SAIT selected as test centre for NATO’s defence innovation network

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Two Alberta post-secondary establishments have entered partnerships with NATO as take a look at centres, because the worldwide alliance works to resolve defence and safety challenges.

Calgary’s Southern Alberta Institute of Expertise and the College of Alberta in Edmonton shall be amongst 13 take a look at centres serving NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) community.

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The community has been within the works since 2022 when Canada proposed Halifax must be chosen as DIANA’s North American regional workplace. The Alberta authorities final 12 months proposed to NATO that it arrange the workplace in downtown Calgary, nonetheless the alliance confirmed in November that it will be situated within the Nova Scotia capital.

“This announcement marks a major milestone and stands as a testomony to the unimaginable progress inside CIRAMM (the Centre for Innovation and Analysis in Superior Manufacturing and Supplies) and the province,” SAIT president and CEO David Ross stated in an announcement.

SAIT will concentrate on offering a variety of superior manufacturing applied sciences, materials science, robotics and automation to NATO, Hamid Rajani, enterprise growth supervisor with CIRAMM, stated in an interview.

The institute may also take a look at defence and aerospace supplies for NATO, Rajani stated.

“They should push the efficiency of supplies to a brand new complete new degree, and testing and characterization is essential to them,” he stated. “This is without doubt one of the capabilities that we have now right here at SAIT . . . that performed a key function in us becoming a member of this partnership.”

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SAIT’s partnership with NATO ‘enormous’

Total, the DIANA partnerships intention to concentrate on “deep tech and dual-use applied sciences which have each civilian and army makes use of,” Canada’s Division of Nationwide Defence stated in a information launch.

As one in every of DIANA’s take a look at centres, SAIT will present amenities to affiliated accelerators. Dartmouth, N.S.-based COVE, for instance, final week was named an affiliated accelerator. COVE gives firms entry to collaborators, traders, researchers and different gamers in Canada’s marine sector.

“If an innovator who’s engaged on a undertaking that has a twin goal . . . in the event that they want help in relation to superior supplies, superior manufacturing, robotics and automation, then SAIT could possibly be a testing centre aiding that innovator,” Rajani stated.

SAIT and NATO nonetheless must formalize the settlement by means of a memorandum of understanding, Rajani stated, after which extra particulars on the partnership shall be launched.

“To have take a look at centres — that is enormous,” Alberta Expertise and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish stated at a information convention Wednesday. “This can be a nice alternative for us as Albertans to take part in next-generation expertise . . . that’s going to contribute to maintain our nation protected.”

Due to the variety of post-secondary establishments throughout North America that SAIT now has entry to, Rajani stated the partnership gives a slew of potential advantages.

SAIT was shortlisted by Canada’s Division of Nationwide Defence as potential companions it proposed to NATO within the DIANA program, Rajani added.

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