Vaccines, wind energy on R&D funding list

The federal government announced $17 million Monday for eight research and development projects in Nova Scotia.

The money comes from the Atlantic Innovation Fund of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

"The innovative work underway in Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada helps drive our economy, prove our competitiveness in productivity, increase trade and investment and attract new talent," said Rob MacDonald, Nova Scotia's manager for the fund.

The list of projects includes:

• Developing and commercializing a device to diagnose and monitor lung function in people with lung disease (Dalhousie University).
• Identifying potential for geothermal and wind energy in Atlantic Canada (St. FX University).
• Developing a tool that gives orthopedic surgeons information to better treat patients after an operation (Capital Health/Halifax Biomedical).
• Developing new vaccines for treating cancer (ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc.).
• Revitalizing the rural-based fruit industry (Nova Scotia Agricultural College).
• Developing a tool to drop into the ocean for weather forecasting and oceanography (METOCEAN Data Systems Ltd.).
• Developing and commercializing tools and services to assess watershed quality (Nova Scotia Community College).
• Coming up with new seaweed food products for the Japanese export market (Acadian Seaplants Ltd.).

This round of funding covers a period of three or five years, depending on the project.

In total, Atlantic Canada is getting up to $63 million for 29 projects across the region.