Investment will build Canadian expertise in atomically precise manufacturing and create hundreds of high-skilled jobs

July 10, 2019 – Ottawa, Ontario

Securing Canada’s global leadership in advanced manufacturing is an important part of the Government of Canada’s plan to build an economy that works for everyone. That’s why the Government is investing in CBN Nano Technologies’ venture to become the first in the world to commercialize technology that manufactures products at the atomic level—in other words, using the smallest building blocks of our physical world.

Today, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced a $40-million investment in CBN Nano Technologies (CBNNT), a company engaged in cutting-edge research into the commercialization of technology that allows atomically precise manufacturing.

CBNNT is a sister company of Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited (CBN), a Canadian-owned, Ottawa-based, globally focused company that designs and builds high-tech secure solutions for government identification, currency and lottery markets worldwide. Globally, the company employs 1,600 people, with approximately 1,000 in Canada.

CBN’s $220-million nanotechnology project will be the first in the world to undertake atomically precise manufacturing on a commercial scale. Fabricating products with every atom in the right place will revolutionize manufacturing and has specific applications in CBN’s core business through the development of new nanoscale fraud-proof security features.

Beyond CBN’s core business, this new technology will establish Canada as the global leader in advanced manufacturing processes in a variety of sectors. For example, it will also have potential applications in advanced health care treatments, reducing pollution, building high-performance computing capabilities and producing super-efficient solar energy.

Thanks in part to this investment, CBNNT and CBN will create 469 new jobs, 364 of which will be highly skilled. Canadian students and researchers will also benefit from more co-op positions, more collaboration with post-secondary institutions, greater investment in research and development, and more intellectual property developed in Canada.

CBNNT’s project to commercialize atomically precise manufacturing will help make Canada a leader in tomorrow’s manufacturing technology.