Grants and Contributions
About this information
In June 2016, as part of the Open Government Action Plan, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) committed to increasing the transparency and usefulness of grants and contribution data and subsequently launched the Guidelines on the Reporting of Grants and Contributions Awards, effective April 1, 2018.
The rules and principles governing government grants and contributions are outlined in the Treasury Board Policy on Transfer Payments. Transfer payments are transfers of money, goods, services or assets made from an appropriation to individuals, organizations or other levels of government, without the federal government directly receiving goods or services in return, but which may require the recipient to provide a report or other information subsequent to receiving payment. These expenditures are reported in the Public Accounts of Canada. The major types of transfer payments are grants, contributions and \'other transfer payments\'.
Included in this category, but not to be reported under proactive disclosure of awards, are (1) transfers to other levels of government such as Equalization payments as well as Canada Health and Social Transfer payments. (2) Grants and contributions reallocated or otherwise redistributed by the recipient to third parties; and (3) information that would normally be withheld under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.
$481,128.00
Jun 26, 2020
(20STDPK11) Advanced spacecraft antenna technologies are needed in order to deliver high-throughput, low-cost, and reliable connectivity services from satellites. Over the years, substantial advancements have been made towards antennas for use in traditional geostationary satellites. These are employed, for instance, when delivering satellite television or rural broadband services.
However, relatively little advancements have been made on antenna technologies for nanosatellites. Characterized as low-cost, rapid to develop, and rapid to deploy, nanosatellites can offer novel connectivity services, but are hindered by limited advancements in underlying antenna technologies.
This project will seek to develop a novel Ku-band antenna for use on Kepler's nanosatellite constellation. The impact of this technology will be to improve permissible data throughput and reduce the cost of delivering Kepler's connectivity services.
$639,112.50
Jun 30, 2020
(20STDPK22) The ability for robots to autonomously make their decisions with minimal supervisions by human users and, in some cases, no supervision at all, is critical to the success of future deep space exploration robotics, and to the Deep Space Gataway mission in particular. Indeed, it will not be possible to operate future deep space exploration robots from Earth due to the distance. On the other hand, the presence of onboard crewmembers will be limited, requiring the robots to be autonomous for maintenance of the space station without presence of humans.
Menya Solutions is developing an AI technology, called HybridLogic, which will enable space robots to plan and execute autonomously goal-driven complex sequences of actions, while handling new situations and new mission objectives. Robots using HybridLogic algorithms will be able to explain the rationale behind their decisions and behaviours, and interact with space crewmembers safely and naturally.
HybridLogic is currently at the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4. It was validated in a low-fidelity simulated space environment and controlled real-world robotics environment on Earth. The objective of this project is to further develop HypridLogic for space robotics operations and bring its maturity to TRL 5, including validation in higher-fidelity space simulations and a terrestrial robot manipulator that emulates the Canadarm on the ISS, as an intermediate step towards the next generation of robot arm for deep space exploration. This is an important step along the path to commercializing the technology for space applications. While the research and development activities of this project are focused on space robot arms, the results will also be leveraged for terrestrial applications.
$99,314.00
Jun 26, 2020
(20STDPM02) This project will perform a feasibility study of how to develop and produce high frequency beamforming integrated circuits (ICs) for phased array antennas for small satellites. These electrically steerable antennas utilized in satellites have the potential to enable high-throughput, low-cost, and low-latency connectivity services. Implementing such steerable antennas as ICs can alleviate the high cost of RF components such that the per-component cost is greatly reduced.
$247,125.00
Jul 8, 2020
For-profit organization
HiDRON Suborbital Space Plane (the "HiDRON SO")
20STDPL05
The HiDRON Suborbital Space Plane
Stratodynamics is collaborating with researchers at the University of Waterloo to reengineer their remotely deployed stratospheric glider known as the HiDRON. To date, the record setting HiDRON unmanned aerial system (UAS) has successfully deployed a number of scientific payloads to the stratosphere and back. However, flight in such low density atmosphere is fraught with laminar airflow challenges and control issues.
This collaboration will produce a new iteration of the HiDRON, custom designed for this poorly understood flight regime. The CSA grant will enable development and testing of the airframe at stratospheric altitudes.
The Canadian aviation community will benefit from the aerodynamic advances arising from this collaboration as the altitudinal ceiling of commercial airspace rises closer to near space.
$243,740.00
Jul 21, 2020
The recent trends in low-cost satellite have supported an increasing large number of small satellites launches such as CubeSat, with 3000 more expected in the next 6 years. Despite sensors capturing objects at sub-meter resolutions, current technology cannot monitor or analyze data continuously or on-board. To support next-generation satellites, we propose developing an effective satellite video generation framework. The framework will be part of a shift in paradigm to on-board artificial intelligence (AI) enabled processing for satellite. We propose to develop new capabilities on CubeSat for optical satellite video. In particular, we propose to 1) overcome the conventional paradigm of requiring a user to request details of a location for tasking and acquisition of data to automatically generate video products based on processing historical data, and 2) demonstrate efficient resource management on-board satellite, and generate or capture video (30 frames per second) only when an object or event occurs.
$250,000.00
Jul 8, 2020
Although night environmental conditions can be extreme and fluctuate drastically compared to daytime conditions, for an observation planned months in advance, everything must perform at the expected time.
Up to now, Canada has been ahead of the curve with its unrivalled capability in ultra-sensitive imaging thanks to the Nüvü Cameras and this work will expand its ability to support detectors under difficult conditions.
The project will enhance the opportunity for Canadian imaging technology to be considered in future terrestrial solutions to detect and track space debris or demonstrate the optimal performance of the technology in stratospheric balloon and observatory tests, an important feature for being included in future space exploration and surveillance missions.
$248,209.00
Sep 22, 2020
For-profit organization
LABEISS system (Laser Ablation Elemental Isotopic Spectrometer)
20STDPL10
Based on recent advances in analytical optical spectroscopic techniques using laser ablation, a more compact and versatile instrument will be developed in this project, which combines LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) and LAMIS (Laser Ablation Molecular Isotopic Spectrometry) technologies. It will allow analysis without sample preparation with the instrument at a distance from sample.
It will provide isotopic analyses with precision in future exploring extraterrestrial environment missions as well as other fields such as nuclear science, geology and archeology among other emerging needs of the marketplace.
The primary challenge is to determine the best implementation of combining the LAMIS method with LIBS (and possibly Raman operation) to determine isotopic elemental composition and quantification for different targets.
Supporting this technology development and pioneering this field will place Canada in an excellent position for future space exploration missions to the moon, asteroids, comets, Mars as well as other astro-biologically targeted missions.
$299,430.00
Oct 16, 2020
Title: Space-Enabled Reservoir Slope Management Toolkit
Update the approach to support quantitative risk management decisions by BC Hydro and other operators as part of structures and reservoir slopes performance monitoring.
$293,738.00
Oct 16, 2020
Title:Urban monitoring using satellite data, ground, and mobile crowdsensing for hydrological modelling and change detection events
Develop a short- and long-term urban monitoring system, with a focus on hydrological monitoring for flood risk.
$295,154.00
Oct 16, 2020
Title: Combining deep learning techniques with cloud computing and big remote sensing data towards a better situation understanding
Develop a new cloud-based solution to process a high volume of remote sensing images using deep learning techniques for different applications, such as flood monitoring, ship detection and land use/cover classification.