Highlights - President's Insight

July 8, 2008 — Ottawa, Ontario

NRC's focus on advanced materials

As one of the world's best national research and innovation organizations, NRC is pursuing its strategy to help align national science and technology priorities with expanding industry needs.

In moving this agenda forward, we have launched a cross-NRC initiative to intensify research and development on advanced materials to help foster the competitiveness of Canada's aerospace, automotive, construction and manufacturing sectors.

Through select projects, we are targeting the development of high-performance materials that are lightweight and environmentally friendly — of particular interest to the automotive and aerospace industries. We are also working toward innovative, cost-effective manufacturing processes that will increase productivity. Another of our priorities is to generate efficient decision-aid systems based on multi-function designs that comply with strict safety regulations.

Among the many innovations we, together with our industry partners, hope to bring to market are green alternatives to plastic, high-efficiency "organic" solar cells, composite materials that mimic human bone to create the next generation of implants, and ultra-thin woven plastic fibres to form artificial arteries. Many of the fields of research we pursue at NRC are implicated in the creation of materials with surprising new properties.

New materials with advanced properties will engender new economic, environmental and regulatory challenges for the industries using them. Working with academia, industry, and other public and private stakeholders, NRC will help these industries overcome such challenges.

At NRC, we pursue collaborations built upon research excellence, multidisciplinary competencies and multi-stakeholder partnerships to help innovative firms grow and prosper in communities across Canada. Thanks to these collaborations, NRC continues to play a critical role in addressing Canada's national priorities and delivering the Government of Canada's Science and Technology Strategy.