Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada has announced a national initiative that is focused on building Canada’s AI compute capacity, a “core part of Canada’s digital backbone.” The AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program will support organizations focused on developing large-scale, Canada-based computing infrastructure to advance AI research and innovation. ISED explains that this will offer several benefits for Canada, including creating a national platform for innovation and giving Canadian researchers the advanced computing power they need to undertake transformative AI projects. Postsecondary institutions and consortia led by postsecondary institutions are eligible entities for this program; the call for applications for the Infrastructure Build Layer—focused on designing, building, and operating public supercomputing systems—is open until June 1.
