Halifax, Nova Scotia: As ocean nations with more than 260,000 kilometres of combined coastline, Canada and the United Kingdom share a deep understanding of the blue economy and its potential. Ocean sectors represent highly skilled jobs, clean energy solutions and economic growth.
The governments of Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) have now launched a competition that will help solve ocean technology challenges by connecting innovators from both sides of the Atlantic.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for ACOA, announced a non-repayable contribution of $275,000 for the Ocean Technology Council of Nova Scotia (OTCNS) to support the competition in Canada.
Innovate UK is also providing $275,000 for the competition in the United Kingdom.
The investments will help bring Canadian and UK small and medium-sized enterprises together to compete in this new ocean tech innovation challenge. Through the competition, transnational teams will work together to develop ways to help uncrewed vessels better navigate the ocean. Two winning teams will each receive $250,000 CAD to implement and demonstrate their proposals. The competition will help create industry-advancing solutions and grow trade through partnerships between ocean tech innovators.
Innovate UK said the challenge is to develop a modular, extensible, and adaptable perception solution that can be used for USVs and/or UUVs of different sizes and regulatory regimes, and be suitable for diverse Vessel specific control, monitoring & support functions (e.g. propulsion, steering) and Communication systems (e.g. radio, cellular, satellite, acoustic).
