Member Organizations

Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures (Tech Futures) is part of Alberta’s research and innovation system and is helping build healthy, sustainable businesses in the province. Through a suite of programs and services for entrepreneurs, companies, researchers and investors, Tech Futures is a one-stop shop that provides technical services and funding support to facilitate the commercialization of technologies, to develop new knowledge-based industry clusters and to establish an entrepreneurial-based culture in Alberta. Tech Futures’ business is to build globally competitive commerce in Alberta through facilitating the commercial use of new technologies, developing new knowledge-based industry clusters and encouraging an entrepreneurial culture in Alberta. Tech Futures’ vision is to leverage technology in order to make Alberta a great place to be, now and for future generations.

When Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures was created on January 1, 2010. It was built from the successes of the former Alberta Ingenuity, Alberta Research Council, iCORE, and nanoAlberta.

Building upon this foundation, Tech Futures helps technical industries find solutions, develop products and move technologies to market.

It’s building on Alberta’s already established advantage in platform technologies – like nanotechnology, information communications technologies and genomics – to enhance the technical capacity within Alberta’s hightech companies. It’s facilitating access to the strengths of our key partners that help support commercialization and grow new ventures.

It’s investing in and attracting research and entrepreneurial talent who can support these priorities.

Established in 1987 as the PEI Food Technology Centre, BIO|FOOD|TECH is a confidential, contract research, processing and analytical services company located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. BIO|FOOD|TECH provides professional technical services to the food and bioprocessing industries from concept to pilot to market through three integrated business divisions: Food Technology, Bioscience Technology and Lab Services. Their professional team is made up of food and bioprocessing scientists, microbiologists, technologists and support staff.

Core services:

Food Technology: BIO|FOOD|TECH maintains a food industry leadership role by adapting to changes in raw materials and processing technologies. Besides new product and process development, the Food Technology division also provides integrated services such as shelf-life studies, processing equipment rental, pilot plant rental, equipment assessments and private innovation workshops for clients.

Bioscience Technology: BIO|FOOD|TECH is a contract provider of lab and pilot plant-scale fermentation, extraction, isolation and purification services for bioactives used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, food products and animal health. The Bioscience Technology division helps minimize process optimization costs and will help bridge the gap between discoveries and full-scale commercialization.

Lab Services: On-site accredited microbial analysis is performed to support companies' food safety systems, in-plant support and troubleshooting. On-site nutrition label service is provided for both Canadian and United States labels. Lab Services also delivers food safety training workshops.

The Centre de recherche industrielle du Québec (CRIQ) is a leading source of innovation and expertise in manufacturing technologies, the environment, industrial information and standardization. CRIQ plays an important role in the economy by supporting Quebec industries with their innovation goals, therefore providing them the means to become leaders in national and international markets.

CRIQ provides specialized services in developing manufacturing processes, environmental technologies and industrial equipment. It also provides product qualification tests, product certification, industrial and technological information, as well as standardization, certification and registration of International Standards Organization (ISO) systems.

CRIQ employs more than 250 people in its Québec City and Montréal facilities. Two thirds are engineers, technologists, chemists and agronomy specialists. Each year these professionals undertake some 800 projects on behalf of CRIQ’s 1,000 clients.

FPInnovations is Canada's leading not-for-profit forest products innovation centre which performs R&D, technical services and tech transfer activities relating to wood harvesting, wood products, pulp and paper, nanotechnology and bio-energy and chemical production.

FPInnovations' hallmark is tackling issues and opportunities along the full length of the forest sector value chain. FPInnovations provides a sector-wide voice on issues of global importance to the Canadian forest industry and its customers. FPInnovations assists companies in product development by designing flexible and competitive forestry and transportation processes, advanced wood products, next generation pulps, papers and nanoproducts. It also helps create new energy and chemical products from forest biomass.

FPInnovations employs 550 people and has research laboratories in Québec City, Montréal, Vancouver and technology transfer offices across Canada.

The Industrial Technology Centre (ITC) provides a wide range of technical services in support of technology-based economic development in Manitoba.

ITC customers include Manitoba industry, entrepreneurs and government departments and agencies. Services are provided on a fee-for-service basis under the Economic Development Contribution Agreement (EDCA). The EDCA is a performance contract with Manitoba Innovation, Energy and Mines (IEM) to support ITC's contribution to Manitoba's economic development activities. Clients seeking specific technical assistance may be existing or start-up enterprises and range in size from individuals to large corporations. ITC's services include: technical information and advisory services; engineering; lottery ticket testing; and an advanced visualization centre.

Established in 1979, ITC operates under IEM. ITC uses the economic development contribution from the province of Manitoba to support technical information and advice, library services and infrastructure for testing, product development and the Advanced Visualization Centre. These services support small- and medium-sized enterprises that have limited R&D resources.

National Optics Institute (INO) is a world-class centre of expertise in industrial applications for optics and photonics. As a leading technology developer and provider, INO is home to Canada's largest concentration of skills in these fields.

Based in Québec City, INO offers a complete range of optics/photonics services to clients of all sizes in every industry field of activity. More than 80 per cent of INO's 225 employees possess high-level scientific and technical training.

The Institute excels in the specialized fields of optics and photonics, biophotonics, bolometers and IR modules, 3D sensors, fibre sensors, optical design, beam shaping, specialty optical fibres, lasers, fibre lasers, vision systems, MEMS/MOEMS, laser micromachining, lidar and remote sensing, technologies for space and astronomy and applied spectroscopy.

INO's strong intellectual property (IP) portfolio is the basis for a variety of technologies and innovative processes. These assets represent unique commercialization opportunities for companies.

The National Research Council (NRC) is the Government of Canada's premier organization for research and development. NRC has been active since 1916.

NRC comprises more than 20 institutes and national programs, spanning a wide variety of disciplines and offering a broad array of services. Located in every province of Canada, NRC plays a major role in stimulating community-based innovation. NRC institutes and programs are organized into five key areas:

Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Engineering
Technology and Industry Support
Corporate Management

NRC employs close to 4,280 people across Canada, providing substantial resources to help Canada become one of the world's top five R&D performers. NRC also benefits from the efforts of guest workers, drawn from Canadian and foreign universities, companies and public and private sector organizations.

As an agency of the Government of Canada, NRC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Industry and is governed by a council of appointees drawn from its client community.

The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) leads the province in providing applied R&D and technology commercialization. It has supplied Smart Science Solutions™ in Saskatchewan for over 60 years.

Established in 1947 to advance physical sciences in Saskatchewan, SRC is now a market-driven company that sells services and products to companies in Saskatchewan and around the world.

SRC has five business divisions serving clients across these strategic Saskatchewan sectors: Agriculture, Biotechnology and Food; Alternative Energy and Manufacturing; Energy; Environment and Forestry; and Mining and Minerals.

SRC operates more than 33,500 square metres of bench-scale laboratories and pilot-scale facilities. Its 400 plus skilled employees serve more than 1,950 clients and partners. SRC’s 2009-10 annual economic impact assessment shows that it achieved more than $542 million in direct economic benefit to Saskatchewan. Its work also created or maintained over $54-million worth of jobs.