Canada’s quietest research space opens

Edmonton, AB – Hundreds of Canada’s leading scientists and engineers gathered in Edmonton last week to celebrate the opening of one of the world’s most technologically advanced research facilities – the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT).

The $52.2-million facility is designed to provide the optimal conditions for nano-scale research and to foster collaboration between researchers. It includes a suite of characterization labs that are located in this facility with ultra-low vibration and minimal acoustical noise or electro-magnetic interference.

The 20,000 sq m building will be shared by the NRC National Institute for Nanotechnology and the University of Alberta. It will include the NINT Innovation Centre, a research transfer facility where tenants working on commercializing nanotechnology will lease both lab and office space. Other specialized spaces include: laboratories for chemical and biochemical synthesis and analysis of the material structure at the atomic scale; and a Class 1000 clean room for the production of nano-structured systems.

The facility will house more than $40 million of the latest generation of scientific equipment including electron and scanning probe microscopes, and chemical and material analysis instruments. NINT will occupy five floors and the top two floors will be used by the University of Alberta for nanotechnology-related research.