The Canadian government announces investments for innovation in Manitoba 

The Government of Canada is creating targeted investments in western Canadian non-profit organizations through the Western Economic Diversification Canada to be able to assist businesses to grow and compete.

Recently, Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada announced $3,733,065 in non-repayable funding for two plans at the University of Manitoba through the Regional Innovation Ecosystems program.

• University of Manitoba (Digital Agriculture) is getting $2,499,565 to grow its agricultural research and training capacity for students in collaboration with industry partners. This will be done through the development and adoption of Digital Smart Farm technology, while utilizing knowledge transfer from academia to industry. This project also has funding from collaborators who are into the crop and soil management, sustainability, and precision agriculture industries in Western Canada. The total project cost is $5,005,971.

• The university’s Lab2Market is getting $1,233,500 to develop and deliver this Lab2Market initiative to improve research commercialization performance. This will add to technology transfer exercises and expedite training of graduates, post-doctoral students, and researchers to guide them to commercialize their innovations effortlessly. This project also has funding from MITACS, North Forge Technology Exchange, Ryerson University, Dalhousie University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Manitoba. The total project cost is $2,504,600.

The Government of Canada is committed to focusing on regional innovation ecosystems by assisting synergies between academia and industry, resulting in the highest sector growth. These investments are expected to result in growing industry/academic partnerships, research and development expenditures, Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) trained, and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) assisted.