The COVE Naval Technology Innovation Challenge is supported by funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Thales Canada. The challenge provides funding and support to Canadian SMBs and start-ups to advance technology and develop solutions for the Royal Canadian Navy.
“Atlantic Canada is home to innovative companies developing technologies with the potential to compete in national and global markets,” said Melanie Nadeau, CEO, COVE. “COVE’s Innovation Challenges put small and medium-sized businesses directly in front of operational challenges and provides the funding, expertise and testing environment needed to respond, helping turn Canadian innovation into validated capabilities.”
The Naval Technology Innovation Challenge continues to see strong engagement from industry, with 25 applications received across challenges. From each challenge stream, companies were shortlisted to participate in a comprehensive interview process, with two winners ultimately selected.
Following selection, the winning companies will work with COVE, Thales Canada and the Royal Canadian Navy to further develop and validate their solutions, providing a pathway from innovation to real-world application and helping strengthen connections between Canadian industry, government, and defense partners.
This is a practical way COVE is advancing the priorities set out in Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy and supports the strategic priorities of the Royal Canadian Navy. The Strategy calls for a stronger, more resilient Canadian defense industrial base, including stronger collaboration between government, industry, and Canada’s defense innovation ecosystem, all with the aim of creating better pathways for SMEs to contribute to Canada’s defense capabilities.
The Naval Technology Innovation Challenge puts these priorities into action, presenting real operational challenges to industry. Companies develop innovative technology solutions, processes, and frameworks that address critical naval needs. This year’s winners demonstrate innovation in Arctic navigation and real-time risk intelligence systems, demonstrating the breadth of Canadian innovation being applied to critical naval challenges.
The two winning companies will also join COVE’s upcoming COVE Connector on October 29, 2026, where they will showcase their solutions and discuss how their technologies are being developed to address critical challenges facing the Royal Canadian Navy and maritime operations. Representatives from both companies will be available to speak about their technologies and their experience participating in the challenge.
“Congratulations to Curion and Elituq Technologies Inc. on being selected as the winners of the 2026 Naval Technology Innovation Challenge,” said the Honorable Sean Fraser, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. “These companies are showcasing the ingenuity and expertise Atlantic Canadian businesses bring to solving complex challenges in the naval and maritime sector. Through initiatives like this, we are helping companies develop and validate new technologies, creating opportunities for growth while arming the Royal Canadian Navy with critical solutions.”
Successful participants receive $187,500 in funding to build validated, operationally relevant solutions with direct input from end users. These solutions may have a direct procurement pathway through the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship and Joint Support Ship In-Service Support (AJISS) program.
“We, Thales Canada, are hugely excited to again be working with industry leading companies from Atlantic Canada on furthering their innovations. The best capabilities are needed by the Canadian Armed Forces, and both Elituq and Curion both represent the leading-edge advances in their technologies, and important human-centricity in their solutions. Together we will help guide that new, Canadian, ‘technology-advantage’ into operational capability and military-advantage,” said Lee Vessey, Digital Strategy Analysis, Thales Canada.
2026 Challenge winners
Strong @ Sea: Innovating Resilience and Safety in Ships
Winner: Curion
Curion is a Canadian safety technology company and developer of the Curion Internet of Safety, a real-time risk intelligence system that connects operational, workforce and environmental signals to reveal where risk is emerging and compounding.
Curion brings together computer vision, human performance intelligence, including fatigue and competency, and operational intelligence. Together, these intelligence layers turn risk signals into action by strengthening organizational controls, supporting operational decisions, and mobilizing relevant information and targeted microlearning directly to the people doing the work, connecting organizational intelligence with the workforce when and where it is needed.
These capabilities help organizations move from reacting to incidents to understanding and addressing risk before harm occurs, all in service of our vision: a world where no one is hurt by work that could have been made safe.
“Being selected as a Strong @ Sea Challenge winner is an important step for Curion as we continue to advance the Curion Internet of Safety. At the heart of our work is a very simple purpose: helping keep people safe and preventing harm wherever it can be prevented. Working with COVE and Thales gives us the opportunity to bring our technology into a real naval operating environment, learn from the people doing the work, and better understand the systems, data, and conditions that shape risk at sea. That insight will help us adapt our technology around the reality of the work and demonstrate how earlier recognition of emerging risk can support safer, more informed operations. For Curion, that is the real measure of this work, whether it helps people and organizations recognize risk sooner so they are able to act before someone gets hurt,” said Tamara Vatcher, CEO, Training Works.
Mastering the Arctic Environment
Winner: Elituq Technologies Inc.
Elituq Technologies Inc., headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is an Arctic-focused technology firm delivering high-precision, AI-powered ice intelligence to support Canadian sovereign domain awareness and safe polar navigation. At the core of its portfolio is a pioneering machine learning framework that models sea ice concentration, thickness, and movement using advanced data science and satellite imagery. By transforming volatile environmental data into actionable predictive insights, Elituq empowers maritime, defense, infrastructure, and coastal operators to identify safe navigation windows, mitigate risks, and optimize Northern operations.
“Winning the Mastering the Arctic Environment Challenge validates Elituq Technology Inc.’s fundamental belief that the future of northern sovereignty isn’t just built with physical infrastructure and development, but also requires access to sovereign, reliable data insights and foundational digital infrastructure to make timely, mission-critical decisions. For Canada, this capability will transform Arctic domain awareness from reactive monitoring into predictive foresight, ensuring safe navigation and secure borders amid volatile climate shifts. As an AI-native company, this milestone accelerates our growth and proves that scaling cutting-edge AI/ML tools, deeply grounded in both Western science and lived Arctic experience, is the missing link to building a resilient, sovereign blue economy in and for Canada,” said Leslie Canavera, CEO, Elituq.
