Nanotechnology projects to share nearly $700,000 in funding

Montreal, QC – NanoQuebec has awarded eight projects funding under the organization’s collaborative industry-university nanotechnology research program. The projects were selected from among 18 research projects submitted for evaluation.

The organization says it will set aside a budget of $696,000 to fund the projects over the next two years. The funding is conditional on the projects being accepted for support by the funding partners named in the respective applications, NSERC, the NRC and Precarn.

“The quality of the 18 proposals received is eloquent testimony to the importance and dynamism of such collaborative projects,” said Sylvain Cofsky, NanoQuebec’s interim CEO. “The projects selected for support mesh particularly well with NanoQuebec’s new positioning strategy, which seeks to focus on specific activities with strong potential for innovation.”

Three of the chosen projects involve the transportation sector: one is led by Dr Philippe Merle of Concordia University (in collaboration with MPB Communications, aerospace and photonics division), one is led by Dr Jolanta Klemberg-Sapieha of Ecole Polytechnique (in collaboration with McGill University, Universite de Sherbrooke, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Dac Aviation) and the third by Nanox (in partnership with Universite Laval, Institut de Transport Avance du Quebec (ITAQ) and Lapointe Systeme).

Two projects focus on the life sciences: one led by Dr L’Hocine Yahia of Ecole Polytechnique (in collaboration with McGill University, CHUM, NMD2 and Innovox), and one led by Dr Maryam Tabrizian of McGill University (in collaboration with the Industrial Materials Institute, MDS Pharma and Hydro-Quebec).

Another two projects are related to the forestry sector: one is led by Paprican (in collaboration with McGill University, the University of Toronto, Abitibi-Consolidated, Kruger and Tembec) and one is led by Forintek (in collaboration with Universit Laval, Laurentide and Sico).

Finally, one of the selected projects is in the field of production processes and is led by Tekna Systemes Plasma (in collaboration with Universite de Sherbrooke).