McKenna Institute Blog

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Three years ago, former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna founded the McKenna Institute at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) with the vision of convening industry, academia, and government to advance New Brunswick’s digital economy.

In those three years, our approach has evolved to reflect a deeper, more integrated vision of growth. We understand that fostering a thriving digital economy isn’t just about building successful companies or creating jobs. It’s about developing the talent, infrastructure, and cross-sector partnerships that will ensure sustained prosperity for decades to come.

The McKenna Institute has a wide portfolio of over 50 projects on the go that connect to that mission. We are investing in digital advancements across a range of industries, from agriculture and health tech to forestry and oceans. These sectors are not just part of the economy today; they will be the cornerstone of its future. As we begin the new year, I want to share the action of our mission and the vision for how we will continue to move forward.

Fostering Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In a column published in May, Abby David, a Strategic Program Director with the Institute, highlighted why it’s essential that we leverage artificial intelligence responsibly as a tool for growth in our province.

“New Brunswick faces a shortage of experienced workers with the skillset required to thrive in the economy of today and the workforce of the very near future,” she said.

“By giving more people the chance to develop these skills, especially in a field where understanding AI is a great advantage, we can fill those gaps and boost the economy.”

In 2024, the Institute supported Armand Doucet as the Senior Advisor on AI in Education with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (EECD). Doucet’s role was created to augment work already started in the department to ensure AI is being used responsibly and effectively for students and teachers.

The McKenna Institute also hosts several learning pathways to gain fundamental basics for the use of AI through the IBM SkillsBuild platform. With over 2,700 registered users through the McKenna Institute, the open platform allows users to earn micro-credentials in a variety of technological sectors and careers, including education in learning to use and understand the basics of artificial intelligence.

AI has been a key theme to many of the events the McKenna Institute has sponsored or championed. The second annual MedTech Summit hosted with Université de Moncton had a strong focus on how AI is impacting the medical field; the InnovateNB Awards and Celebration hosted annually with TechImpact and NBIF held programming focused on AI in business; the Tech for Teaching conference hosted by the McKenna Institute introduced AI tools to New Brunswick teachers; and EECD hosted an AI ThinkTank that brought together professionals to discuss how AI can enhance our education system.

The Institute is also proud to be partners with UNB’s Research Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RIDSAI), which opened last year and in 2024 brought together research leaders in AI and Data Science to share their use of data and AI to inform solutions to complex problems across many fields. They are playing a critical role in our digital ecosystem and will continue to grow in 2025.

Advances in talent and industry development

Building on our mission of collaborating with industry and cross-sector partnerships, we continued our work to push New Brunswick’s economy forward.

Earlier this year, we announced a partnership led by McCain Foods with support from ResearchNB and the Government of New Brunswick’s Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture & Fisheries that will enhance agricultural research at UNB and will be monumental for digital agriculture. The project will also establish a Chair in Digital Agriculture at UNB.

In digital health, our partnership with Shoppers Drug Mart that aims to bring innovative, patient-centric community health care solutions to our province showed great progress as the funding for five projects was announced. The researchers come from UNB’s NB Institute for Research, Data & Training (NB-IRDT), the Pond-Deshpande Centre, and Université de Moncton.

Cybersecurity is a major sector in New Brunswick and this year, we grew collaborations with organizations like Thales and ICTC to focus on how we can nurture cybersecurity talent and retain it in our province. In December, UNB and the Government of Canada announced a Cyber Data Attribution Centre (CDAC) that will be housed at the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity at UNB. It’s these types of developments that demonstrate New Brunswick strength on the national and international stage as major players in cybersecurity.

Education is key

Education has always been at the heart of the McKenna Institute’s mission. From the beginning, Frank McKenna has put forward the simple philosophy that we can construct a strong talent pipeline to digital careers if we start in our education system.

In the past year, we have kept the momentum going with our partnerships with EECD and the province’s four school districts. We have hosted Digital Innovation Community Events (DICE) at schools across New Brunswick where partners in post-secondary and industry leaders embracing digital meet face to face with students, parents, and teachers.

In June, we announced that we are building a Rural Strategy for Digital Transformation to accelerate our province’s digital economy with the support of a $1 million investment led by the River Philip Foundation. The project will harness digital adoption, public engagement, and partnerships to strengthen New Brunswick’s smaller centres and rural communities as part of our overarching mission to empower all New Brunswickers in every corner of the province.

We are also happy to work alongside partners the Joint Economic Development Initiative (JEDI) and Ulnooweg Education Centre to build on digital projects reaching New Brunswick’s Indigenous communities. With them, we are developing a mobile unit that will travel to Indigenous communities and will offer opportunities to further explore and deepen digital skills and provide accessible pathways in Science, Technology, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). The project is supported by the Mastercard Foundation and the TD Ready Challenge and will launch in June 2025.

Looking ahead

By sharing some of these project highlights, you can see how transforming New Brunswick’s digital economy doesn’t happen in isolation. Collaboration is essential to building our talent pipeline and creating a sustainable province that has the infrastructure to support its full potential.

Looking ahead to the new year, we will continue our mission and continue to work with new partners and take advantage of the incredible work being done across the province to strengthen our digital impact.

Our commitment to leveraging technology in education, industry, and community development is unwavering. As we look towards the future, our focus remains on fostering partnerships, developing talent, and creating a robust digital infrastructure that will propel our province to new heights. Together, we are not just imagining the future; we are actively building it.

Adrienne Oldford is the Executive Director of the McKenna Institute at the University of New Brunswick.

Take a look at the video below for some highlights from our third annual Digital Innovation Summit in St. Andrews. The Summit brought together leaders in government, industry, and academia to discuss digital acceleration in New Brunswick. A couple of our announcements made in 2024 were made at the event.