COVE and Centech Sign MOU to Expand and Strengthen Canada’s National Innovation Network

Montreal and Halifax innovation hubs deepen collaboration to connect startups, industry, and investors across a growing coast-to-coast and international network.

Halifax, NS and Montreal, QC, November 12, 2026 – COVE, a global technology partner advancing innovation from seabed to space headquartered in Halifax, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Centech, one of Canada’s leading startup accelerators based in Montreal and affiliated with École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). The agreement further builds Canada’s national innovation network, connecting Quebec’s deep tech ecosystem with Atlantic Canada’s defence and dual-use commercialization infrastructure to give innovators a clear path from validation to market.

The collaboration comes several weeks after COVE announced a similar strategic relationship with Communitech in the Waterloo Region, part of COVE’s strategy to connect Canada’s leading regional innovation hubs into a single, integrated national network. Together, these partnerships give innovators across the country access to the technical expertise, industry relationships, customers and capital they need to grow.

“Canadian innovators shouldn’t have to choose between building strong regional roots and reaching national and global markets. Our role is to make sure they don’t have to,” said Melanie Nadeau, CEO of COVE. “With Centech, we’re adding another essential connection to a growing national network. Every partnership we sign makes it easier for a company anywhere in Canada to find the right expertise, the right customer or the right investor, no matter where that connection lives.”

Under the MOU, COVE and Centech will refer startups, SMEs and technology developers between their respective ecosystems, exchange knowledge and best practices in innovation programming, and collaborate on joint events and trade missions that connect Canadian innovators with industry, government and research partners. The two organizations will also work to accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies by industry and public-sector end-users, drawing on Centech’s deep tech startup pipeline, its experience connecting emerging technologies with major industrial partners, and COVE’s operational relationships with defence and industrial organizations.

“Quebec’s deep tech startups are developing technologies with the potential to strengthen Canada’s security, industrial competitiveness and economic resilience. Turning these innovations into real-world solutions requires access to the right partners, testing environments and customers,” said Marjorick Foisy, General Manager of Centech.
“By combining Centech’s deep tech ecosystem and industrial partnerships with COVE’s expertise in defence, we can accelerate technology validation, commercialization and adoption, while opening new opportunities for Canadian innovators across Canada and internationally.”

The partnership also extends COVE’s international reach. Centech brings established relationships with the French innovation and defence ecosystem, complementing COVE’s existing industrial and investor connections across Europe, including in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as its role as Canada’s operator of NATO’s DIANA accelerator program. Together, COVE and Centech intend to create international innovation corridors that give Canadian companies a more direct route to allied markets in Europe and beyond.

“Our ambition has always been to build COVE into a single point of entry for innovators that opens doors across Canada and into the markets where we’ve spent years building trust, from NATO DIANA to our industrial partners in Europe,” added Nadeau. “Centech’s strength in deep tech and its ties to the French innovation ecosystem are a natural extension of that network, and this MOU brings us closer to that vision.”

COVE and Centech will begin implementing the collaboration in the coming months, with further details on joint programming and events to be announced.