Marine research and brain science are two likely areas for life sciences collaboration between Nova Scotia and Israel, observed Premier Darrell Dexter during an October visit to Israel. The Canadian provincial leader, in an interview with BioIsrael, cited the Halifax Marine Research Institute, — which draws on the expertise of more than 400 researchers — as a major potential partner for collaboration. He noted that more than 50 Nova Scotia companies work in bioscience innovation, including Acadian Seaplants Limited , the world’s largest biotech manufacturer of marine plant products for global food chain markets.
Dalhousie University’s Brain Research Centre, linking more than one hundred world-class researchers can also be expected to find collaboration partners among Israel’s large neurological research community.
The trade and investment mission from Nova Scotia hopes to expand markets and invite Israeli companies to invest in Nova Scotia. To that end, Nova Scotia offers competitive business incentives and “an environment that can produce innovative products.”After touring the Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University and the Technion, Premier Dexter noted the expertise that Israeli universities have acquired in technology transfer. “You’re way ahead of us in this area and members of our delegation are learning quite a bit while they are here.”
” Innovation tourism is a term I heard for the first time while I was here,” said Premier Dexter, summing up his trip. “But it is really something that applies to the way Israeli universities and companies have developed.”
This was Premier Dexter’s second trip to Israel. He previously visited in 2008 before being elected premier as part of a delegation organized by the Canada-Israel Committee.