By 2030, the global ocean economy is expected to double in value to $3 trillion, outpacing the growth of the broader global economy by almost 20 per cent. With the largest coastline in the world, highly productive ecosystems, subsea resources, and industry sectors flush with ocean expertise, Canada is well-positioned to deliver on the demand for global ocean solutions. 

Today, Canada’s Ocean economy is represented by over 600 marine companies and ocean tech firms and more than 10,000 fishing enterprise. Their expertise in ocean technology, research, education, safety and sustainability, is combined with some of the most abundant ocean resources and infrastructure in the world. Our ocean industries employ almost 350,000 Canadians and contribute more than $36 billion to the country’s gross domestic product, with an incredible opportunity for growth. 

Seventy-five percent of Canada’s ocean economy is in Atlantic Canada, where ocean-related activities make up 15-20% of the region’s economy.  Supercharging this ocean advantage is Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC).  To incent large scale industry collaboration, the OSC was launched in 2018 as one of five superclusters, funded federally from a $950 million budget and matched dollar for dollar by private-sector funding. 

OSC is an industry-led, transformative cluster model that is driving cross-sectoral collaboration, accelerating innovation, and growing Canada’s ocean economy and position as a world leader in oceans. A key feature of the cluster is collaborations between organizations, for example the Ocean Startup Project, a unique pan-Atlantic collaboration between six provincial and regional organizations, OSC and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. 

The Ocean Startup Project’s vision is to make Canada the best place in the world to start and grow an ocean technology company. Realizing that vision will take collaboration, competition, resilience, Canada’s innate ocean strengths, and a supportive ecosystem nurtured by the public, private and post-secondary sectors, which is exactly what the Halifax Innovation District and its Atlantic Canadian innovation colleagues offer.

Halifax Innovation District nurtures ocean tech 

On Canada’s Atlantic coast, Halifax, Nova Scotia boasts a productive Innovation District that sets ocean innovators and companies up for success and makes attracting and retaining world-class talent not only possible but a reality. 

The Halifax Innovation District is home to world-class ocean researchers at respected post-secondary institutions and government labs, scores of incubators and accelerators, entrepreneurs and mid-career professionals who are taking risks and forming new ocean startups, and engaged mentors who have founded and scaled companies. There are also many private–public sector collaborations at the national, provincial, and municipal levels, specialized facilities for testing and scaling up technologies, and economic and technology development support from all orders of government.

It is proven that when innovators and startup founders work in close proximity and can connect regularly, then they have higher potential to augment their companies’ competitive advantage and their chances for success increase exponentially. People naturally gravitate to centers of excellence where they have easy access to resources, innovation assets, competition, a strong workforce, and a network of colleagues.  

Here, home grown startups like Dartmouth Ocean Technologies are developing sensors that can detect the presence of organic matter and phosphates in water, while Graphite Innovation and Technologies are revolutionizing the future of underwater marine coatings. Global companies MacCartney and Kraken are leveraging the ecosystem to build their business through Halifax-based expansions. 

On the research and technology commercialization front, Halifax has Dalhousie University, the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE), the National Research Council (NRC), and everything in between. Funding support and investment organizations range from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Nova Scotia Business Inc. and the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program to the Business Development Bank of Canada and Innovacorp for early stage ventures.

For mentorship, entrepreneurship training and other ecosystem backing, innovators can start and accelerate their businesses through Creative Destruction Lab – Atlantic, Volta, Innovacorp, Springboard Atlantic, and the Ocean Startup Project, to name just a few of the innovation hubs and support organizations in the Halifax Innovation District. 

The District’s strength in supporting startups, scaleups and R&D are among the many reasons why it has been invited to join a select network of Innovation Districts, convened by the Global Institute of Innovation Districts (GIID), to share best practices and contribute to strategy sessions focused on district governance, venture capital funding, public and private sector partnerships and more, enabling it to learn from and contribute to its global District peers while helping to shape the theory and practice of global innovation.

Nationally, Canada is leveraging its natural geography and building the infrastructure required to be successful in ocean-related sectors by augmenting existing facilities to better support innovators. That includes developing first-rate facilities like COVE, the Holyrood Marine Base, the proposed Ocean Futures Innovation Hub Victoria, and the Verschuren Centre, which will offer access to ocean opportunities, colocation with other ocean ventures, and natural conditions that are virtually unparalleled globally. 

OSC, the Ocean Startup Project and countless partners and innovators are fueling a Canadian movement that is happening from coast to coast to coast. In concert, they intend to create thousands of jobs. By helping innovators connect into and sustainably leverage Canada’s rich ecosystem, the Ocean Startup Project believes Canada can boost its ocean economy and create high-growth firms that punch above their weight globally.

Donald Grant, Executive Director of Canada's Ocean Startup Project

Miriam Zitner, Vice President of the Halifax Innovation District