2023–2024 Annual Report

Driving innovation for greener fuels and materials

Sharon Chen is the project technical lead on the hydrogen innovation project with Next Hydrogen. Drawing on her background in materials science and electrochemistry, she oversees the synthesis and evaluation of the catalysts developed for the project, ensuring they meet the necessary standards.

Green hydrogen fuel at scale

Emissions from fossil fuels are among the biggest contributors to climate change. But because they power so much of our world, moving away from their use requires a reliable, cost-effective alternative. Hydrogen is an option that shows promise, but traditional methods of producing it depend on fossil fuels and generate massive amounts of carbon dioxide—up to 10 tonnes for every tonne of hydrogen. Electrolysis-based methods are available that use clean electricity to split water molecules, eliminating the need for fossil fuels and avoiding carbon emissions, but they tend to be prohibitively expensive. Reducing these costs will be key to scaling up green hydrogen production—and to meeting the goals of Canada's Hydrogen Strategy.

To do that, the team at our advanced materials research facility in Mississauga has been working closely with Mississauga-based energy company Next Hydrogen under the Materials for Clean Fuels Challenge program. The goal is to enhance the company's next-generation electrolyzer with cutting-edge electrode catalysts, which decrease the energy required for the molecule-splitting process. That makes the process more efficient so green hydrogen can become a more accessible option for energy storage, fuel and other industrial applications.

In addition to developing unique electrode catalysts that are helping Next Hydrogen achieve best-in-class energy efficiency, the NRC is also supporting the company with advisory services and funding through NRC IRAP.

Developing new hydrogen technologies through international collaboration

We are working with Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research, along with academic and private sector partners in both countries, on 4 collaborative research and development projects to advance the use of low carbon hydrogen technologies in the Canadian and German energy systems. These projects are being undertaken through the 3+2 Canada–Germany Collaborative Industrial Research and Development Program. They will develop a reactor for the sustainable cogeneration of hydrogen, heat and alumina from the combustion of recycled aluminum with water as well as increase the cost-effectiveness of hydrogen technologies, improve electrolyzer efficiency and design and optimize a large-scale electrolyzer using high-performance, stable electrodes.

Examining bias in AI

For any AI application to be useful, it is critical for its algorithms to be trained well and free of bias. Kathleen Fraser, Research Officer with the Digital Technologies Research Centre, explored this issue in a 2024 paper on gender and racial bias in large vision-language models.

Her research used a set of parallel images to identify and examine biases in the trained models. For example, an image of a woman in scrubs was more likely to be identified as a nurse, while a similar image showing a man was more likely to be described as a doctor. Likewise, images of Black men were more likely to be described in ways associated with criminality, regardless of context in the image.

This research is an important step in identifying biases in AI so actions can be taken to mitigate these issues when developing and training AI applications to ensure they can work fairly for everyone.

AI-enhanced flight technologies

Canada has long been a leader in aviation technology. To remain a leader, we must embrace and continue to push the boundaries of emerging technologies such as AI. We did that in spring 2023, when we demonstrated a cutting-edge solution to one of the most challenging elements of helicopter flight: landing on soft surfaces.

As helicopters approach the ground, their rotors create powerful winds at ground level. If the surface is covered in sand or snow, for example, those winds stir up massive dust clouds that make it impossible for a pilot to see the ground and much more dangerous to land. At the 2023 US Army's Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event (EDGE23) in Arizona, our Aerospace Research Centre showcased its Canadian vertical lift autonomy demonstration (CVLAD)—and we were the only one of more than 100 participants to successfully land a helicopter in a degraded visual environment.

CVLAD uses lidar technology and AI to see, map and evaluate a landing spot so the helicopter can land safely even if the pilot cannot see the ground at all. At EDGE23, CVLAD also completed the first-ever autonomous no-hover landing, a complicated manoeuvre that sees a helicopter descend and land without pausing near the ground. CVLAD was also able to complete a team event that involved working with and controlling a drone in conjunction with the helicopter—another first for an autonomous system.

This solution has the potential to be a game changer, enabling helicopters to land in even more places and conditions than they currently can, with applications from search and rescue to critical deliveries in remote Northern communities.

Better detection of drones and lasers

In another project, our Digital Technologies Research Centre brought expertise in optics, physics, signal processing, machine learning, machine vision and neuromorphic systems to develop a revolutionary way to detect uncrewed aerial systems, commonly known as drones. While many drones are harmless, they can also pose risks—accidental or intentional—to privacy, security and safety, making it vital to have a way of detecting them. Unlike traditional drone detection methods, which rely on visual or radio identification and are less effective in crowded areas such as dense urban settings and forests, our approach isolates the unique "signature" of a drone's rotating propellors. This method has proven to be highly reliable and accurate at differentiating between drones and helicopters and also between different types of drones. Our teams are now working to advance the next generation prototype, which will double the detection range, add a radio link to communicate detection and offer full integration into the drone detection ecosystem, paving the way for eventual commercial use.

Another team is working to solve the threat to aircraft posed by lasers, developing a low-power laser warning system that can quickly and accurately locate the source of a beam so evasive action can be taken.

Leading Canada's biomanufacturing future

Minh-Luan Tran has been involved in building commercial-scale pharmaceutical facilities for more than 25 years, but never a facility dedicated to supporting clinical trials. He jumped at the chance to oversee the construction of the clinical trial material facility, ensuring it met all regulatory requirements—and then became the facility's first director when it opened in April 2024.

A new facility to support domestic biomanufacturing

One of the biggest challenges to advancing made-in-Canada vaccines and other medications has been an inability to move discoveries to the clinical trial phase due to a lack of manufacturing capacity. This was particularly evident during the pandemic, when Canada was reliant on external procurement for clinical trial doses of vaccines and therapeutics.

The Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre oversaw the construction as well as the commissioning, qualification and validation of a 1,700-square-metre state-of-the-art facility in Montréal to supply hospitals, health networks, academia, industry and government departments with vaccines and other therapeutics for use in clinical trials. This includes the production of fusion proteins, monoclonal antibodies, viral vectors, protein sub-units, virus-like particles and gene therapies. The new facility is compliant with good manufacturing practices recognized by Canadian, American and European regulatory authorities, ensuring the drugs made there are consistently produced so they are safe and of high quality.

This facility, which opened its doors on April 1, 2024, bridges the gap between biomanufacturing research and commercial production, helping shore up Canada's domestic production capacity and making the country more resilient to another global pandemic and other health crises.

Making a difference every day

Anne-Marie Harte views her role as an industrial technology advisor with NRC IRAP as that of a trusted expert who can fill in some of the knowledge gaps business owners face, helping them scale up their innovations and progress through their commercialization journeys.

Support with impact

The NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) is a vital contributor to the growth and success of Canada's small and medium-sized businesses, offering advice, connections and funding to help them increase their innovation capacity and take their ideas to market. Many of NRC IRAP's industrial technology advisors arrive at the organization having already had successful careers, enabling them to use their experience to build a support network around newer Canadian companies that goes well beyond funding.

NRC IRAP started as the Technical Information Service, a small office charged with keeping Canada's small manufacturing industry alive and growing in the years following the Second World War by answering questions from Canadian firms. The Technical Information Service later became part of the NRC and took on the role of providing advisory services and financial support for Canadian R&D.

Since then, NRC IRAP has expanded its offerings, tailoring its support to provide every company with the unique set of tools it needs to succeed and often building long-term relationships with their industrial technology advisors, who become trusted advisors. Today, NRC IRAP is Canada's leading innovation assistance program, providing a vital service to Canadian small and medium-sized businesses.

A voice on the world stage

After only a year as a full member of the Eureka Network, Canada was appointed co-chair with Germany for 2024–2025, the first time in the network's almost 40-year history that the chair role will be shared and the first time a non-European country will take on this role.

Eureka is a network of more than 45 countries that aims to foster market integration and encourage international R&D cooperation. As the official Eureka office in Canada, the NRC has been pleased to be actively involved in many exciting projects, serving as the first point of contact for Canadian companies, researchers and academics, and giving them access to an expansive global network. This has given Canadian innovators valuable opportunities to work with international partners and benefit from diverse expertise, knowledge and resources, helping them expand into new markets and access global value chains.

We look forward to working with Germany over the course of the next year, finding new ways to collaborate and harness the power of the Eureka platform for the benefit of our countries and all other member nations. Our role as co-chair gives us a unique opportunity to influence the strategic direction of the network and leverage international innovation ecosystems to find new ways to build a resilient future for Canada and the world. One goal of the Canadian-German co-chair is to harness the potential of the network to identify and contribute to solving diverse transformative challenges through targeted international industrial research collaboration, with a particular focus on circular value creation.

Shrinking the carbon footprint of concrete

Portland cement is a key ingredient in most concrete. And because of the huge amount of concrete used in the construction industry, it's responsible for 7% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Other materials, such as fly ash, silica fume, ground granulated blast furnace slag and metakaolin, can reduce the amount of cement needed to make concrete, but scarcity makes these materials difficult to source.

That's why Pierre-Claver Nkinamubanzi, a senior research officer with the Construction Research Centre, is looking into the use of aluminum silicate as an alternative. Small-scale results of outdoor poured slabs in 2021 and 2023 have shown promise, and real-world, low-risk demonstration projects (e.g. sidewalks, parking lots) are being planned to further test the feasibility and scalability of concrete made with aluminum silicate.

Research to support low carbon innovation

Because the construction sector is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases, it will play a large role in achieving Canada's target of net-zero emissions in the built environment by 2050. To do so, the sector will need new technologies and tools to reduce emissions from the production of materials and the ongoing operation of buildings once they are constructed. In support of that goal, we launched the Platform to Decarbonize the Construction Sector at Scale.

The platform supports 2 main focus areas:

Low carbon regulatory solutions

We are working with stakeholders to develop new low carbon requirements, to be implemented through standards, specifications, guidelines and other publications. Ongoing activities include updates to the Canadian National Master Construction Specification (NMS) to include low carbon solutions as well as the development of a low carbon guideline for federally funded construction projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Two new Challenge programs

One of the programs, the Low Carbon Built Environment Challenge program, provides funding to initiatives that support the development of low carbon construction solutions.

Focus of projects under this Challenge program:

• Low carbon materials, products and systems
• Low carbon operations and maintenance solutions
• Carbon accounting, life cycle assessment and benchmarking tools
• Low carbon decision-support tools

The other program, the Construction Sector Digitalization and Productivity Challenge program, supports the modernization and digitalization of the practices of the Canadian construction sector. The initiatives funded by the program will not only reduce the carbon footprint of the construction industry but also help accelerate the building of new homes, which is a key priority of the federal government in the face of the current housing challenge. These initiatives will also help construction professionals choose fit-for-purpose and low carbon building solutions, implement information management across the value chain and streamline the use of modular construction to reduce construction times.

Focus of projects under this Challenge program:

• Accelerating innovation through performance-based regulation
• Digitalizing construction processes
• Accelerating low carbon solutions and retrofits through advanced construction practices

Enhancing the agricultural landscape

Addressing pressing global challenges like food security is one of Sateesh Kagale's top priorities. He leads a team that enhances the productivity of Canada's crops through genetics, genomics and advanced data analytics, with a particular focus on making canola and pulse crops more nutritious and more resilient.

Higher protein content to boost canola crop values

Canola is one of Canada's most important crops, generating almost $30 billion in economic activity per year. While most of its value comes from the oil pressed from its seeds, the residual meal could offer another revenue stream as a protein source for animal feed. However, the nutritional quality of canola meal typically is not optimal due to low levels of protein and high levels of insoluble fibre that many animals cannot digest.

To solve this issue, our Aquatic and Crop Resource Development Research Centre has been working with Corteva Agriscience to identify key traits that can boost the protein content and insert the genes that can produce them. Using conventional mutation breeding, researchers can further isolate and propagate the desired traits, creating canola lines with higher protein content. These can generate more value for farmers, breeders, processors and exporters by expanding the domestic food and feed market and diversifying export opportunities. This would also help achieve the objectives set out in Canada's plant protein sector roadmap to expand Canada's plant-based food, feed and ingredient sector.

Disease-resistant peas support climate change mitigation

The escalating global demand for food has led to the overuse of nitrogen fertilizers in an effort to maximize yields. One side effect of this practice is higher greenhouse gas emissions. Pulse crops such as peas require less nitrogen and therefore produce fewer emissions, but they are highly susceptible to root rot and drought. As part of Genome Canada's Climate Action Genomics Initiative, NRC scientists have been working to harness the genetic diversity of peas and implement an advanced genomic prediction framework to enhance resilience to root rot and drought. This helps promote sustainable agricultural practices and reduce the carbon footprint of Canada's agricultural sector.