By Juan Pedro Tomás
Nokia Canada announced plans to transform its facility in the city of Ottawa into a sustainable research and development (R&D) hub with funding from the federal, provincial and city governments.
Nokia said it’s contributing CAD340 million (US$248 million) toward the project, while the three levels of government are contributing CAD72 million in funding: CAD40 million from the federal government, CAD30 million provincially and CAD2 million from the city of Otawa.
The vendor said that the new tech center will expand Nokia Canada’s capacity in next-generation information and communications technology (ICT) and cybersecurity innovation. Nokia also said that this transformation project is expected to create more than 340 new high-value jobs.
Nokia Canada plans to begin site construction in 2023 and expects to open the new facility in 2026. This project will transform Nokia Canada’s 26-acre campus at the Kanata North Business Park into a mixed-use corporate, residential and commercial hub.
The new R&D hub will help boost Nokia Canada’s expertise in the fields of 5G, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
The new Ottawa facility will support Nokia’s global target of 50 per cent greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2030 by implementing sustainable technologies, including water side heat recovery, air side heat and energy recovery, water side free cooling, and rainwater harvesting.
President of Nokia Canada, Jeffrey Maddox said: “Today’s announcement reinforces Nokia’s commitment to the Canadian market, where we have invested CAD1.4 billion in R&D over the past five years. Nokia’s R&D hub will generate net-new Canadian IP and bring innovative advanced telecommunications and cyber security technologies to market, helping us achieve our goal of improving people’s lives in Canada and across the world.”
The transformed campus is expected to enable Nokia Canada to grow its Ontario-based team by more than 340 positions to 2,500, 2,160 of which will be based in Ottawa.
“I want to thank Nokia, as well as our federal and provincial governments, for investing in our community and growing our local economy,” commented Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson. “Not only will this see more cutting-edge R&D taking place in Ottawa; it will lead to a more sustainable mixed-use campus for Nokia, while creating hundreds of new jobs and co-op/intern positions.”
Last week, Ericsson Canada partnered with a group of Montreal-based universities to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can help the telecommunications sector minimize the energy consumption of 5G networks.
The Swedish vendor said that this strategic research program will be led by École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), in partnership with Concordia University, Polytechnique Montréal and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
The project aims to help communication service providers reduce their carbon footprint and cut operational costs by saving on energy.
Data scientists from Ericsson’s Global Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (GAIA) in Montreal will support the three-year research project in close collaboration with seven professors and 27 researchers from ÉTS, Concordia and Polytechnique and expertise from Environment and Climate Change Canada. https://www.rcrwireless.com
