HAMILTON, Ontario, Aug. 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen), the industry-led organization leading Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster, has announced an additional $3.5 million in project funding in support of Canada’s COVID-19 Response.
Since the launch of its COVID-19 Response program in March, NGen has funded 20 projects valued at over $54 million. From coast to coast, Supercluster funding is enabling Canadian innovators to rapidly deploy solutions that can address the most pressing issues emerging as a result of the pandemic.
“Canadian innovators continue to rise to the challenges emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “Organizations such as NGen are leveraging their membership base to come up with Made in Canada solutions in an effort to save lives and secure the health and safety of Canadians.”
The projects involved in NGen’s latest round of Supercluster funding are led by:
DMF Medical Inc., based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is working towards a regulatory and manufacturing fast track of memsorb™, a medical-membrane based CO2 filtration technology to enable the repurposing of anesthesia machines to act as closed-loop ICU ventilators to address critical shortages. The use of medical membranes eliminates the mandatory replacement and monitoring of chemical absorption components and allows for continuous use while eliminating performance issues related to chemical absorbers. David Roach, President, DMF Medical, says, “The COVID-19 pandemic has presented innumerable challenges to healthcare systems, namely the shortage of critical equipment such as ICU ventilators. With support from NGen, we can work to fast-track deployment of memsorb™ to support increased critical care capacity amidst a shortage of ventilators while eliminating monitoring and performance issues related to traditional chemical absorption.”
LuminUltra Technologies Ltd., based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, has developed both diagnostic and environmental testing solutions for the fight against COVID-19. Already LuminUltra is providing the reagents needed for 500,000 tests/week for the Canadian testing program. The company also recently introduced environmental monitoring solutions that test for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on surfaces, air and in wastewater to facilitate non-invasive surveillance testing of populations. Supercluster funding will support advanced manufacturing scale-up with a new facility that further grows capacity to meet national and international demand for these innovative and reliable testing technologies. “Widespread and effective testing of both people and environments is crucial in the fight against COVID-19,” says Pat Whalen, President & CEO of LuminUltra. “With NGen funding to support the scale up of our manufacturing facilities, LuminUltra can continue to build off our rich history of developing proactive testing solutions needed to help keep Canadians safe and enable our economies to stay open.”
“Since the launch of our COVID-19 response program in March, we have had the opportunity to work alongside some of the most innovative and tenacious companies in the country,” says Jayson Myers, Chief Executive Officer, NGen. “Our latest round of funding exemplifies the ingenuity and advanced capabilities that have been leveraged to deploy innovative solutions from coast to coast.”
NGen is committed to supporting companies that can deploy innovative solutions to address the immediate needs of patients and healthcare providers, while also promoting the establishment of sustainable and globally competitive manufacturing capabilities in Canada. In June, NGen launched Made Smarter, a Strategic Supply Challenge aimed at securing a supply of products critical to protecting the health of Canadians. NGen will allocate up to $30 million to co-invest in projects that focus on strengthening Canadian manufacturing and supply chain capabilities, build stronger more resilient companies for the supply of products that are strategically important for Canada, and target a long-term global competitive advantage. For more, visit www.ngen.ca/made_smarter
About NGen – Next Generation Manufacturing Canada
NGen is the industry-led not-for-profit organization that leads Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster. Its mandate is to help build world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada for the benefit of Canadians. NGen works to strengthen collaboration among its membership of more than 2,500 manufacturers, technology companies, innovation centres, and researchers, and provides funding and business support to industry-led initiatives that aim to develop, apply, or scale-up transformative manufacturing solutions in Canada for commercialization in global markets. In March, NGen announced that it would allocate at least $50 million of funding from the Canadian Government’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative to help launch innovative manufacturing solutions to help in the fight against COVID-19.
Associated links
Next Generation Manufacturing Canada
Made Smarter Strategic Supply Challenge
Innovation Superclusters Initiative
Media contact
media@luminultra.com
Robbie MacLeod
Next Generation Manufacturing Canada
robbie.macleod@ngen.ca
+1-613-297-3578
