The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology is a not-for-profit, non-share incorporated company. Located in Sudbury, Ontario Canada

About Us

http://norcat.org/about-us.html

The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology is a not-for-profit, non-share incorporated company. Located in Sudbury, Ontario Canada, NORCAT is in the heart of North America's premiere hard rock mining territories.

NORCAT's services include:

• Specialized Mine Training
• Occupational Health and Safety Services
• Mining Solutions & Technology Development for Space Missions.

History

NORCAT Building on the Cambrian College Campus, 2008

NORCAT was created in 1995 by Darryl Lake, the dean of health science, trades and technology for Cambrian College, in an effort to keep Sudbury's talented post-secondary graduates from leaving the community to apply their skills. Inspired by the innovation technology centres in Finland, Lake and former Cambrian president Glenn Crombie adapted a model to fit the needs of Northern Ontario. The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. opened inside of Cambrian, offering small and medium enterprises access to labs, office space and expertise in order to further develop their own initiatives. NORCAT received its own building on campus in 1998.

Financial solvency was first met by offering health and safety training. NORCAT would later become responsible for providing Contractor Orientation training required to work on Inco (Vale) and Falconbridge (Xstrata) mine property. Revenue was also generated from product testing and Common Core training at the NORCAT Underground Centre in Onaping, Ontario.

Focusing mostly on the Mining supply and service sector, NORCAT has helped to develop 300 prototypes and create 41 new companies. NORCAT continued to grow to capacity and thanks to donations from CRVD Inco (Vale), the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, FedNor, Xstrata Nickel and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, the organization was able to construct and relocate to the 40,000 sq. ft. Innovation and Commercialization Park. Since its opening in 2009, 2 expansions have been added to the building to meet demand.

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