What's an ocean supercluster? It binds an industry, and it just got $153M from Ottawa

The federal government announced a$153-million injection Friday for an oceans 'supercluster,'a network of businesses and researchers tasked with generatingnew technologies and income for the Atlantic region.

That funding will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the private sector, and the federal government estimates thesuperclusterwill add 3,000 jobs and $14 billion to the Canadian economy over the next decade.

Seamus O'Regan, MP for St. John's South-Mount Pearl,said that the combined strengths of both small and large companies in the regionwill allow for people to remain in Newfoundland and Labrador rather than looking for work outside of the province.

According to government, small startup businesses can invest within thesupercluster, opening doors for them to collaborate and succeed on the global market.

"You can move around your credentials, you can still live here at home and you can take on new challenges," O'Regan said.

"The morepeople we keep here, and the more that theydevelop their strengths, the more permanent that job base becomes."

Small fish, big pond

The move would propel at least one St. John's startup into a new market.

Ocean tech company Seaformatics now sells the Waterlily, a portable water- and wind-powered turbine, for hikers and other outdoor adventurersbut the idea was originally meant for scientists, studying at sea for extended periods.

"It was a tough market for us to get into," said Andrew Cook, Seaformatics' CEO. "We just didn't have enough capital to build the demo units and get the tech out there, get people using it. It was much easier to get into the consumer market."

In Seaformatics'case, givenfunding like the kind offered by the oceans supercluster,their chicken-and-egg dilemmaneeding customers for cash, but needing cash to make products and secure customerswould have been an non-issue.

With development money injected straight into small groups of researchers, Cook suggests, marine tech companies won't have to rely on snazzy marketing or leisure applications to compile enough capital for the bigger-picture ideas.

"This forces people to cooperate on a grander scale," he said. "It will expand opportunities. You're going to get bigger products, more advanced systems coming out of this."

Working out the kinks

The funding announced Friday is part of the government's country-wide InnovationSuperclustersInitiative. Othersuperclustersinclude digital technology, protein industries, next generation manufacturingand AI-powered supply chains.

The plan for this supercluster, according to government,is to move forward with developingemerging technology to strengthenocean industries.

Those includemarine renewable energy, fisheries, aquaculture, oil and gas, defence, shipbuilding and marine transportation.

"The thing that is more important to the success for the region, and for the country, is how well we collaborate together," oceansuperclusterCEO KendraMacDonaldsaid.

Exactly how that collaboration plays out remains to be seen.

According toMacDonald, intellectual propertyagreements are in the works toiron out the details on who or what will own any research developed through the collaboration process within the oceansupercluster.

"That is a risk," said Cook. "The way it could work is a bigger company could just go in and gobble up your [intellectual property]. If you're in on a project, everybody's supposed to have access to that."

The federal government is projectingthat the oceansuperclusterwill create more than 3,000 jobs and add more than $14 billion to Canada's economy over 10 years.

With files from KatieBreen

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