Story written by Qurrat Ul Ain.
Two challenges, one answer
Canada shares a vast, increasingly contested Arctic frontier as climate change melts ice and opens new northern shipping routes. At the same time, Canada has made a historic commitment alongside its NATO allies: to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP (approx. $150B) by 2035. The most practical response to these strategic and geographic challenges is to develop resilient equipment that can survive the far North, extreme cold, and enormous distances from the nearest supply depot, and be produced affordably at home, in Canada.
Over the last decade, Canada has had minimal economic growth when adjusted for population, with only about 0.2% annually. The main issue, economists say, is an unbalanced focus on labor utilization and not labor productivity. A Canadian worker produces $60 an hour, compared to its neighbor, the US, at $100 an hour. The solution, as BC economists suggest, is not to work harder but smarter; to invest in innovation, technology, capital equipment, and improved business practices.
For Dr. Adam Thomas Clare, professor of Manufacturing Engineering at UBC and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the answer is, “developing the right engineering solution for Canada.” In his lab, the team is working on extraordinary projects; one example is an entirely made-in-Canada, first-of-its-kind in the last 70 years of Canada’s history, small jet engine designed from scratch. This just captures a snapshot of what his research is really about.
Asymmetry Last Line (ALL)
In defense terms, asymmetry means using low-cost, adaptable technology to counter high-cost conventional threats. The modern battlefield runs on expensive assets; however, “increasingly, the game-changers are the cheap ones, entering the field,” says Dr. Clare. He reaches for a century-old example: “A barbed wire, a couple of dollars of material, made the cavalry charge obsolete. The point is not the weapon,” he says, “it is that a small, well-placed innovation can shift a balance.”
By manufacturing these dual-purpose innovations domestically, affordable and able to thrive in extreme cold and remote conditions, Canada builds vital strategic independence while boosting its own industrial capabilities. That distinction- the right and timely solution for the country’s current needs- is the heart of ALL research accelerator. ALL will concentrate on power systems, aerospace materials and structures, marine technologies for harsh environments, sensors and instrumentation, and attainable defense assets.
A place to take the risk down
“One reason for Canada’s productivity per capita is the slow uptake of advanced manufacturing. Give a worker better tools, and output per person rises,” says Dr. Clare. “It’s all about digitalization and automation. I want to reduce the time it takes to develop and manufacture a concept.” 
Take one project heading toward spin-off. When a large industrial robot is fitted with a cutting tool to machine big, complex metal pannels - the kind aerospace, marine, construction, and energy production depend on - it hits a stubborn problem: under the force of cutting, the arm chatters and vibrates, and that shaking ruins the precision that makes a robot worth using. It's why industrial robots have largely been shut out of this kind of heavy machining. Clare's team has a fix: a counteractive revolving mechanism, a spinning mass mounted on the arm that cancels the vibration and steadies the whole system. The payoff is real: a relatively cost-effective, flexible robot can now do work that once demanded a large, rigid, expensive machine. “It solves one of the most fundamental problems that industry has,” Clare says.
For industry, such projects in the ALL accelerator are an open door. “Small companies want advanced manufacturing but lack two things: the expertise and the finance.” Dr. Clare says. The ALL-research accelerator offers both: a place to learn, to see the technology work, and to prototype. “It takes the risk down,” he says. It creates a shared environment that encourages collaboration among universities, small and medium enterprises, and major industrial players.
This is where sponsored research earns its name. The ALL’s $8.76 million public investment by PacifiCan buys equipment: low-temperature testing, marine-robotics tanks, advanced microscopes, metal 3D printers. The investment aims to accelerate design, manufacturing, testing, and deployment, providing advanced dual-purpose defense solutions to Canada and Allies more efficiently and economically. Getting a public grant of this scale from proposal to signed agreement takes the contract specialists, like Adriana Suarez-Blanch, government contracts manager in Innovation UBC’s Sponsored Research Group, who helped bring the PacifiCan agreement across the line.
To learn how UBC researchers and industry partners are turning breakthrough research into real-world technology, visit innovation.ubc.ca.
