Canada and Norway: Gearing up for talent and project exchange 

Canada is gearing up for long-term political cooperation with Europe and the Nordic region. The University of Waterloo visited NTNU and SINTEF to foster closer academic collaboration. The university is a key player in the Waterloo-Toronto region, which is home to over 26,000 tech companies and 373,000 tech workers.

The migratory Canada goose is one of the symbols of this renowned university in the province of Ontario, Canada. Over the past four years, however, the Waterloo and NTNU/SINTEF communities have exchanged students and collaborated on research projects to explore partnership opportunities through a project funded by the UTFORSK program of The Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-DIR), which supports Norway's strategy for international education partnerships with priority countries outside Europe. The project, called «International Work Integrated Learning in Artificial Intelligence» (IWIL AI), has so far enabled 30 students in all levels to spend a research or work term in exchange.

Two day seminar

Six representatives comprising staff, researchers, and students travelled from Waterloo to NTNU for a two-day seminar as part of the IWIL AI Project last week. The event brought together prominent AI researchers from Waterloo, student organization leaders in AI from both institutions, and members of the broader innovation ecosystem.

-We have connected research, talent and opportunity. We have fulfilled 24 co-op work terms in Norway in AI for our undergrade students, welcomed six master level research stays at Waterloo and a delegation of 8 NTNU researchers at Waterloo for an immersive visiti in our AI Ecosystem The Norwegian students have focused on AI research and thesis completion under co-supervision from NTNU and Waterloo faculty, says Catherine Balcerzak-Wimmer at Co-operative and Experiential Education at the University of Waterloo. 

Further funding?

The visit represents for the time being the end of the IWIL AI Project, the four-year exchange and research partnership (2023–2026) between NTNU and Waterloo focused specifically on AI.  On the Norwegian industrial side Waterloo co-op students have worked with Cognite AS and SINTEF Digital.

-We are now looking for further funding to continue the program, says Özlem Özgöbek, Associate Professor at NTNU and program head for the Norwegian part. 

The core mechanism of the program is a two-way student exchange built on work-integrated learning (co-op), not just classroom exchange: It's explicitly framed as more than a student swap, it's meant to build lasting research,innovation and opprotunities for co-op work terms between the two AI ecosystems. NTNU won a 2023 Co-operative and Experiential Education Employer Impact Award for it, and Waterloo has described it as investment in "future-ready talent" using their co-op education model.

These goals fits very well into the growing political cooperation between Canada and Europe.