Pre-qualified Proposals from First Round of the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program

March 9, 2011

Background

The Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP) is a new, $40 million initiative, launched as part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to promote Canada’s economic growth as announced in Budget 2010.

Created to bolster innovation in Canada’s business sector, the CICP will help companies to bridge the pre-commercialization gap for their innovative products and services by:

• Awarding contracts through an open, transparent, competitive and fair procurement process, to entrepreneurs with pre-commercial innovations;
• Testing and providing feedback to these entrepreneurs on the performance of their products or services;
• Providing innovators with the opportunity to enter the marketplace with a successful application of their new products and services; and
• Providing information on how to do business with the Government of Canada.

The CICP targets innovations in four priority areas

• Environment;
• Safety and security;
• Health; and
• Enabling technologies

On February 4, 2011 the Innovation Selection Committee (ISC), the final stage of the CICP procurement process, met in person for a full-day session to validate the ranking of proposals based on the independent reviews of the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). Members of this committee, of which seventy per cent were from the private sector, were chosen based on their experience in investment and entrepreneurship; knowledge of innovation and commercialization trends; and knowledge of international business practices. The expertise of this committee provided a unique quality to the procurement strategy of the CICP.

There are 19 pre-qualified innovation proposals from Canadian companies for the first round of the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program. Public Works and Government Services Canada is working with government departments to match innovations with the right test departments and will be entering into negotiations with the selected companies to put contracts in place to test their innovations. The feedback from government departments will facilitate Canadian companies in moving their innovations into domestic and international markets.

This pre-qualification of proposals is a significant step of the CICP process. These are the firms whose products and services will be procured when and if a match is found in government.

Business Name	Innovation Name	Innovation Description	City	Province
2G Robotics	ULS-100	An Underwater Laser Scanner capable of creating digital three dimensional recreations of underwater environments.	Waterloo	Ontario
AMITA Corporation	MedPost	This is a day-to day health information sharing software that allows medical community decision makers to identify, isolate and manage major health events to help save lives.	Ottawa	Ontario
Bombardier Transportation Canada Inc.	TrackSafe	System to reduce the hazards of railroad track inspection and maintenance by creating improved location awareness.	Mississauga	Ontario
Bubble Technology Industries Inc.	Radiation-Detecting Speedbump (Radbump)	A radiation detector is concealed inside a speedbump to sense the presence of illicit radioactive materials.	Chalk River	Ontario
CriSys Limited	HumanNeeds-based Disaster Preparedness / Response / Recovery Manager with Active Directions and Dynamic Tracking	Disaster Preparedness plan based on human / community Needs Adaptive Rule-Based Artificial Intelligence employed to synthesize, distribute and track detailed, situation-specific Disaster Response and Recover plans in real-time.	Markham	Ontario
CVT CORP	Variable speed diesel genset	Diesel gensets models of 50kW and 125kW, saving 10-50% fuel with ROI of less than a year.	Sainte-Julie	Quebec
DataGardens	Cloud Federation System	Allows virtual machines to be migrated and protected across sites.	Edmonton	Alberta
Engineering Services Inc. (ESI)	Tracker - A Modular Mobile Robot	Mobile robot assembled form modules to provide multi-tasking use in a wide range of applications.	Toronto	Ontario
ERACTS Inc. (with GAO RFID Inc as a subcontractor and strategic partner)	RFID Tag Access Control Real Time Location Activator for Passive UHF tags	3D Real Time Location inventory / events tracking using RFID Gen2 passive tags.	Toronto	Ontario
Extreme Spill Technology	Ocean Oil Spill Skimmer	Oil spill skimmer effective at high speed in high waves, fast currents and ice.	Halifax	Nova Scotia
GestureTek Inc.	GestPoint Maestro 3D Digital Whiteboard Display Application	3D-camera system for point-control-from-a-distance, integrated with networked whiteboard systems for collaborative dual-location user experiences.	Toronto	Ontario
Inversa Systems	Backscatter Computer Tomography	Inversa utilizes back-scattered radiation to create an image of internal defects within critical industrial infrastructure.	Island View	New Brunswick
Ionics Mass Spectrometry Group	3Q Molecular Analyzer	High performance, easy to use triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with dual source LC interface.	Bolton	Ontario
Kinova	Jaco	Six-axis robotic manipulator arm with a three-fingered hand controlled by various control interfaces.	Montréal	Quebec
LED Roadway Lighting Ltd.	LED street light system w/enhanced GPS technology	LED street lights with GPS dimming-on/off and advanced power supply.	Halifax	Nova Scotia
MDA Systems Ltd.	Automated Motion Imagery Exploitation	Automated exploitation software tools to generate geo-registered products for surveillance and reconnaissance from airborne video.	Richmond	British Columbia
Paradigm Shift Technologies, Inc.	Novel green technology for life extension of critical airborne systems	Development and demonstration of environmentally benign technology for life extension of F-35 gun system, major component that prevents qualify entire aircraft as green system.	Toronto	Ontario
SageData Solutions Inc.	INSPEC	Mobile intelligent paperless tool for oversight / guidance of repair or inspection where equipment identification / compliance / calibration is vital.	Ottawa	Ontario
Virtual Marine Technology Inc. (hereinafter "VMT")	MissionQuest Multi-Task Simulator (hereinafter “MissionQuestMT”) – a Marine Training Solution	MissionQuest Multi-Task Simulator is a marine training simulator designed specifically for coast guard, navy, and waterborne enforcement agency tactical small boat crews.	St. John’s	Newfoundland and Labrador

Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program

The program has two complementary components. The first will identify Canadian innovations to test within federal operations in order to support businesses as they move to commercialization. The second will build on current Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME) efforts to improve Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SME) access to federal procurement activities, and enable companies to showcase innovative products and services to potential government users.

Proposals related to the opportunity to test innovative products and services are being accepted through competitive Calls for Proposals in the spring and fall of each year of the pilot period. The next Call for Proposals will be in the spring of 2011.

The calls include specific criteria for selection, and target innovations in four priority areas—environment, health, safety and security, and enabling technologies. Only those innovations that have not yet been sold commercially will qualify.

PWGSC continues to work with all stakeholders to ensure SMEs receive the vital government support needed to thrive in today’s evolving economy.

The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME), through its network of headquarters operations and six regional offices, assists SMEs as they navigate through the government procurement system. The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises is strengthening access to government business for SMEs through collaboration with industry associations and individual businesses on training, information, development of support tools, and through recommending procurement policy changes. The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises is also working with SME organizations to identify and pursue opportunities that encourage the introduction of innovative new products.

More information on OSME and its initiatives can be obtained by calling 1-800-811-1148, by visiting www.pwgsc.gc.ca/sme, or e-mailing achatsetventes.buyandsell@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.

The pilot program was launched in the fall of 2010, and will conclude in early 2013.