The Short Report - July 6, 2022: Funding to address trauma in frontline workers, a name change for the superclusters initiative, topping up patient-oriented research in Sask. and Manitoba, a new ED for SNOLAB, and more.

HEALTH NEWS

The Government of Canada is investing more than $28 million in nine projects that address post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma in frontline and essential workers, and others whose mental health has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding includes nearly $3 million for the Lawson Health Research Institute's MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre in London, ON to adapt and optimize a resilience and mental health training program and nearly $3 million in funding for a McMaster University program that will help individuals recognize trauma and stress-related experiences and support healthcare workers affected by trauma and PTSD. The project will reach approximately 75,000 healthcare workers across 708 public hospitals in Canada. GOC

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) has been designated as the first establishment in Quebec to offer islet cell transplants, a non-invasive treatment for Type 1 diabetes. The designation from Quebec's Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) allows MUHC to improve access to the procedure and treat more individuals. Dr. Steven Paraskevas is head of the MUHC Human Islet Transplantation Laboratory at MUHC, and development of the program was provided by the McGill University Health Centre Foundation, the Montreal General Hospital Foundation, the Research Institute of the MUHC, Transplant Quebec, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. MUHC

CIHR, in partnership with Eisai Limited and Mitacs, is contributing nearly $4 million to support a consortium of two interdisciplinary research teams who will identify biological and behavioural measures of sleep and sleep disorders, and conduct clinical research into the prevention, detection and management of insomnia. The research is meant to inform clinical practice and deliver resources directly to people with insomnia, to schools and universities, work settings, Indigenous communities, hospitals, and other care settings. Dr. Charles Morin, professor of psychology and Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Sleep Medicine at Université Laval’s Brain Research Centre will lead the consortium and mental health program. Dr. Penny Corkum at Dalhousie University will lead the Sleep Across the Life Cycle program.  GOC

The Government of Canada is investing more than $2 million to support a three-year University of Waterloo research project that will enhance the ability of Canada’s search and rescue system to better respond when people living with dementia go missing. The project will fill a gap in Canadian data, since much of the data available on wandering is from the United States. The project is meant to build capacity and understanding within the search and rescue community, build research partnerships, and increase systemic coordination. GOC

GOVERNMENT FUNDING NEWS

Federal funding of almost $26 million through Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) will advance new technologies for small and medium sized (SME) businesses in Sakatchewan's advanced manufacturing, digital technology, agriculture and agri-food production, and health and safety sectors. PrairiesCan is investing more than $13 million for eight projects through the Business Scale-up and Productivity (BSP) program and nearly $13 million for three projects under the Jobs and Growth Fund (JGF). Projects included in the BSP program funding include Northern Nutrients (Saskatoon, nearly $4 million to acquire equipment for specialty fertilizer manufacturing) and Kasiel Solutions (Saskatoon, more than $250,000 to expand its lone worker safety solution). Projects receiving JGF funding include Coconut Software Corporation (Saskatoon, $5 million to expand its on-demand appointment-scheduling platform) and LyteHorse Labs (Regina, almost $3 million to commence and scale-up production of its electric all terrain utility vehicle). GOC Backgrounder

PrairiesCan is also contributing $2.65 million towards a social innovation hub focused on finding solutions to social problems, such as climate change and homelessness, through collaboration and research. Operated by Innovate Calgary, the University of Calgary's innovation transfer and business incubator, the Social Innovation Hub will offer support for startup creation, innovator coaching and training, opportunities for students to connect with founders and social purpose organizations, specialized programming, and access to investment capital via U of C's early-stage investment program, UCeed Social Impact. UCalgary

The Canadian Space Agency has made upwards of $3.5 million in funding available for R&D through a Space Technology Development Program (STDP) opportunity, "AO 7.3 Space R&D". The program will provide organizations with a maximum non-repayable contribution of $500,000 for each project that promises commercial potential within five to ten years. The deadline for applications is August 12, with an estimated project start date of Dec. 1, 2022. Space Q

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau announced an investment from the AgriScience Program, a federally funded initiative under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, of nearly $1.7 million in Sulvaris (Calgary) to further develop technology to produce high-efficiency fertilizers made with organic carbon. Sulvaris' technology allows for a more efficient uptake of nutrients and reduces the amount of unabsorbed nutrients left in the soil, reducing the risk of GHG emissions or watercourse contamination. GOC

VC INVESTMENT NEWS

Early stage investor Inovia Capital (Montreal) has raised more than $418 million for its fifth early-stage investor fund, bringing its total managed capital to $2.8 billion. Inovia was the lead investor in artificial intelligence health startup Signal 1 AI's (Toronto) seed financing round, contributing nearly $13 million. Inovia says it will continue to invest in mainly software-as-a-service and business-to-business companies, as well as retail and commerce, travel, and digital health. PressReader

Waterloo educational technology platform ApplyBoard, the online platform for international student recruitment, has been named Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX)'s 2022 Innovator of the Year. CIX's annual curation program and conference, which showcases promising early stage and scaling startups, gives the award annually to a Canadian company that "disrupts and transforms an industry in profound ways." CIX

OTHER NEWS

Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne has given the federal government's Innovation Supercluster Initiative a new name. Champagne says “Global Innovation Clusters” better reflects the aim and objectives of the cluster funding program, whose agencies are focused on digital technology, protein industries, advanced manufacturing, ocean industries and bringing advanced technology to supply chains. The Globe and Mail

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has granted a 12-year renewal of the Class IB nuclear substance processing facility operating licence held by Pembroke, ON-based SRB Technologies (SRBT). SRBT manufactures self luminous lighting products that use capsules filled with tritium gas, a relatively weak source of beta radiation produced naturally and also as a by-product of electrical generating stations, as a source of illumination. The decision follows a public hearing and the renewed licence authorizes SRBT to continue operating its gaseous tritium light source (GTLS) manufacturing facility, and to distribute GTLS and radiation devices in Canada and internationally. GOC

A study for IT solutions provider CDW Canada says 27% of Canadian companies are only considered "emerging" in their cybersecurity postures, which means they have manually intensive and not well-documented security processes, a small dedicated security team or no one dedicated with security responsibilities, and an “elementary and decentralized” security stack. By comparison, 43 per cent of Canadian organizations would rank as having an intermediate security posture, 17 per cent have an advanced security posture and only 12 per cent have a leading security posture. Among other key findings: within each of the four categories, 53 per cent of those ranked as having only emerging maturity were medium and large organizations while another 28 per cent were small firms. CDW Security Study IT World Canada

Kitchener-based semiconductor product supplier PEER Group opened a 372 square metre (4,000 square foot) office in downtown Toronto last month and plans to hire 40 new employees by the end of 2022. Demand for semiconductor products and solutions has increased in recent years in part due to the global chip shortage affecting several technology industries. Communitech

THE GRAPEVINE

Vicky Sharpe, founding president and former CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), has received Corporate Knights' Award of Distinction for catalyzing green venture capital in Canada. The award is presented "to leaders who have made a substantial contribution to advancing the conditions required for a sustainable economy." Sharpe increased SDTC's public funding pool from $100 million in 2001 to more than $1.4 billion in 2014 while CEO of SDTC. She built a roster of 280 companies and enabled more than $4 billion of investments for project and commercialization activities in clean technology innovations. Corporate Knights

Dr. Khalid Al-Zahrani has received the 2021 H.L. Holmes Award for novel advancements in breast cancer research. The $180,000 award, which was established by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in honour of the late Dr. R.H.L. Holmes, will support Dr. Al-Zahrani over the next two years in the development of a gene system to identify the cause of basal-like breast cancer (BLBC), which disproportionally affects younger, premenopausal women and has a relatively poor clinical prognosis. NRC

Dr. Robert Ohle will become the new vice president, Academic and Research Impact, at Health Sciences North (HSN) and Health Sciences North Research Institute (HSNRI). Ohle is being appointed to a six-year renewable term effective August 8. He has been an emergency physician and director of emergency medicine research at HSN since 2017 and an assistant professor at Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. Since 2021, he has served as HSNRI research lead for emerging areas of research. Health Sciences North

Dr. Jody Cooley has been hired as the new executive director for the underground research laboratory at SNOLAB. Cooley will be taking over from Dr. Clarence Virtue, who served as interim executive director. Cooley is a professor of physics at Southern Methodist University and deputy operations manager for the SuperCDMS Collaboration. She will lead a team of more than 140 staff providing business, engineering, construction, installation, technical, and operations support to the research program. SNOLAB