Conference & Meetings World Supplements Canada Supplement | Page 10

Halifax Harnessing Halifax and the Eastern seaboard’s natural wealth N ova Scotia’s commercial Health and Life Sciences sector embraces more than 100 companies across a range of industries, from medical devices to digital health to bioproducts. Nova Scotia is home to 10 universities and 13 community college campuses. The province boasts an educated workforce and, of its total population, 59% has post-secondary education. Looking within the Life Sciences sector specifically, this number rises to 81%. The Life Sciences sector directly employs 3,600 of these highly skilled people; 1,300 within the private sector and 2,300 in federal institutes and post-secondary institutions. Halifax is the regional hub for this sector, with federal 10 CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD Below: The Cunard Centre research institutes, hospitals and health science centres, and a vibrant post-secondary sector that supports R&D and commercialisation. Key sectoral strengths include medical technology, digital health, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, natural health products, and bioproducts. Halifax is home to major research centres and anchor institutions including the Brain Repair Centre, internationally recognised for its research into treatment technologies for neurodegenerative disorders. There is also leading research being carried out in areas of neurology, multi-organ transplants, cardiology research, and cancer research. There are export-focused partnerships with multinational biotechnology giants including Pfizer, Merck Canada Ltd, Abbott Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson. The Life Sciences Research Institute is one integrated facility where scientists, students, and entrepreneurs work together. The facility hosts Innovacorp, BioNova (the industry association leading the advancement of the Health & Life Sciences sector across Nova Scotia), the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine, the Brain Repair Centre, and over 100 researchers. The Brain Repair Centre is a multidisciplinary collaboration linking more than 100 world-class researchers and physicians and is internationally known for its successful treatment of the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. From brainwaves to ocean waves: The Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) is home to 600 scientists, engineers and other staff from the federal departments of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment and Climate Change, Natural Resources, and National Defence. And the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) is a global aquatic animal tracking platform headquartered at Dalhousie University, which has one of its three campuses in Halifax. The ocean is also giving up its riches for food supplements and