Advanced Equipment and Expertise

Quebec’s advanced materials sector primarily includes innovative SMEs that are active in research and development (R&D) but do not always have the internal resources needed to perform characterization, material synthesis, surface treatment and scaling tests. Access to equipment and related expertise is crucial when transitioning from technology to innovation and essential to companies who seek to access different markets.

Specifically, SMEs use state-of-the-art public infrastructure equipment for a number of reasons (lack of in-house laboratories, specific equipment or expertise).

Access to this equipment gives companies the ability to solve problems and develop new products, among other things, while accelerating the development and marketing of these products. But above all, state-of-the-art equipment and related expertise help them achieve projects that would have otherwise been impossible.

PRIMA Québec has created the “Infrastructure de recherche et développement du Québec” (IRDQ) Web portal, which provides information on over $400 million in equipment available in Quebec under one roof, along with qualified resources to ensure its operation. Significant efforts have been put forth by universities, CCTTs and the Quebec government to help the province’s platforms successfully obtain contracts from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

View the IRDQ website

In 2019, PRIMA Québec created the Réseau d’équipements de pointe publics et d’expertises en recherche pour les entreprises (REPERE), or the Advanced Equipment and Research Expertise Network for Businesses. This network is home to seven relocated platforms affiliated with six major academic institutions in Quebec.

The Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Innovation Technologique (3IT) at the Université de Sherbrooke;
The Centre de recherche sur les matériaux avancés (CERMA) at the Université Laval;
The Infrastructure of Nanostructures and Femtoscience (INF) at the Institut national de recherche scientifique (INRS-Énergie, matériaux et Télécommunications);
The Facility for Electron Microscopy Research (FEMR) at McGill University;
The Centre de Caractérisation Microscopique des Matériaux (CM)2 at Polytechnique Montréal;
The Groupe de recherche en physique et technologie des couches minces (GCM) at Polytechnique Montréal and Université de Montréal;
The Laboratoire de mécanique multi-échelles (LM2) at Polytechnique Montréal.