NRC officially opened new labs in Fredericton, New Brunswick, helping build the region's growing IT-based technology cluster. Known as the NRC Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT) - e-Business, the facility is located on the University of New Brunswick's Fredericton campus.
The program will be supported by smaller research centres in Moncton and Saint John linked together via high-speed broadband network, including a link to the New Brunswick Community College in Miramichi. Research will focus on e-Learning, e-Health, Human Web interaction, Internet logic and e-Government and will deal with such issues as the security of electronic health records, the management of digital rights, and effective on-line ordering and supply processes for businesses on the web.
Since the announcement of its Atlantic Initiative in 2000, NRC has made steady progress in helping stimulate community innovation through the creation of technology clusters. The formal opening of the NRC facility in Fredericton follows a series of intensive community consultations that have helped rally private and public-sector resources around common economic and research goals. This is a proven approach used by NRC in developing technology clusters across Canada.
"The National Research Council, through its cluster strategy, is developing the kinds of communities that become magnets for investment and opportunity," said Allan Rock. "This e-business Institute is an important new element of the New Brunswick innovation climate and has a unique role to play in building an internationally competitive technology cluster in New Brunswick."
"The NRC labs in New Brunswick give local companies access to NRC's combined strengths in information technology and technologies relating to e-business and connectivity," says Dr. Carty. "NRC has been welcomed throughout New Brunswick as a partner in the community's innovation agenda. In fact, our core research areas are aligned with the pillars of eNB - e-commerce, e-learning, e-health, e-infrastructure and e-government."
NRC-IIT - e-Business will create economic wealth through research and development by partnering with IT companies, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, on innovative research projects. The facility will house laboratories containing the latest technology available for testing and will provide much needed infrastructure that local companies may not otherwise afford.
NRC-IIT - e-Business is a national facility that employs approximately 40 full-time NRC researchers, technical and support staff across New Brunswick. The facility, operational since October 2002, has already attracted more than 20 guest workers, visiting scientists, and co-op students. A section of the Fredericton facility is devoted to an Industrial Partnership Facility that allows companies to co-locate their research staff with NRC researchers for the duration of specific collaborative research and development projects. NRC-IIT also has programs in Sydney and Ottawa.
|
