ESTEVAN - The Estevan Chamber of Commerce had a presentation about the National Research Council Canada and its programs at their latest Coffee Talk on Nov. 1.
Industrial technology advisors Shawn Wedewer and Joseph Toth with NRC Canada spoke about the organization, its areas of expertise, its Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and how it can benefit the area and its residents.
"Our whole mandate is really just to generate wealth and benefits to Canada. And the way we really do that is we work with smaller businesses … companies up to 500 people. And they can be anywhere from a startup to a company of up to 500 people, they can make $30 million in revenue. So, we will sit down with them and figure out what the needs of those companies are," Wedewer explained.
"We try to find out what research and development aspects they're trying to tackle. And we have different programs that we can help these firms with that."
He noted that there are about 280 industrial technology advisors with the NRC across Canada, with various industrial backgrounds and skills, who are willing to share their experience to help Canadian businesses succeed.
"If I'm working with a firm, and I don't quite understand what their business is doing, I can still work with them. I just bring in a friend from NRC and we sit down with them and we hopefully have somebody that can speak the same technical language that the company is speaking, and we try to help them," Wedewer said.
NRC is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada with a rich history of innovation and contributions to science in the country.
While NRC celebrated its centennial in 2016, the IRAP started in 1947 in an attempt to pivot the war-oriented industries back towards peaceful production. Currently, IRAP provides advice, connections and funding to help Canadian small and medium-sized businesses increase their innovation capacity and take ideas to market.
"[Originally] it was a fairly small program. And over the years, it's more to the point where, every year in Saskatchewan, I think the base budget that we put back into small to medium-sized enterprises is about $8 million. And if other provinces don't spend their budget, Saskatchewan has notoriously been really good at taking more than their fair share, because we can always find the companies that [deserve] our funding. So, I think in the past couple of years, we've been closer to $13 million. And we always seem to be able to find companies to invest in and deploy our funds," Wedewer noted.
Toth added that the program is currently in high demand in Saskatchewan with a lot of companies innovating and growing to the next stage in their development. He said they receive money from the federal government at the beginning of their fiscal year in April and, with some exceptions, have it committed by the end of June. Then they start working with the funds helping businesses in ways they need. There are various programs within IRAP designed to address different needs to support entrepreneurs in their growth, one way or another benefiting Canada and its taxpayers.
To learn more about NRC and IRAP check out their website at nrc.canada.ca.
