October 15, 2010 -- The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today announced four projects under the Automotive Partnership Canada program to strengthen Canada's economy over the long-term.

 The projects increase R&D in the automotive sector across several promising fields, such as developing ways to increase widespread adoption of electric vehicles, advancing software (usage, technologies) in the automotive sector, and creating a process for storing and reusing waste thermal energy. Minister Clement was joined at the event by the President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Dr. Suzanne Fortier. 

"A healthy and sustainable automotive industry is an essential part of Canada's economic recovery," said Minister Clement. "Automotive Partnership Canada helps fund and create research and development partnerships to ensure our auto sector remains at the cutting edge of automotive innovation." 

Today, Minister Clement announced that McMaster University will receive more than $10 million from the Automotive Partnership Canada program for a $16 million R&D project to develop next generation model-driven engineering capabilities to aid in the effective advancement of software in the automotive sector. The project will be carried out in partnership with General Motors of Canada, IBM Canada and Malina Software. 

"The Automotive Partnership Canada program is part of our government's commitment to enhancing our research capacity", said Member of Parliament for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale David Sweet. "By investing in this important sector, not only are we are fuelling made-in-Canada innovation and increasing our ability to compete internationally but we are building important partnerships between local business and academia." 

The other recipients receiving Government of Canada support today are: 

• the University of Waterloo, which will receive $3,568,000 to work with General Motors Canada and Maplesoft to address the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
• the University of British Columbia, which will receive $499,824 to work with Westport Innovations to further develop natural gas and diesel engine technologies.
• the University of Toronto, which will receive $234,000 to work with Dana Canada Corporation to develop on-board storage and reuse of waste thermal energy. 

"Canadian academic researchers are well-suited to tackle specific issues for providing a sustainable automotive industry," said Dr. Fortier. "In these projects, researchers are developing the next generation of automobiles by addressing issues that will enable commercialization of electric vehicles and improve the performance of natural gas engines." 

Today's investment is another example of how this Government is working with partners to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative digital technologies across the economy. The announcement represents an investment of more than $14.9 million over five years for automotive research and development (R&D) projects worth a total of $28.66 million. 

Announced by Minister Clement in April 2009, Automotive Partnership Canada is a five-year, $145 million initiative to support collaborative R&D to drive the Canadian automotive industry to greater levels of innovation. Industrial partners play a key role in this initiative by providing both financial support and essential in-kind contributions to ensure the success of the research projects. Three previously approved research projects focus on reducing weight by using more plastic parts in engines, improving the efficiency of transmissions and advancing the state of the art in longer-range electric vehicles. 

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council is a federal agency whose vision is to help make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for the benefit of all Canadians. The agency supports some 28,000 students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. It promotes discovery by funding more than 11,800 professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 1,500 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects.