Reports

In 2025 we focused on deeper collaboration, created stronger pathways to scale, and expanded our impact across Canada’s most promising innovation sectors. Through our trade missions and national events like Quantum Days, we strengthened our global presence and built connections with partners who are truly aligned with our vision and mission.

At Deep Tech Canada, 2024 was a year of momentum. We built connections across quantum, biotech, critical minerals, and advanced materials to drive impact at home and abroad.

From Tokyo to Toronto, we opened doors for Canadian technologies to go global and created space for international ideas to grow here. We launched new initiatives, built partnerships, and celebrated the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology with a sold-out Quantum Days.

What stood out this year was the impact. We saw Canadian talent stepping onto the world stage, research moving into real-world applications, and collaboration turning into action.

Deep tech thrives on the dynamic interaction between emerging technologies + established sectors. This year, we have laid a robust foundation for such an ecosystem through extensive relationship building across our strategic priority areas. We conducted a detailed survey to better understand the makeup and needs of the deep tech community. Additionally, we explored the transformative impact of deep tech in the health sector through discussions with graduate students nationwide about evolving training needs, engagements with small and medium-sized enterprises looking to expand in Canada, collaborations with leading academics in nanomedicine and machine learning, and dialogues with government agencies focused on technology adoption through procurement and policymaking.

In 2022 our mandate expanded to leverage our strengths, incredible members, and community for a broader impact. Our vision is to continue to serve our community and create meaningful collisions of sectors and technologies that will impact health, climate action, communication, agri-tech, and transportation. We look forward to expanding our reach to further support Canada’s incredible innovation ecosystem.

A metamorphosis is “a striking alteration in appearance, character or circumstances or a change of physical form, structure, or substance, especially by supernatural means”. NanoCanada is going through a metamorphosis that is more of an evolution than a sudden transformation and does not involve any supernatural forces! It is a change driven by a passion for action through technology collisions yielding solutions to the critical issues of the planet. Stay connected as we emerge from our beautiful cocoon.

As we enter a second year of a COVID pandemic, I cannot help but feel a sense of wonder thinking about human resilience and courage in the face of despair and tragedy. At NanoCanada, we have found ways to adapt to the new circumstances—online international missions, new webinar series, partnerships on web events, all of this while wearing our yoga pants and fuzzy slippers! We also learned a lot about writing successful funding proposals while building wonderful relationships with the NGen supercluster, the Nanomedicines Innovation Network, NCE, ISED, Global Affairs’ program officers, and regional economic development program officers. We have been busier than ever and it has been a source of great joy and pride to see so many companies do well, adapting their business models to the needs of the country under pandemic restrictions. I hope that you enjoy reading about it in this report and we look forward to seeing you in-person for our international conference in June 2022!

Just over a year has gone by since NanoCanada’s incorporation as a not-for-profit entity. While marked by our international technology showcase missions to Brazil, Italy, Korea, Japan, and the USA, last year also featured some firsts for NanoCanada. In partnership with the National Nanotechnology Initiative in the USA, we convened a first international nano associations meeting at World TechConnect in Boston. We committed to work together to highlight the power and impact of nanotechnology across the globe. A concerted celebration of international nano day on October 9th, 2019 was its first outcome and nano associations from across the globe planned a series of community events and activities. This raised awareness of how nanotechnology is currently used in products that enrich our daily lives, as well as the challenges and opportunities it holds for the future.

When the concept of a national network in nanotechnology was implemented in March 2015, it was to address the urgent need to translate a decade of scientific and technical breakthroughs into the Canadian marketplace. Since then, NanoCanada has focused on organising international missions to support the global competitiveness of Canadian small and medium size enterprises (SME). This has already borne fruit with tens of millions of dollars in sales, the establishment of global distribution networks and research contracts. Thanks to strong relationships with provincial offices and federal trade commissioners, NanoCanada has been able to leverage the Canadian brand for the benefit of our entrepreneurs and innovators.