Grant: Technology Access Centre

Sarnia-Lambton is the third largest manufacturing sector in Ontario with $24 billion economic output from its petrochemical and refining cluster. This cluster has been the major source behind the establishment of many SMEs specializing in fabrication, engineering and environmental services. A recent decline and stagnation in manufacturing projects helped the community to build several initiatives and address this problem by economic diversification, building innovative companies, and establishment of industry clusters including the ""Biohybrid & Chemistry"" and ""Sustainable Energy"" Clusters. Many of existing industries, the supporting SMEs and new attracted companies either do not have or have limited R&D capacity, hindering them from accessing and adapting new technologies that are imperative to remaining competitive in the local and global market. In 2013, Bluewater Technology Centre (BTAC) was established as an Advanced Manufacturing Centre to provide applied research, technical services and training to the above-mentioned cluster of companies. BTAC has been the access point for R&D and innovation support and has successfully engaged 262 companies (242 SMEs) providing 334 technical services, 64 applied research projects, and 25 training contracts. BTAC has become the critical part of the local innovation system and the renewal of BTAC will be extremely important for our continuous support of regional industries and also moving BTAC to a sustainable condition. BTAC significantly helps industry to increase their revenue streams, develop new markets, export goods, create new jobs, train highly skilled workers, and ehance their competitiveness.