The hallmark of the National Research Council's (NRC)Design and Fabrication Services Branch is its ability to work with NRC researchers in a responsive, collaborative manner, leveraging the diverse capabilities of the branch in direct support of important research and technical services. This is the case even if the work must move from one part of the country to another to stay at the pace of innovation. With 13 shops spread across Canada, Design and Fabrication Services delivers design and fabrication services that meet demanding requirements for apparatus, fixturing, experiment setups and technical services for the NRC's contributions to academia, industry and major international partnerships.
A key goal of the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) Aerospace Research Centre is to advance scientific knowledge in order to stimulate innovation, enhance our capabilities and sustain our relevance as a knowledge generator. Not only do we share our knowledge outwardly with industry and academia, but we also do this inwardly – by providing the opportunity to grow and learn from each other by exchanging ideas among colleagues. One successful example of our approach is the Early Career Network (ECN), a collective of early career employees, visiting workers and students from the NRC's Aerospace Research Centre.
In keeping with the Government of Canada's "cloud-first" digital principle, the NRC opted to implement a cloud-based solution, hosted and maintained in a highly secure, Canadian data centre. The NRC also chose to adopt a commercially available solution rather than go the traditional "built for government" path - SuccessFactors provides best-in-class standardized business processes with data integration across modules leveraging a consumer-grade web interface.
searchers:
•demonstrated that ZV can cross the blood-brain barrier
•showed that ZV infects glioblastoma cells to varying degrees, suggesting that genetically modified ZV could be developed to target therapeutics to glioblastoma cells
•developed a robust mouse model of ZV infection to test potential Zika vaccines
The NRC further leveraged its business relationship with Variation Biotechnologies Inc. (VBI) to bring the company's proprietary vaccine platform into this global effort to fight the emerging Zika epidemic. To this end, VBI and the NRC submitted a joint ZV grant proposal to the National Institute of Health. This strategic collaboration between VBI and the NRC has already led to the development of a plaque reduction neutralization assay at the NRC, and a collaborative research agreement to evaluate VBI's candidate enveloped virus-like particle (eVLP) vaccines is underway.
Research Centre: Advanced Electronics and Photonics
Industry: Photonics
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) signed a strategic agreement with Brilliant Matters to license the intellectual property of one of their semiconductors. Through this licensing agreement, Brilliant Matters will have access to a high-performing material developed at the NRC. The use of this material will help Brilliant Matters generate higher-performing semiconductors to produce organic photovoltaics at a lower cost. The final product, which will be produced in Canada, will increase the country's competitiveness on the organic semiconductor market and ultimately provide better and more affordable photovoltaics worldwide.
October 20 is World Statistics Day. At the NRC, we use statistics and data on a daily basis, in all of our research areas, to answer questions for our clients and collaborators and to advance scientific knowledge. The NRC’s Digital Technologies Research Centre is particularly active in the analysis of data, and offers a specialized facility called the Data Analytics Centre where government, academic and industrial clients can collaborate with NRC experts to analyze their data.
Research Centre: Industrial Research Assistance Program, International Innovation Office
Canada and Germany have long-lasting cooperation in science and research and, in December 2017, signed a Joint Declaration of Intent to recognize the existing partnerships between both countries and commit to more collaborations on research and development (R&D), and technological innovation initiatives. As part of this commitment, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) initiated a unique partnership and, in January 2018, launched a successful joint call for proposals on Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing.