New competition to fund centres of excellence in commercialization and research

Edmonton, AB – The federal government today launched a national competition to fund new Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research.(CECR)

The competition will determine which organizations obtain a share of the $165 million set aside in the last federal budget for the CECR program. The successful organizations will develop centres of excellence in the following four areas:

– Environmental science and technologies;
– Natural resources and energy;
– Health and related life sciences and technologies; and
– Information and communications technologies.

The competition is open to not-for-profit corporations created by universities, colleges, not-for-profit research organizations, firms and other interested non-government parties. Centres wishing to obtain funding must begin by sending letters of intent, by August 20, 2007, that describe, among other things, the expected research and/or commercialization benefits for the proposed project.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the government’s commitment to supporting an environment in which ideas can grow into research, and research can grow into business opportunities,” says Dr Suzanne Fortier, chair of the Network of Centres of Excellence Steering Committee and president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The ideas are out there. The entrepreneurs are out there. We just have to bring the two together and ‘wow’ the world.”