Funding boosts Nova Scotia innovation trust

Halifax, NS – A $5-million investment by Nova Scotia’s provincial government is being added to the province’s research and innovative trust.

“R&D investments are important to our scientists, our researchers, our economy, and ultimately our residents,” says Ernest Fage, the province’s minister of economic development.

If the budget is approved, the province says it will have invested more than $28 million into the trust since 2001. The Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust works to establish matching funding for provincial research and development projects from national funding programs like the Canada Foundation for Innovation. In the last several years, the trust has successfully secured investments of at least $60 million from national granting councils for Nova Scotia’s research infrastructure.

“Funding under the trust helps Nova Scotia-based projects access the money they need to construct laboratories, purchase equipment and acquire other tools for research,” says Dr Colin Dodds, chair of the trust’s beneficiaries committee. “This work builds the region’s capacity for research and sparks innovation and progress in the province’s economy, from the knowledge-economy and life sciences to the more traditional sectors like agriculture and the fishery.”

The Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust is managed at arm’s length from government by a beneficiaries committee. The committee consists of representatives from the Council of Nova Scotia University Presidents, Nova Scotia Community College, Genome Atlantic and the Life Sciences Development Association. Funding support for the Life Sciences Development Association, Genome Atlantic and the Canada Research Chairs program is also provided for by the trust.