By Craig Bamford
New Innovative Solutions Challenge: cleantech resolving plastics waste
Welcome to Notables for October 10th, 2018. This week: a set of surprisingly-linked stories about scientific research.
First this week: Innovation in cleantech and plastics!
As noted by our friends at RDP Associates, the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) program is looking into the cleantech possibilities related to plastic. ISC works with stakeholders and the public to identify specific "challenges" for innovation, then partners with eligible Canadian small business with potential solutions - providing them with both financial and logistical support for creating proofs of concept, prototypes, and even serving as a potential first buyers.
This time around, along with interesting programs involving remote interpretation and naval kinetic energy harvesting, the government has a series of "plastics challenges". Environment and Climate Change Canada is looking for improvements to the separation of mixed plastics; dealing with plastic construction waste; and better-designed, less wasteful film food packaging. Also, Transport Canada is looking for solutions for recycling or reusing glass fiber-reinforced plastic, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is seeking means to make bioplastics more compatible with home and municipal composting; and Fisheries and Oceans Canada is seeking a means to reduce or eliminate aquatic plastic pollution caused by fisheries and aquaculture.
To learn more about the program's requirements, click here.
D-Wave opens quantum computing to the public
Second this week: Public Access to Quantum Computing.
D-Wave Systems Inc., Canadian pioneers in quantum computing, will be opening up their platform to the public. Effective immediately, the public will have access to the D-Wave Leap Quantum Application Environment, a cloud-based platform providing real-time access to a live quantum computer.
Along with access to a D-Wave 2000Q quantum computer, people will be able to use the open-source Ocean quantum software development kit, which includes both built-in algorithms and the Python programming language for creating new code; as well as interactive demonstrations and examples, learning resources, and forums offering community and technical support. Already, D-Wave customers have developed 100 early applications, including airline scheduling, election modeling, automotive design, logistics, and preventative healthcare.
Developers are expressing interest; Thomas Phillips of Ridgeback Network Defense said that "I can now tackle exceptionally difficult cybersecurity problems I've only imagined solving before now", and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)'s Senior Venture Manager, Khalid Kurji, said that "D-Wave's Quantum Application Environment...will play an important role not just in the growth of ideas we have today, but in the fostering of innovations for tomorrow."
OMERS Ventures on talent acquisition for startups and scaleups
Finally: OMERS Ventures helps with acquiring talent for startups and scaleups.
OMERS Ventures has produced a new guide to help companies with talent acquisition. Written by the firm's Talent Director, Sara Cooper, the guide identfies talent as "one of the biggest challenges a company faces", noting that it is "even more pronounced in the start-up industry". The guide looks at the issue for firms at several different stages; growing from one to 50 employees, from 50 to 100, from 100 to 150, 150 to 200, or rising past 200.
What they've found:
For more, including a checklist on what companies should consider, click here.
Notables is a weekly collection of interesting science, technology, investment and innovation reports, press releases and other news bytes from around the web. Notables are curated and written by Craig Bamford.
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The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of RE$EARCH MONEY.