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Alberta is boosted by its highly skilled workforce, a favourable business climate, and many universities, institutions, and companies. These attributes aid Alberta in becoming a burgeoning biotechnology and life sciences hub in Canada.
Academic institutions which add to Alberta’s assets include the University of Alberta, which houses several research institutes such as the Alberta Peptide Institute, the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Carbohydrate Science, and the Alberta Centre on Aging, among others. The University of Calgary offers the University Technologies International with services for technology transfer and commercialization.
Research organizations provide impressive opportunities for the Princess Province. The Alberta Cancer Board works with nine health regions in the province to coordinate provincial cancer initiatives. The Board is mandated by the provincial government’s Cancer Programs Act to establish and operate provincial cancer hospitals, out-patient clinics, and programs for cancer prevention, detection, and diagnosis; for cancer patient treatment and care; and for cancer research. Additionally the board coordinates development and delivery of services for cancer patients, and provides education about cancer. The Northern Alberta Clinical Trials and Research Centre (NACTRC) combines the efforts of Capital Health, one of Canada's largest integrated academic health regions, and the University of Alberta toward the goal of providing high quality standards and cost effective clinical trial research to pharmaceutical and research based companies. Located on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton, the ACTRC accesses a medical community of 13 acute care hospitals with over 2 million people, and provides a dedicated facility and impressive network of researchers for clinical trials.
Alberta also benefits from various organizations which encourage research and industry growth.
BioAlberta is a private, non-profit association which provides awareness and support for biotechnology companies in the province. BioAlberta is part of the national association
BIOTECanada, which is a non-profit, non-government, industry-funded association dedicated to sustainable commercial development of biotechnology in Canada. The
Alberta Research Council (ARC) is a non-profit corporation owned by the province of Alberta which develops and commercializes new technologies. The
Biotechnology Human Resource Council works to help Canadian companies and academia develop and retain highly skilled staff by facilitating skills training, helping the biotechnology sector manage its workforce with human resource tools, and communicating job opportunities to new workers in the biotech sector.
Alberta’s government provides additional assistance to the biotechnology and life sciences sector. The Alberta Science and Research Authority (ASRA) is a provincial Cabinet-appointed independent board of members from Alberta's academic, business and research communities, whose goal is to assure Alberta’s success in a global economy by maximizing the effectiveness of science and research. ASRA serves as the senior science and research advisory body to the Government of Alberta. The Ministry of Innovation and Science is responsible for the consolidation of the Alberta government's scientific research, and for progressing Alberta’s innovations.
More than 40 biotechnology and life science related companies reside in Alberta; most of these are in the city of Edmonton. These companies including Bayer CropScience, Biomira, Inc., Ceapro, Inc., Oncolytics Biotech Inc., PBR Laboratories, Inc., QSV Biologics, Inc., and ViRexx Medical Corporation, among others.
Additional incentives for biotechnology and life science companies in the Princess Province include the Alberta Ingenuity Fund, which supports high quality science and engineering research toward the goal of prosperity for Alberta. The Fund arises from a $1 billion endowment established and managed by the Government of Alberta created for this goal.
Promising developments are moving forward in Alberta, including a new "wet lab" facility in the Edmonton Research Park. This new Biotechnology Business Development Centre (BBDC) will contain 72,000 square feet (6,689 square meters or 0.67 hectares) of space, with 10,000 square feet (929 square meters or 0.093 hectares) for shared laboratory space and 55,000 square feet (2,323 square meters or 0.23 hectares) of additional space which can be modified for offices and laboratory space.
With so many resources at its disposal, the province of Alberta promises a successful future in the biotechnology and life sciences arena.
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