Sea Island in Richmond will become a test bed for B.C. technology, as Vancouver International Airport and General Fusion implement homegrown innovations in their operations, thanks to funding through Innovate BC.
Innovate BC’s Integrated Marketplace program is a type of B2B procurement program that encourages B.C. businesses to use made-in-B.C. technology and services.
Three new projects will receive $1.1 million in funding under the Integrated Marketplace program, including a YVR initiative that will use drones for runway monitoring.
General Fusion, which is building its Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) machine -- the Lawson Machine 26 – at its new lab at Sea Island, will be adopting a diagnostic system that will be designed by Motus Design Group in Victoria. The project is receiving $160,000 under the Integrated Marketplace program.
“The Integrated Marketplace connects some of the province’s most significant economic drivers to local innovation providers that have the ideas and expertise to evolve how our industries operate while supporting their efforts to decarbonize,” said Innovate BC CEO Peter Cowan.
“This suite of projects perfectly represents what is possible through the program, and I am excited to see how both YVR and General Fusion can leverage these technologies towards greater efficiencies, output, and impact.”
YVR will become a test bed for an airport runway management using a monitoring system that includes the use of drones developed by Victoria’s Niricson. That project will receive $200,000. YVR will also be contracting Hybrid Audio Visual to provide the airport with a new paging system, with Integrated Marketplace funding of $750,000.
“As a key partner in the Integrated Marketplace Initiative, YVR provides an ideal environment for local innovators and clean-tech companies to develop and implement made-in-B.C. solutions that work at our airport and can likely be applied to other airports and industries,” YVR CEO Tamara Vrooman said in a press release.
“We are very proud to be a test bed for innovation and to see solutions from this collaboration advance B.C. business, improve our operation, and benefit our community and the economy that supports it.”
Over at General Fusion’s new lab at on Sea Island, Motus Design Group will design the electronics for a diagnostic for General Fusion’s new fusion machine.
The Integrated Marketplace program was provided $11.5 million in funding from the B.C. government and $9.9 million from the federal government.
