A meeting of the expanded group was held April 16, 2025 at the Université de Sherbrooke and set expectations for this cross-border collaboration and explored potential collaborative projects and other actions.
Gordon Harling, President of CMC emphasized Canada’s substantial capacity in design, build, and test of semiconductors and the northeastern US and CMC’s role in expanding the semiconductor ecosystem. “CMC Microsystems is the national leader accelerating the development of made-in-Canada IoT products and semiconductor manufacturing processes. Through our government funded FABrIC initiative, we are training Canadian talent, strengthening supply chains, and building connections across the Canadian semiconductor ecosystem”, Harling said.
The cross border group hopes to identify ways to strengthen the ties between existing economic ecosystems in Canada and the USA. The North Eastern United States, for example, has a strong base of semiconductor and related technologies which can facilitate collaboration on a number of fronts.
The first meeting of the group was facilitated by Manon Duclos, CEO of Technum Québec.
The participating organizations are:
- Technum Québec
- Distriq (Québec)
- AmCham (American Chamber Of Commerce in Canada)
- C2MI (Québec)
- Université de Sherbrooke (Québec)
- Conseil du Patronat du Québec
- ISEQ: Alexandra Tolza (Québec)
- University of Vermont / V-GaN Tech Hub
- VT Agency of Commerce and Community Development (Vermont)
- Office of International Commerce – Division of Economic Development – Department of Business and Economic Affairs, (New Hampshire)
- Venture Lab, (Ontario)
- CMC Microsystems, (Québec)
- Investissement Québec, (Québec)
Prior to the meeting the members were given a tour of the 3IT facilities led by the Rector of Université de Sherbrooke and accompanied by Vermont Senator Peter Welch. 3IT’s mission is to promote world-class multi/inter-disciplinary research in fundamental science, engineering, and medicine, and to support a diverse and inclusive ecosystem for scientific and entrepreneurial training.
Senator Peter Welch delivered remarks to the MOU signatories.