View non-flash version
The View from St. John’s Solving the technological challenges involved in devel- oping natural resources in Canada’s North is the focus of a new Center of Excellence that has received funding com- mitments of $11.6m. Based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Leading Operational Observations and Knowledge for the North (LOOKNorth) will receive $7.1 million from the Government of Canada from the 2010 Centers of Excellence for Commercialization and Research program over five years. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is providing $2 million from the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development and the Research and Development Corporation, and industry partners have committed $2.5 million to date. LOOKNorth is an initiative of C-CORE of St. John’s, a research and development corporation with core expertise in radar and vision systems, ice engineering and geotech- nical engineering. C-CORE provides applied R&D engi- neering related to regulatory, security, operational and market challenges, particularly in the natural resource and energy sectors. The objective of LOOKNorth is to respond to informa- tion gaps by validating existing technologies in Canada’s North to assist the natural resource sector in developing oil and gas, hydro and mining in the sub-Arctic and Arctic. The initial focus will be on the use of Earth obser- vation satellite technology to monitor conditions to pro- vide the information industry needs to assess resource opportunities and initiate exploration and development. To achieve this, LOOKNorth will link the needs of industry, remote sensing technologies that have proven themselves in non-northern environments, and the LOOKNorth To Identify Sector Needs, Validate Technology by Andrew Safer 14 MTR March 2011 Much of LOOKNorth’s focus will lever- age the investments made by the Government of Canada in RADARSAT 1 and 2, and also use additional radar satellites such as ENVISAT, TerraSAR-X, and COSMO-SkyMed.
