Revenues in Newfoundland's Ocean Technology Cluster Growing at 31% Annually

Sales revenues in the 50 companies within Oceans Advance, Newfoundland and Labrador’s ocean technology cluster, have increased by 126 per cent since 2006--31 per cent annually--from $225 million to $509 million. Related sales revenues increased from $129 million to $433 million during that time. Exports increased by 300 per cent.

 

Dennis Hogan, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Province’s Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, reported on the growth of the cluster at the National Research Council’s Institute of Ocean Technology on January 13th.

 

Hogan, who recently completed an MBA in Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), compared the innovation ecosystem at MIT and Harvard to the activity within Oceans Advance: “I felt pride in our companies and what we’re doing here. Our research and technology firms are on par in a lot of ways.” The main differences he cited are location, geography, scale, and scope. He attributed the hotbed of innovation in the cluster to “the resilience in the population which comes from living on a barren rock.”

 

Private-sector R&D expenditures increased 57 per cent to $23 million, and institutional spending on research surpassed $20 million. In the question and answer period following the announcement, Dr. Henri Rothschild, President & CEO, International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada, said that R&D intensity in Newfoundland and Labrador’s ocean technology cluster is among the highest in Canada when measured either on a per capita basis or by economic output.    

 

Information systems, sensors, and communications is the strongest category of technical competencies among companies in the cluster (50 per cent), followed by vessel and platform engineering (40 per cent), and autonomous systems, intelligent systems, and robotics (36 per cent).

 

The provincial government's Department of Innovation, Trade, and Rural Development is investing in the ocean technology sector through a number of programs and initiatives including the Ocean Technology Investment Fund, OceanTech Global, incubation support, Polaris Program, and the Northwest Atlantic Ocean Observing System Partnership. 

 

Asked what is driving the growth among the companies in the cluster, Oceans Advance’s Executive Director Les O’Reilly said, “Our companies have grown to understand that the avenues to successful business development and innovation include having the right talent, encouraging collaboration, risk taking, being global in outlook, and organizing the innovation process from beginning to end."