The PIER Innovation Lab Opens On Halifax Waterfront
HALIFAX — An ambitious new initiative from the Halifax Port Authority officially opened its doors Thursday.
The Port of Halifax calls The PIER (short for Port, Innovation, Engagement, and Research) “Canada’s first living lab for transportation, supply chain, and logistics.” It’s located at 1209 Marginal Road, the former home of the Seaport Farmer’s Market.
Late last week, as construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the space, executive director Andrew Black took Huddle on a tour. Clad in a hardhat and safety vest, Black strolled through the airy space, occasionally interrupted by the sounds of an electric drill.
He said the PIER was created to address one of the “ongoing and persistent” challenges facing the shipping sector: collaboration.
“We’re an industry that hasn’t figured out how to address some solvable problems,” Black said.
He pointed to an issue like standardization of data flow. The airline industry solved that decades ago but it remains a problem in the shipping industry.
It, and other issues like decarbonizing the supply chain, are problems Black said can’t be solved by just one party.
“It was through that idea, through that realization, that we decided that at a time when people were excited about incubators and accelerators, that we were going to go living lab: create a collaborative environment, shared governance, shared Investment, shared assets, shared problems, shared projects,” Black said.
Big Name Partners
Picture The PIER sort of like a traditional co-working space: a large, open-concept space filled with a mix of workspaces, hot desks, private calling booths, a board room, and a presentation area.
The main level features a “command centre” and several shipping containers that have been converted into mini office spaces, most of which will be occupied by major partners.
The PIER opens with a host of founding partners and several smaller enterprises that work in some way with the shipping industry.
Major partners include CN Rail, PSA (the world’s largest container operator), Bell Canada, OMC International, Accenture, Saab Technologies, and the Halifax International Airport Authority.
RELATED: Dalhousie University To Join The PIER Research Group At Halifax’s Seaport
Some of the smaller enterprises will run their whole operation out of the space, while larger partners might use it like an “outpost” a few team members can work from.
“This place is a project lab–people understand the concept. People are gathered here to work through complex problems, or to work on quick pilots, and just try out different things in a safe and controlled environment,” Black said.
A ‘Centre Of Gravity’
Black said there’s still an “amount of unknown” exactly what kinds of projects will happen at the PIER. But the hope is that putting big-name organizations together in the same space will breed innovation.
“You start with this core group, this founding partner group, and create a bit of a bit of a center of gravity—because these are some very large players in our sector and the innovation space,” Black said.
“That in and of itself already drives ecosystem activity, because people will be attracted to those companies, companies who could choose to innovate anywhere in the world but are choosing to innovate here in Halifax.”
The hope, he said, is that Atlantic Canadian businesses will be able to tap into that. Eventually, Black said, he hopes the PIER becomes a “national asset.”
Creating New Career Opportunities
Black sets out lofty goals for The PIER, but it’s difficult to say what will happen until things really ramp up, which will be early in the new year.
“What’s exciting is when CN and PSA start advancing their innovations here,” he said. “Getting CN focused on innovating in Halifax; getting Saab focused on innovating om Halifax… that’s the moment where this thing really takes like flight.”
Black said he would consider the PIER a success if in a couple of years it’s attracting a mix of local companies and larger, “best-of-breed” startups.
“Our sector is too often not even thought of when people are thinking about their careers. Whereas, when you come into a space like this and you see some of the technologies that are going to be used, that’s going to leave an impression on people: that’s going to get a seven-year-old, or a 23-year-old, really thinking about the problems of our sector and how they’re going to solve them,” he said.
“Ports create prosperity, that’s what they do. They have not always distributed that prosperity equitably. And we really do want to see, in particular, Indigenous and African Nova Scotian young people seeing career opportunities in our sector.”
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].