Supporting business innovation: 2025–2026 Annual Report

When the first wave of US tariffs on Canadian imports was announced in February 2025, a lot of industry was caught by surprise. Businesses that had sold their goods across the border for years suddenly needed to refocus their supply chains and sales efforts. Within a few short weeks, NRC IRAP established the Canadian Industrial Resilience Subject Expert Team (SET) to help companies navigate the shifting economic and political environment. John Martinovic, an industrial technology advisor based in Oakville, Ontario, was asked to co-lead the initiative.

"More than a year later, it is easy to forget all the chaos and confusion that surrounded many manufacturing and exporting companies at that time," John says. "Shipments were being delayed or stopped at the border, but even logistics experts and multinational distributors were unable to provide direct solutions. Someone needed to do something about this information vacuum—and we were confident it could be us."

A rapid response that delivered real results for SMEs

Martinovic helped assemble a geographically diverse team from across NRC IRAP to quickly develop and execute a coordinated strategy to first gather insights on the challenges and needs of Canadian SMEs and then deliver direct, meaningful support where and when it was needed most. In the end, this included providing advisory services and funding to help SMEs develop market diversification action plans and adapt their technologies, supply chains and business processes to better compete in new markets.

Team members brought diverse knowledge and experience, including field-level expertise from strategic sectors and industries, to ensure the solutions were tailored to the needs of SMEs and reflected geographical differences across Canada. SET also developed targeted practical solutions, including a centralized catalogue to quickly link industry technology advisors in the field with trusted resources, and an "import tracker" tool using Statistics Canada data to help SMEs identify alternative sources of raw materials or components.

"In a time of major uncertainty for many SMEs, NRC IRAP responded decisively," says Martinovic. "Showcasing agility to react to shifting trade realities, we quickly mobilized our field resources to navigate challenges and provide the tools needed to help businesses turn the crisis into new opportunities."

Martinovic says the initiative exceeded all expectations. By the time it wrapped up in December 2025, NRC IRAP had deployed more than $53 million in targeted funding to approximately 400 SMEs in all regions of the country—helping Canadian businesses secure new markets, boost productivity, attract highly qualified personnel and build more resilient supply chains.

"Because of the work of the SET, NRC IRAP stood out as an oasis of calm and a source of actionable intelligence, resources and financial support during a difficult situation. I think we helped a wide swath of SMEs work through the challenges of the crisis and build stronger foundations for the future."

Now in its second year, NRC IRAP AI Assist continues to help SMEs build, deploy and integrate generative AI and deep learning capabilities into their products and services. In 2025–2026, we targeted support to high-potential companies developing novel AI models and AI-enabled applications, strengthening Canada's intellectual property base, driving innovation and helping businesses enhance their competitiveness.

For example, through AI Assist, Montréal-based SEVO Bioscience was able to develop an AI model for designing synthetic proteins. The company implemented scalable compute infrastructure that can process larger protein design challenges, leading to a functional minimum viable product with potential for commercialization across a wide range of industrial applications.

Our strong relationships with partners around the world have enabled us to turn periods of uncertainty into global opportunities for Canadian SMEs. In particular, we help businesses reduce the risks of expanding internationally and move their technologies to market faster. Through the Advancing International Clean Technology Demonstrations (AICTD) initiative, we help SMEs showcase and deploy clean technologies in the fast-growing Indo-Pacific region. Jointly led by the NRC, the Trade Commissioner Service, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, AICTD brings Canadian SMEs on highly targeted missions to connect with potential international partners and provides financial contributions to SMEs in support of international pilot and demonstration projects. The 2025 AICTD mission to Australia focused on energy storage and grid modernization technologies, while the mission to the Philippines and Malaysia concentrated on water and wastewater technologies—giving participating businesses direct access to buyers and collaborators in some of the fastest-growing cleantech markets. Building on this momentum, Canada's Budget 2025 committed $39.9 million over 4 years along with $11.1 million ongoing to expand the initiative to more global markets beyond the Indo-Pacific region.

In December 2025, we published the newest editions of the National Model Codes, supporting the construction of homes and buildings that are more climate-resilient and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These updates also represent important progress toward more harmonized construction regulations across the country, which will help decrease construction costs and reduce internal barriers to trade. Once adopted in full or in part into regulation by the provinces and territories, the new building, fire, plumbing and energy codes will inform minimum performance levels from coast to coast to coast for health, safety, accessibility, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and more.

The model codes are developed and maintained by the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes (CBHCC), a federal–provincial–territorial body and co-chaired by the NRC on behalf of the Government of Canada. In this role, we provide administrative, technical and policy support to the CBHCC. Our research also helped guide some of the latest code updates in areas such as resilient building design and radon mitigation measures for homes in Canada.

In January 2026, we launched the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Prefabrication and Digitalized Construction. A collaborative research and development hub for modern methods of construction, it brings together industry, academia and government to advance new technologies and processes for building homes more efficiently.