Emera IDEA Building

One of two new buildings constructed for the IDEA Project, the Emera IDEA Building will dramatically enhance Dalhousie's capacity for research and development (R&D), providing greater opportunities for students, researchers, and industry to collaborate, innovate, and commercialize technologies in key economic sectors.

The Emera IDEA Building provides Dalhousie's faculty and student body with five new state-of-the-art workshops and prototyping labs, as well as innovation studios focused on hardware-based entrepreneurship. Top-of-the-line shop, tools and workspaces to help students, faculty, and even local startups design and build prototypes and learn design thinking and agile engineering skills.  

These new facilities take the place of aging mechanical and electrical engineering workshops, freeing up those former spaces to be renovated and refurbished into the Advanced Manufacturing Hub and Ocean Engineering Hub.

Emera IdeaHub

A generous $10 million donation from Emera has led to the creation of the Emera ideaHUB, an advanced incubator space designed to help students, faculty and local startups develop entrepreneurial and innovation capacity, design and build prototypes, and launch new companies emerging from engineering and science research.

Halifax's economic future is as the innovation hub of the Atlantic provinces. The Emera ideaHUB will drive economic growth and innovation in Halifax by providing startups, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and corporate innovation teams with access to cutting-edge infrastructure they might struggle to afford on their own.

By co-locating space for startups, SMEs , and corporate innovation teams when excess capacity is available, ideaHUB will help drive business growth and create an environment in which ideas and talent developed in the university can find a way into the market. This is not only an economic opportunity for local businesses and entrepreneurs: it also a vital educational and career-building opportunity for Dalhousie's engineering students, who can gain vital experience and connections by applying their developing skills to "real world" projects.

Emera Startups Interviews

Learn about some of the startups making their home in the Emera ideaHUB through this new interview series!

Contact the Emera IdeaHub

Please visit the official Emera ideaHub website for more information about the innovative work taking place in the hub. The website provides guidance for individuals and organizations with ideas that they believe could be developed in collaboration with Dalhousie faculty and students.

Please contact the IdeaHub administrators directly at ideahub@dal.ca with any questions you might have about the IdeaHub's operations.