First collaboration is a research project to aid cleantech transition for Canadian companies with competitors who face less strict carbon pricing requirements

Vancouver, CANADA – February 11, 2021 – Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre and Simon Fraser University (SFU) today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate in supporting and growing the cleantech industry in British Columbia and other provinces and addressing global environmental challenges.

The partnership focuses on several areas of opportunity for Foresight and SFU to work together through SFU Innovates, the university’s innovation initiative, including:

• Supporting the development of a world-class cleantech sector in BC
• Hosting programs and events that help grow the cleantech ecosystem 
• Engaging students and professors with cleantech issues and solutions
• Advancing breakthrough energy solutions from lab to market
• Creating new jobs in the cleantech sector

SFU and Foresight will also work together on a new research program funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS). Under the leadership of Dr. Mark Jaccard, SFU University Professor and Director of Resource and Environmental Management, and Dr. Elicia Maine, Special Advisor on Innovation to SFU’s Vice-President, Research and International; and the VanDusen Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the PICS project will inform innovation policy and climate policy to aid the cleantech transition of emissions intensive trade exposed (EITE) industries. Foresight is the industry partner for this applied research study, linking SFU researchers to industry sustainability challenges.  

As Canada’s cleantech ecosystem accelerator, Foresight brings partners together to identify, commercialize, and adopt the clean technologies needed to address today’s most urgent climate challenges. 

For more than 20 years, SFU has established expertise in materials science and engineering, with a complementary investment in clean technology development. As global demand for a shift away from dependencies on fossil fuels towards new sources of renewable, clean and highly efficient energy technologies has increased, SFU has emerged as a globally recognized leader, particularly in the fuel cell science and technology field.

SFU researchers and students collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to deliver innovative technologies that meet these global challenges through SFU programs and initiatives. Other examples of SFU’s clean technology capabilities include: 

• 4D Labs: SFU’s state-of-the-art material science and engineering research facility
• SFU's new School of Sustainable Energy Engineering: this interdisciplinary program is the first of its kind in Western Canada and prepares its students to become global leaders in clean technology
• The recently announced Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) Innovation Centre at SFU 
• SFU Beedie’s Invention to Innovation (i2I) program: developing entrepreneurial mindset in PhD and postdoctoral scientists and engineers and shaping commercialization strategy for their inventions.