BC Business
BCIC Ignite Awards honour technology innovators who address a major problem faced by industry
Simon Pickup was a BCIC Ignite Award winner in February
The BCIC Ignite Awards are ready for liftoff. On Tuesday, October 10, the BC Innovation Council (BCIC) will recognize academic and industry partnerships to commercialize groundbreaking technologies in natural resources and applied sciences. BCBusiness is a media sponsor of the event, which takes place at the Vancouver Club from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Crown agency BCIC launched the biannual Ignite Awards in September 2016. The awards, which can be as much as $300,000, go to research projects that address a major problem faced by industry. “There is a significant level of research, collaboration and ingenuity happening across our province. Ignite is able to take all of these moving parts and focus it on creating innovative solutions for real, market-driven challenges,” says BCIC president and CEO Carl Anderson. “Ignite is continually driving B.C.-based companies to use B.C. research to change the world through innovation.”
Applicants must be a B.C.-based consortium consisting of two or more companies, organizations and academic researchers. They must also leverage award funds by raising $2 for every BCIC Ignite dollar. Including that funding, the seven award winners to date have received a total of $5.6 million.
This February, 30 Under 30 winner Simon Pickup, co-founder of Delta-based Hydra Energy Corp., won a BCIC Ignite Award with UBC mechanical engineering professor Steven Rogak for their hydrogen internal combustion engine project.
Emcee for the October 10 awards is Samantha Legge, president of BCBusiness publisher Canada Wide Media Ltd. Nick Rockel, editor-in-chief of BCBusiness, will host a panel discussion with representatives of the four winning research projects.
The deadline to apply for the next BCIC Ignite Awards is January 2018. For details, click here.