Ottawa’s strengths are best exemplified by its status as a G7 capital and its impressive tech talent base. The city is home to key federal regulatory, funding and policy agencies while boasting the highest concentration of tech talent in North America at 11.3%* which eclipses traditional global tech leaders such as the San Francisco Bay area, Toronto, Boston and Montreal.  

There are over 14,000 students enrolled in health and life sciences programs in Ottawa’s two universities (uOttawa and Carleton) and our two community colleges (Algonquin and La Cité).

Each year uOttawa graduates more than 1,200 undergraduate (Bachelors and 1st Professional Degree), 250 (from 1320 enrolled) Master’s and 65 (from 267 enrolled) Doctorate’s degrees and trains more than 120 post-doctoral fellows in life sciences and health related fields.  

Ottawa ranks first in Canada and sixth in the world for best work-life balance, thanks to high scores for city livability, including outdoor spaces, air quality and wellness and fitness**.

A research intensive landscape 

Ottawa is already firmly established as a centre for R&D, innovation and commercialization in smart health and precision medicine.

Even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottawa’s health and medtech sector remains resilient, adding new jobs and securing research funding as demand for new products and innovations increases in this space.

Ottawa’s health and life sciences nexis provides enormous synergies and opportunities for innovation:

• a biotherapeutics discovery engine (neurosciences, cancer, cardiovascular, rare diseases, cell and immunotherapies therapies, vaccines, regenerative medicines, etc.) coupled with,

• smart health development engine (digital health platforms, AI, medtech and precision medicine)

• united with our dynamic high-tech sector including over 1750 knowledge-based businesses.

* CBRE 2020 Scoring Tech Talent Report: https://www.cbre.com/research-and-reports/Scoring-Tech-8 Talent-in-North-America-2020
** Work-Life Balance: Best Cities Worldwide in 2021 | Kisi (getkisi.com)