NAT Receives $250K NRED Grant to Advance Emerging Tech Across Alberta
NAT is proud to announce its inclusion in the 2024-2025 cohort of the Northern and Regional Economic Development Program, a forward-focused Government of Alberta program managed by the Honourable Matt Jones, at the Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Trade.
The generous allocation of $250,000 will provide critical support for Accelerating Knowledge Mobilization and Innovation in Emerging Technologies Across Alberta. NAT’s mission is to have a talent-based innovation community specializing in neurotechnologies. NAT promotes education, skill development, access to specialized tools and hardware, and community, and allows users to explore areas of interest otherwise unavailable to them due to hardware price, lack of knowledge base, or lack of community.
“NeurAlbertaTech is turning big ideas into real-world innovation - and that’s exactly what the Northern and Regional Economic Development program is here to support. This $250,000 investment will help power their work, training talent and advancing emerging technology across Alberta.”
NAT’s fundamental goal is to connect bright minds across academia, industry, and the entrepreneurial sectors to promote interdisciplinary and scalable innovation. At the forefront of its mission is aiding innovators to solve real problems through a holistic approach that ensures sustainability. With this investment, NAT can further enhance the breadth of the programming that allows for Alberta to remain at the forefront of innovation and technology internationally.
Exploring muscle activity with EMG sensors and Arduino at NAT’s Demo Nights
NAT’s flagship annual competition, natHacks, attracts participants across Alberta, Canada, and internationally to utilize emerging technologies such as neurotechnology, AI/ML, and IoT in order to translate research into practical solutions. Trainees do so by gaining access to equipment that would otherwise remain in university laboratories and through being connected to experts from across the innovation ecosystem, to gain real insights and become informed of the most pressing issues, such as those faced in the healthcare sector. After creating their MVPs, they pitch them to industry leaders and compete for seed funding and in-kind support. A unique offering of NAT is continued support to teams who wish to continue building their products after the hackathon is over. NAT does so by connecting them with community mentors and providing seed funding for their continued development and growth.
The Demo Nights events and workshops are for ambitious newcomers who may lack technical experience but are ready to overcome the barrier of equipment access to bring bold, innovative ideas to life. These individuals, many of whom are university students, are provided with beginner-friendly training on various tools such as portable EEGs, Raspberry Pi, and wearables.
A natHacks 2024 participant using NeuroPawn to record EEG signals
Having gained some training and mustered enough confidence, the participants can also take part in NAT’s new program: Ignite. Ignite is a semi-annual hackathon with a more targeted theme, aimed at a particular domain of application, that is ripe for disruption. Within that targeted domain, NAT rallies Canada’s top ecosystem leading organizations to organize around supporting and working with trainees, and to realize more effective and scalable solutions.
One recent development in NAT’s goal has been to expand its reach across Canada, while maintaining a center in Alberta. For this reason, NAT has launched a new program: natAffiliate that aims to provide inter-provincial support to enthusiasts. This was realized in the most recent hackathon in which a group of McGill students were sponsored to travel to Edmonton to take part in natHacks. The goal for the next three years is to triple these efforts. Another notable program that is still being developed is the Pan-Canadian Neurotech Conference which aims at connecting neurotech professionals across Canada. The pilot is expected to launch in 2026 followed by the full-sized program in 2027.
While this is only the tip of the iceberg, NAT is very excited to expand its efforts in strengthening Alberta’s emerging technology innovation ecosystem through partnerships with other NPOs, government, industry, investors, and entrepreneurs. This investment serves as a fuel for community-focused growth and will connect and mobilize innovators at a much greater scale across Alberta and Canada.
Join NAT in strengthening the base layer of the innovation ecosystem in Alberta and building effective talent attraction, training, and support pipelines.
Stay connected with NAT to witness our latest developments, attend exciting workshops and competitions, and join us for impactful networking events. Be part of our growing community and the future of neurotech!