Innovate Calgary announced this week that it is passing on the leadership of the Energy Transition Centre to ETC Foundation.
ETC Foundation is a newly launched non-profit organization.
Now three years old, Calgary’s Energy Transition Centre supports researchers and startups across stages of their innovation and commercialization journey. The Centre is home to some of Canada’s largest energy firms and a growing ecosystem of clean energy startups.
The Centre’s legacy includes hosting 150 events with a combined 8,000 participants as well as dozens of UCalgary graduate student internships in partnership with the Faculty of Graduate Studies Transformative Talent Internships Program. More than 60 enterprises have joined as members of the Centre and have collectively raised nearly $2M in private sector capital.
Moving forward, the ETC Foundation will advance the next iteration of an energy transition-focused venture support and community building program, according to a statement from Innovate Calgary.
Changes to the Energy Transition Centre’s structure will enable partnering organizations to refocus on their core strengths and continue to provide enhanced energy-innovation programming in the ecosystem, the statement reads.
Innovate Calgary will continue to offer venture development support through UCeed funds, innovation hubs such as Aerospace Innovation Hub, Life Sciences Innovation Hub and the Social Innovation Hub, and programming (fellowships, workshops, etc.). The University of Calgary will also continue to partner with the org.
The Centre upgrade is partially powered by federal investments. In March, minister Anita Anand unveiled $8.3 million in funding for 13 Alberta-based projects aimed at advancing sustainable innovation in the province’s energy and natural resources sectors.
This announcement included $2 million to expand the Energy Transition Centre, which built on a previous $2.1 million investment from PrairiesCan.