Catching the supercluster wave

Atlantic Canadian initiative makes shortlist for $950 million program

It’s far from a done deal, but it’s still great news an Atlantic Canadian initiative to build up this region’s already impressive ocean sector has made Ottawa’s shortlist for a piece of up to $950 million in funding to jump-start as many as five industry superclusters across Canada.

The Ocean Supercluster — an industry-led consortium including players from aquaculture, defence, fisheries, marine renewable energy, ocean technology, oil and gas, shipbuilding and transportation, partnering with entrepreneurs, governments and post-secondary institutions — was named Tuesday as one of nine national finalists for funding through the federal government’s Innovation Supercluster Initiative (ISI).

The idea is to have companies and other partners in a sector collaborate to drive things like innovation, startups and market growth. According to the Ocean Supercluster, the ocean sector accounts for up to 20 per cent of this region’s economy.

“If selected as one of Canada’s five superclusters, the Ocean Supercluster would energize Canada’s ocean economy by investing in digital ocean technologies that will increase Canada’s competitiveness and create middleclass jobs for this generation and the next,” Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said in prepared remarks at the Steele Ocean Sciences Building at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

The consortium includes companies like Emera, Clearwater, Irving Shipbuilding, IBM, Kraken Sonar, Metamaterials, Ocean Works and many others, along with research institutions like Dalhousie University, Memorial University, University of New Brunswick, University of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia Community College, the Ocean Frontier Institute, Royal Canadian Navy, the Fundy Ocean Centre for Energy (FORCE) and quite a few federal departments and labs.

The Ocean Supercluster is the only finalist from this region, which — if Ottawa doesn’t want to leave Atlantic Canada out of this major initiative to build national centres for growth and competitiveness — would seem to bode well for its success.

But nothing should be taken for granted. The Ocean Supercluster group must prepare a final proposal by later this fall. Ottawa is expected to announce its final choices by the end of March 2018.

The funding, up to nearly $1 billion, would run to 2022.