New industry-led network designed to help get Canadian-made products to market

The federal government has launched a new $19-million industry-led incubator aimed at commercializing made-in-Canada products and technologies.

The Refined Manufacturing Acceleration Process (ReMAP) network officially launched on June 23. ReMAP is a business-led network formed to help to drive innovation in Canada by supporting emerging technologies and associated manufacturing processes that accelerate new products to the global market.

ReMAP is backed by a $7.7-million contribution over five years from Ottawa and some big-name firms operating in Canada, including Cisco Systems Inc., Honeywell International, Inc. and DuPont.

“As products are being launched exponentially faster than ever before, the role of the network is to accelerate researchers’ innovative ideas and emerging technology through to product commercialization,” said Irene Sterian, ReMAP’s executive director. “By bringing together large industry, start-ups, small and medium enterprises, we can help to build and strengthen a manufacturing ecosystem that complements Canada’s existing infrastructure and drives innovation.”

Through its network of more than 25 partners, the goal of ReMAP is to give participating companies – including startups and small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as large businesses – access to research and development expertise to accelerate time to market.

“Sharing resources across 38 labs and factories throughout ReMAP’s 25+ partner network will help these companies lower cost, improve processes, differentiate products, and become more environmentally sustainable – faster,” ReMAP said in a statement. “In conjunction with $7.7 million received from Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) program, ReMAP has attracted $11+ million from partnership commitments in cash and in-kind contributions over the next five years. The funding will support ReMAP as it brings together academic partners, research organizations, and a wide range of companies, to work on research and development (R&D) technologies and to develop reliable and environmentally-sustainable products in Canada.”