NanoQuebec and PAPRICAN ink first in several planned sectoral agreements

NanoQuebec has signed a groundbreaking agreement with the forestry sector in the first of several agreements with traditional industrial sectors throughout the province. The three-year pact with the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN) aims to identify nanotechnology applications that can be developed for use by forestry companies and create linkages between industry and the university research community.

The agreement’s outcomes will feed into an overall nanotechnology action plan for Quebec that, in turn, will be positioned as part of a larger national strategy currently being considered by Ottawa.

PAPRICAN will serve as a conduit to the associations representing the other components of the forestry industry – Forintek Canada Corp and the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC). The agreement commits to the joint development of a nanotechnology roadmap, the establishment of a forestry sector table and identification of targeted applications with economic potential. Action on these initiatives is expected to get underway by the fall.

“We need to lay out a long-tern strategic framework where we begin to see the opportunities and develop those that are important to Quebec and Canadian industry,” says NanoQuebec DG Dr Clive Willis. “As opportunities arise, we will use existing program money and seek new funding and use this to interest the private sector to invest jointly with us.”

For the forestry industry, the opportunity to collaborate with Quebec and Canadian researchers provides an opportunity to build on its participation in an international roadmapping exercised organized by the US Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry. That process is nearly complete, providing valuable insight that can be adapted for Quebec and Canada.

“We’ll use sources of information that are already out there and add the relevant pieces for Canada,” says Dr Joseph Wright, PAPRICAN’s president and CEO. “This is a sign of the times and PAPRICAN is looking forward to new long-term opportunities.”

Along with biotechnology, nanotechnology has the potential to dramatically redefine product lines of the forestry industry, Wright says developing nanotechnology research linkages will lead to cutting-edge projects by building upon existing R&D efforts.

“Many technologies that we’ve worked on for years at PAPRICAN have been at the microscopic level. The opportunities for functional and high-performance papers are fairly significant,” he says. “Nanotechnol-ogy can help to tie functionality to printing machines and the inks in the printing process.”

FOCUS ON TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES

NanoQuebec’s agreement with PAPRICAN is the first in a series of pacts that will be announced in the coming months. An agreement with energy sector is just weeks away from completion with a host of firms including Hydro-Québec and Gaz Métro. In development are agreements with the mining industry (in conjunction with British Columbia) and the agri-food sector, to be followed by the transportation, telecommunications and microelectronics industries. In each case, the agreement will include the development of a roadmap and identification of key research themes.

“All these roadmaps will give us a very good panorama of the opportunities for nanotechnology. And they will allow the university research community to orient themselves to industry needs,” says Willis. “PAPRICAN is the ideal model partner. It will help us build some reality behind this for the average citizen ... The visibility the agreement will provide is a key deliverable.”

To help move forward on its sectoral collaborations and support of key infrastructure, NanoQuebec is seeking a one-year funding extension from Valorisation-Recherche Québec. The extra year will also give the federal government time to decide on its course of action for nanotechnology. Willis says that whatever vehicle Ottawa decides to use, it must involve the private sector in a substantive way.

“The focus must be on the industrial applications side,” he says. “It must come to fruition by FY06-07. If we wait any longer, we’re wasting our time trying to compete internationally with nanotechnology.”

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