The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) have announced a partnership to provide the tools and expertise Canadian firms need to translate research and development from the lab to the marketplace.
“Saskatchewan is a global leader in biotechnology and this partnership will help to ensure this continues,” Minister Responsible for Innovation Jeremy Harrison said. “In the past, we have embraced biotechnology to deliver more value to the agriculture sector and enhance food security on a global scale. This partnership will expand our capabilities to include the energy, mining and minerals sectors.”
“As Canada’s premier research and technology organization, NRC is an essential partner to drive innovation across Canada, by translating research and technology into jobs, growth, and long-term prosperity for Canadians,” National Research Council of Canada vice-president of life sciences Dr. Roman Szumski said. “This partnership will greatly benefit the goals of NRC’s Biobased Specialty Chemicals program where 50 per cent of the focus revolves around fermentation and microbial synthesis.”
“This partnership will allow SRC to take further advantage of our facilities and expertise to explore new business areas with a broader national scope by leveraging the capabilities that NRC can provide,” Saskatchewan Research Council President and CEO Dr. Laurier Schramm said. “It will also allow SRC to expand our current service offerings which will help us better meet the needs of our clients.”
The NRC and SRC will together grow the local and national biotechnology and bio-manufacturing industries. The partnership will work with industry in the development of new bioproducts for niche markets and develop bio-manufacturing processes and products for industries beyond agriculture and health to also include the energy, mining and minerals sectors.
The two organizations will leverage existing capabilities and infrastructure and will co-manage a fermentation facility located at Innovation Place in Saskatoon. The partnership will enable each organization to meet the increasing demand for fermentation services, to expand current service offerings and decrease client wait times while accelerating the commercialization of products. The partnership will also allow both parties to take further advantage of their respective facilities to explore new business areas with a broader national scope.
Quick facts:
• The partnership is an opportunity for Canada to showcase its science, technology, and innovation know-how on a national and international scale in the emerging area of bio-based specialty chemical development.
• As one of Canada’s premier contract biomanufacturing service providers since the 1990s, SRC is well positioned through this partnership to enable partners to build critical mass to advance innovation in biomanufacturing including the areas of biomass development, biocatalyst and bioprocessing, as well as fermentation and microbial synthesis.
• SRC’s Biosafety Level 2 fermentation facility is well-equipped for process development, scale-up, optimization and manufacturing of microbial technologies, upstream production, downstream processing and product analysis and it is further supported by leading-edge genomics infrastructure.
