New Brunswick — Information Technology and e-Business

Since 2000, NRC has worked to unite key players in New Brunswick's e-business technology cluster in pursuit of a common objective: to seize a sizeable share of the global e-business market, where sales have exploded from US$443 million in 2000 to US$8.5 trillion today.Using its state-of-the-art Institute for Information Technology e-Business as a central R&D hub, NRC is helping leading-edge firms turn federally funded research into marketable products.

		DYNAMIC RESEARCH HUB
		NRC is a key player in New Brunswick's e-business hub. Broadly defined, e-business is the undertaking of social, political and economic activities by means of computers and communication networks such as the Internet. It capitalizes on information sharing and value-adding applications in trade, commercial transactions, culture, education, governance, health care and a host of other human endeavours.

Achieving community focus

In 2001, NRC assembled a roundtable of more than 100 dynamic community players from private, public and academic organizations. The group established a bold research agenda for New Brunswick's e-business sector, identifying how the cluster initiative could best serve both regional and national R&D priorities.

In the first five-year phase of delivering on that agenda, the NRC Institute for Information Technology e-Business and the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) were driving forces, aligning stakeholders' visions and acting as catalysts in all areas of cluster initiative development: policy, mentoring, finance, development of skilled personnel. In the current, second phase of cluster initiative building, NRC is focusing even more on its greatest strength: R&D. The organization will fuel New Brunswick's e-business economy by offering enterprising firms a steady flow of intellectual property and continued linkages between research and industry.

The specialized labs in Fredericton are used by NRC researchers, cluster companies and universities – a unique contribution by NRC to the region

Providing critical infrastructure

NRC has earmarked $48 million over five years to provide the cluster's most dynamic emerging companies with much improved infrastructure, including groundbreaking research and technical and business support facilities. NRC has planned key investments with input from local universities and businesses, the provincial government and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency — all major partners in this emerging cluster initiative.

NRC's collaborative approach is yielding impressive results:

• NRC has signed more than 125 formal collaborative agreements with New Brunswick cluster players, for a total project value of $18M.
• Five NRC research labs in Fredericton were designed in close consultation with cluster contributors.
• NRC's Director General, Information Technology, is widely recognized as one of Atlantic Canada's top CEOs and one of Canada's 'Top 40 Under 40.'
• Atlantic Business Magazine has described NRC's New Brunswick research operation as nimble, fast and progressive — emphasizing that industry views NRC as its peer.
• NRC-IIT e-Business staff increased from 14 in 2001 to 39 in 2006.

Transforming technology into business

NRC offers strategic services to businesses that wish to take their innovations to market — helping small businesses succeed.

		CLUSTER FACTS AT A GLANCE
		The global e-business market has exploded in value from US$443 million in 2000 to US$8.5 trillion in 2005.
		NRC will invest more than $48 million in the New Brunswick economy over the next five years.
		NRC's New Brunswick research facility and Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) have signed more than 125 R&D agreements to date.

Assisting with industrial research

The NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) — a national program aimed specifically at helping small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) develop technologies for market — contributes technical expertise and funding to all NRC cluster initiatives, including New Brunswick's. Working throughout the province, NRC-IRAP matches small and medium-sized businesses with industry, researchers and one another by facilitating meetings, identifying complementary technologies for SMEs' business ideas and fostering R&D collaboration. In particular, NRC-IRAP has supported local SMEs in the fields of knowledge management and semantic web techniques, supporting over a dozen exciting SME-driven e-business projects in these areas. These projects run the gamut from electronic foodservice management tools, to software that secures remote commerce and medical clinic practice management e-systems. To ensure companies successfully attract business opportunities flowing from the rest of Canada, NRC-IRAP also helps firms collaborate on proposals for national tenders — recognizing that for most tenders, a group proposal is more effective than an individual one.

Award-winning tenants of the NRC-IIT Industry Partnership Facility in Fredericton, Virtual Expert Clinics

"NRC's presence in New Brunswick will help improve the innovation capacity of the province, which in turn will contribute to a higher standard of living, more jobs and a better quality of life for all New Brunswickers."

Bernard Lord, Premier of New Brunswick

Best available science and technology literature

NRC is a world leader in electronic publishing, and Canada's largest and best resource for scientific, technical and medical information. NRC's information specialists are highly active at NRC's Fredericton lab, where expert staff provides mission-critical information and services to help entrepreneurs develop business ideas. Furthermore, NRC offers a range of fee-based services to industry researchers, including access to hundreds of relevant databases and thousands of scientific and technical journals. In 2005 alone, staff conducted nearly 800 information searches for e-business cluster clients.

NRC is also a proactive research partner of the Centre international pour le développement de l'inforoute en français, an organization that is spearheading the formation of an information technology cluster in Edmundston, New Brunswick.

		MILESTONES FOR COMMUNITY
		2000 — NRC announces New Brunswick site for e-business cluster initiative
		2001 — NRC convenes Moncton roundtable to establish research agenda for New Brunswick initiative
		2001 — Construction begins on NRC building in Fredericton
		2002 — E-Health Forum held in Fredericton
		2002 — Stakeholder consultation on e-government research agenda conducted in Fredericton
		2003 — Official opening of Fredericton labs
		2003 — NRC hosts e-government workshop in Fredericton
		2003 — First Atlantic Canada Human Computer Interaction Workshop
		2004 — $11 million NB/PEI research grid unveiled
		2004 — New Brunswick hosts International Learning Objects summit
		2004 — NRC officially opens its Industry Partnership Facility in Fredericton
		2005 — NRC officially opens five leading-edge research labs in Fredericton facility
		2005 — NRC officially opens the Advanced Collaborative Environment lab in Moncton

NRC-IIT's regular colloquia promote the exchange of ideas with cluster partners

"Unlike most bureaucratic institutions, which are cursed with excessive paperwork and lengthy approval processes, NRC-IIT is nimble, fast and progressive."

Atlantic Business Magazine

http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca