A federal grant of $1.5 million was contributed to UBC Okanagan under the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program.
The program was first launched in August 2018 and is aimed at bringing academics and innovators together to collaborate in the research and development of advances in materials for defence and security applications.
Defence Minister Harjt S. Sajjan said that the program is about collaboration and access to innovative thinkers.
“Through these networks, Canadian academics and innovators will be able to work together to understand and exploit the advances in materials science, and increase the knowledge and research in areas critical in importance for our defence and security community.”
To date, the IDEaS program has awarded almost $45 million to 33 defence and security challenges.
Now, some of that money will be seen locally and MP for Kelowna-Lake Country, Stephen Fuhr, said he was honoured to celebrate this award on behalf of Minister Sajjan.
“The truly innovative research the university is undertaking right now has the potential to not only better protect our military members but can also contribute to the safety of our first responders who also rely on wearable protective gear,” he said.
“I look forward to seeing the progress they make as their research develops.”
The schools that are taking part in the program and the focus of their research are as follows:
- University of British Columbia: The Comfort-Optimized Materials for Operational Resilience, Thermal-transport, and Survivability (COMFORTS) micro-net;
- Carleton University: Artificially intelligent biomimetic metasurfaces for electromagnetic camouflage;
- Polytechnique Montréal: Flexible, stretchable and self-healable optoelectronic materials for detection avoidance and physical protection; and Terahertz to mid-infrared compact photonic platform on scalable semiconductor technology; and
- University of Manitoba: Development of advanced materials for improved protection against ballistic impact, wear and corrosion damage with additive manufacturing and cold spraying
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