British Columbia spends $9.2 million on climate, nutrition, health and other projects

Two British Columbia (BC) innovation organizations are awarding a combined $9.2 million in cleantech and life sciences projects.

The BC Center for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) is investing $7.7 million in 13 projects created through its call for wildfire technology projects and its July open call for innovation. Crown corporation Innovate BC has also awarded $1.5 million to five BC projects focused on research and development in life sciences, food sciences, or cleantech.

CICE is investing $3.5 million in six of the 74 companies that applied to the 2024 wildfire technology call for innovation from June. The initiative was launched to find and fund projects that work to commercialize technology that can help communities adapt to, prevent and mitigate the impact of wildfires—a problem that is getting worse in BC due to climate change. the sky.

Companies receiving funding from CICE under this stream include CRWN.ai, FireSwarm Solutions, Hummingbird Drones, Skyward Wildfire Technologies, Voxelis, and Wildfire Robotics.

“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive, threatening communities, the environment and the economy,” Sarah Goodman, president and CEO of CICE, said in a statement. “The companies we selected are developing innovative solutions to reduce fire risk, improve response times and protect vulnerable areas.”

CICE is also investing $4.2 million in seven BC climate technology companies, selected from 79 applicants to its July 2024 open call for innovation. The projects have three key components: low-carbon hydrogen, low-carbon fuels, and energy storage. They include Edison Motors, NORAM Electrolysis Systems, AlgaFilm Technologies, NanosTech Environmental, Ekona Power, Quantum Technology, and Unilia Fuel Cells.

RELATED: BC Center for Innovation and Clean Energy makes $3 million available for women-led sanitation companies

Earlier this year, Ekona Power was one of 28 hydrogen power projects that received a whopping $57 million in funding from Alberta Innovates. The startup closed $79 million CAD in Series A funding in 2022.

To date, CICE has invested $39 million in 59 clean energy and climate technology projects worth more than $196 million through its innovation pipeline.

New BC funding comes from the province through the Ignite program, which supports development projects in the areas of natural resources and applied sciences. To be considered, projects must address an industry problem that has the potential to significantly benefit BC and be implemented by a team of academic and industry members. Each project receives $300,000 in funding.

One funded project, led by Ideon Technologies and the University of British Columbia, is focused on developing cosmic-ray muon tomography to improve safety and efficiency in mineral mining.

RELATED: Ideon Technologies raises $21 million CAD Series A to fuel transition to low-impact mining and EVs.

Another project, Peqish Group in collaboration with UBC, is creating chia-based fat substitutes to reduce calories in food. Rockburst Technologies and UBC have received funding to develop a carbon dioxide-based ore pulverization process that reduces emissions from mineral extraction.

Also among the Ignite funding projects is one initiative led by Viridis Research and Simon Fraser University (SFU) to advance water treatment technology for textile wastewater treatment.

Finally, researchers from Geno10X Biosciences, Gene Bio Medical, and SFU receive funding for their work on an artificial intelligence-driven platform for rapid, non-invasive testing of the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV .

“These initiatives not only address some of the province’s most pressing challenges, but also help promote productivity and growth in key industries, ultimately contributing to a thriving economy that benefits all British Columbians,” Innovate BC president and CEO Peter Cowan said in a statement.

Image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Noah Buscher.