Focus on Canada

Transformative technologies

In addition to SMEs, Canada’s software innovation ecosystem consists of large firms, academia, industry-focused research centres, venture capital investors, incubators, accelerators and a broad spectrum of government policies and programmes to support this ecosystem. Among these programmes, the Canadian government funds advanced academic research, provides training for knowledge workers and offers tax incentives, grants and contributions to help offset the costs of R&D activities.

“The goal of this ecosystem is to advance transformative technologies that will support a technologically advanced economy and accelerate the transition to a more digitally enabled society in Canada,” explains Vance. “One example is Canada’s role in the advancement of artificial intelligence over the years. For the software industry in Canada, this is probably the most important topic at the moment. Canada was the first in the world to introduce a national AI strategy back in 2017 with the first phase of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. This focused on developing strong industrial research competencies, a talent pipeline and a national ecosystem. Since the implementation of that strategy, we have established three national AI research institutes across the country, more than 50 multinationals have set up AI R&D labs in Canada, and hundreds of AI startups have been launched in the last few years. With a maturing national AI ecosystem in place, we expect both the commercialisation and adoption of AI innovations to increase significantly over the next few years.”

Canada is celebrating an important milestone this year as co-chair of Eureka with Germany for 2024-2025. This is the first time in Eureka’s almost 40-year history that two countries are sharing the responsibility of leading the network. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC), in collaboration with Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), will help set the strategic direction for Eureka, and continue to support efforts to enhance cooperation across the network. Innovators and partners from across the Eureka network will also have the opportunity to visit Canada and experience its vibrant innovation ecosystem of growing companies and world-class research institutions.

For more information, please visit the website www.eureka2024-25.com

Time-tested approach

As Vance notes, Canada’s increased focus on AI follows a similar pattern taking place within ITEA. “In the last two years, we’ve seen a significant rise in ITEA projects that have an AI focus. Some of these are pure AI projects, like the GENIUS project from ITEA Call 2023, which is all about generative AI. If you look back three or five years, AI would have been a smaller component of the overall project. But now, it’s basically everywhere. Given that Canada was ahead of the curve on AI, NRC IRAP is encouraging Canadian SMEs to lead ITEA projects and bring more Canadian partners into these types of collaborations. In doing so, Canadians can drive the vision of projects and showcase Canadian technologies and innovative ideas to the world – not just regarding AI, but across the software spectrum.”

These efforts are bearing fruit. Canadian SME Kelvin Zero is currently leading the Secur-e-Health project, which brings together 30 partners across five countries to take health data out of silos so that healthcare providers can better collaborate. Canadian partners also played key roles in the ITEA projects SMART and INNO4HEALTH, each of which received an ITEA Award of Excellence 2024 at the most recent PO Days for their respective work of addressing urban traffic congestion challenges and chronic disease management.

“The Eureka Clusters programme, including ITEA, applies a time-tested approach to transnational collaborations. The bottom-up projects are led by industry, with participants who are trusted and engaged, with well-defined and effective processes,” says Vance. “We recognise that these projects create valuable long-term partnerships while creating commercial and social impact. While the United States is Canada’s main trading partner and the primary export market, Canada also recognises that other global markets offer significant growth opportunities for Canadian SMEs. NRC IRAP’s international programmes are designed to help them connect with and benefit from markets beyond North America, and Eureka is at the core of this initiative.”