Industry Support

Alberta Innovates
Alberta Innovates is Alberta’s major provincial research and innovation system bringing technology from the lab to market. It offers research and funding opportunities for technology companies, including:

• Alberta Innovates—Technology Futures (AITF)
  Technical R&D support to get ideas or products from an idea stage to being market ready.
  –   Alberta Innovation Voucher: $15,000 or $50,000
      vouchers to develop technology-based ideas.
  –   Industry Associate Program: $55,000 per year up to   
      2 years for business professionals or researchers.
  –   nanoWorks: A $15 million initiative to develop
      market-driven nanotechnology products.
• Alberta Innovates—BioSolutions
  Research support and up to $1 million in funding support per company to helps bio-related clean companies at the pilot and scale-up stages.
• Alberta Innovates—Energy and Environment (AIEES)
  Research and funding support to develop advanced clean technologies that convert Alberta’s natural renewable energy resources into power, fuels and products with added value.
  Contact: www.albertainnovates.ca

AVAC
AVAC Ltd. invests in promising early-stage businesses focused on value added agribusiness, renewable energy, environmental technologies, agricultural bio-products and nanotechnology. AVAC has invested in and provided guidance to more than 110 early-stage companies including Synodon (p.44) and Highmark Renewables (p.16). Contact: www.avacltd.com  Calgary: 403.274.2774, Edmonton: 780.485.2411

CETAC-WEST helps companies develop and commercialize new cleantech and environmental technologies.
Contact: www.cetacwest.com, 403.777.9586

Climate Change Central
Climate Change Central is a non-profit organization that empowers Albertans to take action on climate change through energy efficiency and small scale renewable energy projects. It provides education, consumer rebate programs and demonstration projects. The organization has also been instrumental in the collective effort of developing a provincial carbon market, the first in Canada.
Contact: www.climatechangecentral.com, Simon Knight, CEO, 403.517.2700

Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC)
With $186 million in funding, each May and August CCEMC (more p.74) looks for proposals from companies for innovative projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help Alberta adapt to climate change. The companies don’t need to be Alberta based but the projects must apply technology in Alberta. Companies that have received CCEMC funding include Evergreen Energy (p.37) and May-Ruben Thermal Solutions (p.43), Enerkem (p.55) and ENMAX (pp.11, 31).
Contact: www.ccemc.ca, Kirk Andries, Managing Director, 780.417.1920

NRC Industrial Research Assistance (NRC-IRAP)
Through technical and business advisory and financial assistance, this Canada-wide program supports small and medium-sized companies in Canada in the development of technologies and their successful commercialize in a global marketplace. IRAP has helped many companies profiled in this book including Motive Industries (p.27).
Contact: www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irap.html, 1.877.994.4727

Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC)
SDTC helps to finance and support clean technology projects through two key funds. SDTech Fund ($550 million) supports the critical middle development stage between research and commercialization. NextGen Biofuels Fund ($500 million) supports large scale projects for the production of next generation renewable fuels. Profiled companies with SDTC funding include Highmark Renewables (p.16), Whitefox Technologies (p.17), Lancaster Wind Systems (p.21), Wind Smart (p.22), New Energy (p.25), Quantiam (p.43), Synodon (p.44) and Titanium (p.73).
Contact: www.sdtc.ca, 613.234.6313

NanoBridge
NanoBridge has $6.4 million to fund early-stage commercialization of microsystems and nanotechnology opportunities.
Contact: www.nanobridge.ca, Dr. Eric Flaim, 780.709.3742

NRC National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT)
NINT can assist companies with nanotechnology or advanced material projects by providing access to research expertise and commercialization support.
There are also funding sources available.
Contact: http://nint-innt.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca, 780.641.1600

Pembina Institute
This Canadian think-tank works to advance sustainable and renewable energy through innovative research, education, consulting and advocacy.
Contact: www.pembinainstitute.org, 780.485.9610, 403.269.3344

Regional Innovation Network System
Coordinated by TECEdmonton (www.TECedmonton.com, 780.492.8977, 1.888.492.8977), this is a one-stop place to find the right business and technical resources that help companies transform technological ideas into business opportunities: 

• ACAMP (microsystems & nanotechology), www.acamp.ca
• AMIF (micromachining & nanofabrication), www.amif.ca
• Calgary Technologies, www.calgarytechnologies.com
• Community Futures, www.entre-corp.com
• Grand Prairie Regional College, Research & Innovation, www.thecri.ca
• Lakeland College, www.lakelandcollege.ca
• Lethbridge College, Terry Royer Institute, 403.320.3336
• Mount Royal University, Office of Research Services, 403.440.5081
• NanoFab (micromachining & nanofabrication), www.nanofab.ualberta.ca
• Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI), www.nabi.ca
• NovaNAIT (prototyping), www.nait.ca/nsmc
• Red Deer College, Innovation in Manufacturing, www.rdc.ab.ca/innovation
• SAIT, Applied Research & Innovation Services, www.sait.ca/appliedresearch
• TEC Edmonton, www.tecedmonton.com
• University of Lethbridge, www.uleth.ca/rch/tto/tto.cfm
• University Technologies Inc. (UTI), www.uti.ca
• Westlink Innovation Network , www.westlink.ca 

WADE Canada (Canada’s Alliance for Decentralized Energy)
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), we lose 10% of our electricity when it travels from a power plant through transmission and distribution lines. Globally that loss would have powered Germany, the UK and France in 1999 (IEA)—it’s a very big waste. An old idea that’s new again and growing is creating, using and storing heating, cooling and/or electricity where it’s used, such as renewable energy used to power a house, biomass used to heat several buildings (p.14), and cogeneration used by an industrial operation that generates its own electricity and recovers the waste heat for increased efficiency (p.40). WADE Canada is an industry association that is increasing decentralized energy capacity by bridging the gap between market demand and optimum technology solutions.
Contact: www.wadecanada.ca, Anouk Kendall, President, 403.210.53