A pair of Canadian quantum computing companies, Toronto’s Xanadu and Coquitlam, BC-based Photonic, are among the 19 semi-finalists in the federal government’s latest defence technology challenge.
Through its Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) is offering grants to companies and organizations that are developing early-stage tech solutions designed to future-proof North America’s defence against aerospace and maritime threats.
IDEaS, via the NORAD modernization contest, is granting Photonic, Xanadu, and the remaining semi-finalists $1 million CAD each to advance related projects.
Other recipients include Irreversible, the Canadian Space Mining Corporation, and ARA Robotics.
The other recipients include Sherbrooke, Que.-based AI chip design firm Irreversible, the Canadian Space Mining Corporation, Montréal-based dronemaker ARA Robotics, the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo, the University of British Columbia, and the Canadian arm of American defence giant Lockheed Martin.
Xanadu is using this funding to design quantum computing algorithms and methodologies for the development of next-generation batteries that are more resilient to extreme conditions.
Photonic’s project is meant to advance its quantum repeater and networking tech. It hopes this work will address known limitations of existing repeater design and ultimately contribute to next-generation quantum sensing and communication systems.
Launched in 2018, the DND’s IDEaS program is a 20-year, $1.6-billion initiative aimed at supporting the development of new solutions for Canadian defence and security challenges.
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While IDEaS itself has been around for some time, these selections come at a moment when the Government of Canada is ramping up its defence spending under Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has committed to spending five percent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) on defence by 2035. This would mark the country’s biggest increase in defence funding since World War II. For context,Canada has lately been investing less than two percent of its GDP in its military.
Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, confirmed to BetaKit in June that Ottawa plans to introduce new policies to help keep firms in Canada in light of the United States (US) Department of Defense’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative program—which Xanadu and Photonic are participating in—and the threat of losing quantum companies to Canada’s southern neighbour.
Solomon expects that part of Canada’s increased defence spending will go towards supporting Canadian AI and quantum companies developing dual-use technologies. He argued at the time that boosting AI, quantum, sovereign computing capacity, and cybersecurity was “not just an economic imperative, but a national security imperative as well.”
Feature image courtesy Photonic.