The Nova Scotia government has provided more than $6.5 million for nine oceans research projects from its $25 million Research Nova Scotia Trust.

Premier Stephen McNeil said that the nine projects are expected to support more than 170 jobs in the province, and training for more than 200 research graduates, interns, lab technicians, project managers and faculty.

The fund’s first tranche of funding is being directed to oceans research as part of the effort to make Atlantic Canada a global hub for marine research and enterprise. The region’s oceans sector is one of the finalists for funding under the government’s $950 million supercluster program. The government said there would be more funding in other sectors in the coming months.

“Nova Scotia has a competitive advantage in the oceans sector and we are supporting research that will have the greatest impact on the province’s economy,” said McNeil in a statement. “The Research Nova Scotia Trust will help us create jobs for Nova Scotians, particularly young Nova Scotians. A growing oceans sector will make our province stronger.”

According to the CBC, more than four-fifths of the funding announced Tuesday will go to two projects.

Sara Iverson of the Ocean Tracking Network received $2.9 million to increase the number of autonomous gliders centred in Halifax to monitor ocean conditions.

Ocean Executive Prepares for Launch

Mladen Nedimovic got $2.7 million to establish a seismic-monitoring network in Canada's three oceans.

Nedimovic and researchers from nine other universities in five provinces plan to deploy the system comprising 130 ocean-bottom broadband seismometers within two years.

 “Funding from the Research Nova Scotia Trust will support the deployment of gliders and moored systems in remote parts of the North Atlantic,” said Iverson, a professor of marine biology at Dalhousie University. “Among many other activities supported, this will allow us to listen for endangered right whales and relay, in near real time, the animals' location to both researchers and vessels in the area.”

The government said the funding helped attract an additional $9.9 million from the federal government, and $9.7 million from other Nova Scotia partners and in-kind contributions.

Established in March 2017, the Research Nova Scotia Trust will support research projects put forward by the province’s universities and the Nova Scotia Community College in the areas of ocean and science technology, aerospace and defence, clean technology, health and wellness, resource sectors and social innovation.

“Investments from the trust better position the province to compete for leading research projects and allow us to attract and retain the very best research talent out there,” said Colin Dodds, trustee of Research Nova Scotia Trust. “This funding is critical to supporting the ground-breaking work done by some of the province’s leading researchers.” 

Disclosure: the Nova Scotia government is a client of Entrevestor.