Headquarters
Victoria, British Columbia

Director
Scott McLean

Board chair
Jim Roche
President and CEO of Stratford Managers Corporation

Opening new global markets for ocean monitoring technology

Canadian firms have already demonstrated their global expertise in working with Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) to build and operate the world’s most advanced subsea cabled observatories (NEPTUNE and VENUS), which enable researchers to operate instruments remotely and receive data at their home laboratories anywhere on the globe in real time. As a result, other countries have come calling to see how it was done. Canada turned this $200-million investment into global business opportunities by creating a commercialization centre to qualify and link prospective customers with the industrial, scientific and engineering expertise and experience needed to build similar systems. This $3-billion global market is projected to double in size in just a few years.

Among the results

• Since 2009, the ONC Innovation Centre has demonstrated a Canadian economic impact of $100 million, including revenues, Canadian industry investments in new product research and development related to the centre’s activities, and funds to develop new products and services.
• In partnership with IBM Canada, the ONC Innovation Centre created a Deep Analytics Centre in 2014 to develop ocean analytic products and train the next generation of highly qualified personnel to work with big data from the ocean. To date, more than 100 students have been trained in industry related projects.
• The ONC Innovation Centre’s Technology Accelerator Program helped Canadian marine manufacturers launch globally successful technologies, such as Ocean Sonic’s hydrophones, AML Oceanographic’s UV anti-biofouling system, JASCO’s AMAR hydrophone system and JMesh’s software tools, thanks to access to rigorous testing on the centre’s cabled ocean observatories.
• The ONC Innovation Centre established the world’s most advanced real-time civilian underwater listening station for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. The station allows the Port Authority to monitor inbound vessels for acoustic noise levels, determine ambient noise levels and track marine mammals.

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