Net Zero Atlantic’s Emerging Concepts & Technologies Research Program has received funding from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, with a further $1.15 million investment from Natural Resources Canada.

NRCan’s funding builds on previous contributions and the program is now expanding in scale, the group said in a statement.

This, the program’s third research call, received 28 submissions, awarding nine projects through two funding streams. Six projects were selected under Stream 1, supporting early-stage concept development with awards of $50,000, and three under Stream 2, supporting the evaluation and adoption of external technologies with awards of $150,000.

“ECT-NB is designed to address early-stage research gaps and support the development of innovative solutions with strong potential for real-world impact,” said Tim Bachiu, Director of Research at Net Zero Atlantic.

Since its launch in 2023, ECT-NB has supported 13 early-stage R&D projects with $1.2 million awarded to accelerate solutions in clean energy, low-carbon technologies, and nature-based solutions, the group said.

The following projects were awarded funding:

  • Highly Transparent Organic Solar Cells Using NIR-Absorbing SnPc Donor and C₆₀ Acceptor with Transparent Electrodes (Stream 1) — Bassel Abdel-Samad, Université de Moncton
  • Innovative Thin-Film Radiant Heater Elements (Stream 1) — Pandurang Ashrit, Université de Moncton
  • Scrubbing CO2 from Biogas using Adsorbents Derived from Recycled Plastic Bottles and Aluminum Cans (Stream 1) —- Barry Blight, University of New Brunswick
  • Demonstrating Hydrogen Storage Capability with New Brunswick Manganese-Iron Resources (Stream 2) — Felipe Chibante, University of New Brunswick
  • Validation of Safe, Water-Based, Organic Redox Flow Batteries for Large Scale Energy Storage (Stream 1) — Adam Dyker, University of New Brunswick
  • High-Performance Aluminum Alloy Conductors for GHG Emission Reduction and Enhanced Grid (Stream 1) — Emad Elgallad, Université de Moncton
  • From Waste to Growth: Developing Sustainable Growing Media for Seedling Production (Stream 2) — Rafaella Mayrinck, University of New Brunswick
  • Pilot-Scale Organic Waste Diversion to Biogas: Derisking technology adoption in New Brunswick to Support Net-Zero Carbon Goals (Stream 2) — Danika Poitras, Collège
  • Communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB-INNOV)
  • High-entropy alloy (HEA) as electrocatalyst for hydrogen production (Stream 1) — Gobinda Saha, University of New Brunswick