Industry group TechNL has announced the creation of a new innovation hub in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador, for companies with remote operations.

The project is funded jointly by the federal government via the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency with $2.5 million over the next three years and the provincial government providing $7.1 million over the next six years. The hub will include office space for remote workers and companies with distributed staff, as well as light manufacturing facilities and events space.

Other partners on the initiative include Energy NL, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and Energy Research & Innovation Newfoundland & Labrador, or ERINL.

“Our vision is to create a world-class ecosystem for remote operations,” said TechNL CEO Florian Villaumé in a statement.

“This funding will establish a collaborative innovation space built to address the technology development needs of established and growing companies through proximity to other innovators, collaboration, programming, access to special technology assets and visibility.”

Energy NL is an industry group that represent’s energy sector players in Newfoundland, including about 460 members organizations with headquarters worldwide.

And ERINL is a non-profit that spearheads research and development projects for the offshore oil and gas industry.

The announcement comes as a sizeable percentage of Atlantic Canadian startups interviewed by Entrevestor say at least some of their employees work remotely, with many having staff in relatively far-flung locales like Ontario, Massachusetts and California.

“Momentum and support for the Innovation Centre have been steadily growing across multiple sectors,” said Villaumé, who took over the TechNL CEO post earlier this year. “Letters of support for the Innovation Centre were received from 23 companies and organizations and many volunteers spent hours supporting the development of this project.”