With a refreshed five-year mandate from the federal government, Canada's Ocean Supercluster is calling for applicants to its new artificial intelligence program, which will spend $20 million to fund research and commercialization work from blue economy companies.

The program’s Discovery Stream will fund investigations and studies into implementing AI for commercial oceans activities -- projects worth $50,000 to $150,000,  The Readiness and Commercialization stream will fund research and development work aimed at near-term commercialization, with budgets of 150,000 to $5 million.

“This program will trigger new incremental investment into ocean AI solutions and accelerate the adoption of AI by Canadian companies,” says the Supercluster in its call for proposals.

The Ocean Supercluster is one of five such industry groups nationally that organize and jointly fund research and development collaborations with industry players like startups, with each cluster operating in a different sector. CEO Kendra MacDonald and her team have also inked research partnerships with similar bluetech groups in other countries, most recently Portugal.

The Supercluster has 520 member organizations and has approved 86 projects worth a combined $400 million to date.

The deadline to apply is March 31 at 8:00 p.m. Atlantic, 4:00 p.m. Pacific. More information and an application form can be found here.