve yield, nutritive value and winter survival rates while the AgriAssurance Program will contribute more than $600,000 to develop an assurance system to produce and sell carbon offsets. – GoC
The Government of Canada is investing $1.65 million over the next three years to launch a regional climate hub in Sackville, New Brunswick that will integrate climate information, data, tools and training to help businesses, community organizations and governments in the Atlantic provinces adapt to climate change. – GoC
Manitoba's Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative, the Alberta Data Institute and the Protein Industries Canada supercluster are collaborating with other partners to improve data use and drive innovation in Canada’s agriculture and agrifood sector. A total of $903,000 is being invested in the project, with Protein Industries Canada investing $438,000 and the project participants together investing $465,000. – PIC
CANADA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR QUEBEC REGIONS FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) is contributing $1 million (repayable) through its Regional Economic Growth through Innovation (REGI) program to aeronautics manufacturer Atlas Aéronautik to digitize and expand. – GoC
CED is contributing $1 million (repayable) through the REGI program to Quebec City-based diaMentis to advance its study and certification process in mental health diagnostics. – GoC
CED will also contribute more than $1 million (non-repayable) through REGI to Réseau des Femmes d’affaires du Québec through the to boost the performance of women‑owned businesses across all Quebec regions, by helping them access potential clients and diversify their markets. – GoC
REPORTS & CONSULTATIONS
RELATED: Engagement paper: Developing a National Quantum Strategy
Meanwhile, the Government of Canada is also launching a public consultation on modernizing Canada's copyright framework to address developments in artificial intelligence and the growth of IoT (Internet of Things) and software-enabled devices. Participants have until September 17, 2021 to share input. – GoC
RELATED: Federal government launches consultation to study AI copyright rules
The Green Aviation Research & Development Network (GARDN), part of the former Business-Led Network of Centres of Excellence, ended operations on June 18th. Started in 2009, GARDN collaborated on 34 R&D green aviation projects worth $70 million, published 420 papers and trained 90 students for industry. – GARDN
COVID-19 & HEALTH NEWS
The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group, is investing more than $8 million on studies at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa. Two studies, led by Dr. Glenwood Goss and Dr. Arianne Buchan, will look at vaccine efficacy in cancer patients; another study, led by Dr. Juthaporn Cowan, will examine COVID-19 vaccine efficacy in people with inherited and medication-related immune deficiencies. Meanwhile, a study led by Dr. Angela Crawley that examines the duration of immunity will expand into 2022. – COVID-19 Immunity Task Force
XCO Tech (Penticton) will receive funding of up to $1 million from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program over the next three years to advance R&D of artificial intelligence-based technologies for chronic disease assessment and monitoring. XCO is the Canadian lead in the 37-member, $21-million INNO4HEALTH multinational consortium, which advances the adoption of remote monitoring technologies worldwide. The project is led by Philips (Netherlands) and coordinated by ITEA3 (Netherlands), the Eureka R&D cluster for software innovation. – Cision
British Columbia biotech company Symvivo Corporation (Burnaby) is receiving advisory services and R&D funding of up to $4.6 million from the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support clinical advancement of an oral COVID-19 vaccine following previous NRC IRAP-funding that enabled the development and initial clinical assessment of this candidate. – Symvivo
The University of British Columbia is joining the Autism Sharing Initiative, a federated, global network of researchers using anonymized datasets to gain insights on genetics and autism. Dr. Suzanne Lewis is leading efforts at UBC and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute for the initiative, which is supported by Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster. – UBC
FINANCE, VC & INVESTMENT
Wound care management startup Swift Medical (Toronto) has raised nearly $44 million in an all-equity round led by California-based Virgo Investment Group. DCVC (Data Collective), which led Swift’s Series A round, also participated in the latest round alongside BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund. Other participating investors include Claritas Capital, Chrysalis Ventures, Pender Ventures and Export Development Canada. – Swift Medical
Montréal-based computer vision startup Algolux has raised C$23 million (US$18.4 million) in a Series B funding round co-led by Forte Ventures and Drive Capital. – Algolux
THE GRAPEVINE
Neil Berkley has been appointed chief business officer of antibody therapeutics company AbCellera (Vancouver). Mr. Berkley’s role will include leading the strategy and continued growth of AbCellera’ s partnership business, which currently includes a diverse portfolio of more than 100 programs with drug developers of all sizes. – AbCellera
Other News
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