Vancouver, BC, January 13, 2017--(T-Net)--BC Innovation Council announced the top 10 applicants for its second BCIC "Ignite Awards".
BCIC Ignite provides funding to accelerate commercialization of new technologies and innovations in the natural resources and applied sciences in British Columbia, and almost $1M was awarded to the organization's first BCIC Ignite Award winners last year.
The program provides awards of up to $300,000 to consortia that are conducting research projects that address a significant demonstrated problem faced by industry and will commercialize a proposed innovation within a 3-year timeframe.
Here are the Top 10 applicants for the Ignite Awards 2 as provided by the BC Innovation Council.
The goal - Improve testing of patients with severe sepsis or shock.
The innovation - A single-step, low-cost immunoassay device to test the blood of patients. Compared to conventional methods of testing, this innovation will save customer's expenses, time and man power.
The goal - Develop a new, environmental DNA-based detection system for ecological surveys of freshwater amphibian and mammal species.
The innovation - This simple, affordable test will allow government, industry, First Nations and the general public to easily and efficiently make land use, resource and policy decisions.
The goal - Develop Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) research technology.
The innovation - This UBC-invented technology called CHIMERA (Closed Head Injury Model of Engineered Rotational Acceleration) resembles human injury by enabling TBI-induced brain changes to be studied in a range of clinically-relevant animal models linked to neurodegenerative disease.
4 - UBC's Dr. Steven Rogak working with Hydra Energy and Revolve Technologies.
The goal - Develop the first dual-fuel hydrogen/diesel heavy-duty Class 8 trucks in North America.
The innovation - Converting Class 8 trucks from traditional combustion engines to ultra-low-cost, innovative ones will enable fleet operators to significantly reduce costs and CO2 emissions.
The goal - Develop a more accurate, less operator dependent, portable ultrasound tool.
The innovation - SWAVE (Shear Wave Absolute Vibroelastography) will allow for rapid, accurate and reliable diagnosis of disease to improve patient care related to cancer imaging in the breast and prostate and fibrosis imaging in the liver and the kidney.
6 - UBC's Dr. Guy Dumont working with the Centre for International Child Health's Dr. Mark Ansermino and LGT Medical Technology.
The goal - Develop a commercial grade mobile health platform focused on delivering patient-level risk prediction.
The innovation - The Pocket Doc Project will integrate key vital sign measurements such as pulse and respiratory rate while remaining flexible enough to work in a variety of health systems. In addition, the project has immense value for low and middle income countries and remote areas of BC to optimizing scarce resources.
The goal - Develop a technology to enable industrial cameras to self-clean in harsh industrial environments with no scheduled maintenance necessary.
The innovation - ClearSightTM, the patent-pending technology called takes inspiration from a human eye's mechanism for self-cleaning. The proposed solution will increase safety in industrial environments as well as eliminate regular maintenance of the camera, the associated operation interruptions and the expenses of deploying personnel, cranes and manlifts currently used to clean cameras.
The goal - Bring to market efficient and safe, wood-based prefabricated commercial Massive Timber Panels for use as exterior walls in tall residential and commercial Mass Timber Buildings.
The innovation - This technology would to change the building of commercial wooden buildings and make BC Passive House the first manufacturer with a “wood first” market solution that meets all the requirements for multi-storey and large-scale construction.
The goal - Develop and commercialize a waste remedy for industrial pollutants, namely ammonia.
The innovation - The remedy will focus on various industrial sectors, including semi-conductor, pharmaceutical, digesters (municipal and waste-to-energy) and food/beverage.
The goal - Improve the way in-field data collection and documentation.
The innovation - The technology works through the use of inexpensive Bluetooth beacon technology and mobile devices. Aimed at the emerging ‘smart worksite' market, it hopes to ensure that field data is of higher quality, more easily retrieved and used to inform decisions that are made in the course of daily business.
Applications are also now open for the third generation of BCIC Ignite Awards winners (Summer-Fall Competition 2017, Letter of Intent is due to BCIC by June 27, 2017).
About BCIC Ignite
BCIC Ignite provides funding to accelerate commercialization of new technologies and innovations in the natural resources and applied sciences in British Columbia. The program provides awards of up to $300,000 to consortia that are conducting research projects that address a significant demonstrated problem faced by industry and will commercialize a proposed innovation within a 3-year timeframe.
Program Overview
Focus: Proposals must involve the areas of natural resources, applied science and/or engineering, and must provide a clearly articulated solution to an existing problem.
Teams: Applicants must be a BC-based consortium comprised of two or more companies, organizations and academic researchers. All consortia must include an academic member and an industry partner.
Matching funds: Projects must secure matching funds from industry or government sources at a ratio of 2:1 matching dollars to Ignite dollars.
Timing: Projects must plan to move a proposed innovation to market within a 3-year timeframe.
BC Innovation Council (BCIC) encourages the development and application of advanced or innovative technologies to meet the needs of industry in BC. We accelerate technology commercialization by supporting startups and developing entrepreneurs.
With our partners, BCIC delivers programs and initiatives that promote company growth, resulting in jobs, increased revenue and economic development in BC.
BCIC is a Crown Agency of the Province of British Columbia.