The initiative, first announced in 2010 and run by Public Works, is aimed at assisting Canadian businesses by procuring and testing late-stage innovative products and services within federal departments to help firms refine their offerings and develop a valuable reference client.
According to records published on the federal government’s Buy and Sell website, contracts awarded to Ottawa-Gatineau companies during the CICP’s second round include Edgewater Computer Systems Inc., Tektrap System Inc., Detec (3833364 Canada Inc.), Privacy Analytics Inc., OnLogics Inc. and Solana Networks Inc.
The companies received federal deals valued between $71,500 and $565,000 (see sidebar below).
Nepean-Carleton Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre is scheduled to make an announcement on Solana Networks’s CICP contract on Tuesday.Announced in the 2010 federal budget and made permanent in budget 2012, the CICP targets innovation in four priority areas: environment, safety and security, health and enabling technologies. Future iterations of the program will include a military procurement component.
Originally a $40-million pilot project, CICP received an additional $95 million over three years in this spring’s federal budget, beginning in 2013, and $40 million every year after.
After the program’s second call for proposals, CICP had identified 37 pre-qualified companies to be matched with applicable government agencies.
Four Ottawa firms are currently carrying out contracts as a result of CICP, including Amika Mobile Corp., AMITA Corp., Edgewater Computer Systems Inc. and SageData Solutions Inc.
Pre-qualified technologies are chosen by the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program, and then evaluated by an external Innovation Selection Committee.
In round one, contract values awarded to Ottawa companies ranged from $160,000 to $556,000.
The third call for proposals was posted on Merx, and closed on April 11.
Federal contracts awarded to local companies that were pre-qualified in the second round of the CICP program:
Edgewater Computer Systems Inc.
Category: Safety & security
Innovation: Avionics network interface
Description: Provides a 100-fold increase in the data handling capacity of integrated airborne networks for the rapid and affordable modernization of weapons systems.
Location: Ottawa
Contract value: $564,965
Category: Safety & security
Innovation: Cargo Keeper
Description: An easy to install miniature electronic device combining GPS and door lock tracking with wireless and satellite communications to remotely track the status and position of maritime containers worldwide.
Location: Gatineau
Contract value: $181,396.45
Category: Safety & security
Innovation: Nested Neutron Spectrometer
Description: A field portable neutron detector that enhances the safety of individuals working in radioactive environments, with a lower cost and weight than existing instruments.
Location: Gatineau
Contract value: $71,486.63
Category: Health
Innovation: Secure Linking Program
Description: Software that securely links databases housing health information and computes statistics on the linked data without the need for a third party, and without sharing patient identification information.
Location: Ottawa
Contract value: $367,250
Category: Enabling technologies
Innovation: CloudMask
Description: Enables users to leverage cloud applications without disclosing confidential data to the cloud vendor or any other third party.
Location: Ottawa
Contract value: $518,700
Category: Enabling technologies
Innovation: SMARTFlow
Description: A real-time network security monitoring tool focused on detecting cyber security threats and attacks, including new types of attacks as they occur, using an anomoly detection approach.
Location: Nepean
Contract value: $161,364
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