COVE (Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship)
Halifax Harbour non-profit ocean-tech hub with a marine terminal, the Stella Maris subsea test bed and DRDC trials for USVs, UUVs and sensors.
COVE (Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship) is a not-for-profit ocean technology hub on the Dartmouth waterfront of Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia. It gives start-ups, SMEs, multinationals and research institutes access to waterfront infrastructure, marine test facilities and commercialization programs. COVE occupies the former Canadian Coast Guard site in Dartmouth and was officially launched in June 2018. Five companies signed tenant agreements at launch: Kraken Robotics, Sensor Technology, LeeWay Marine, Dominion Diving and Mermaid Fare. Its Start-Up Yard incubator, supported by Innovacorp, took in early ventures including Ashored Innovations, BlueNode, Marecomms, Maritime BioLoggers and Atlantian Acoustics. CBC News later reported that COVE had about 60 tenants and, according to court filings, was used by more than 350 marine-sector organizations. COVE now describes itself as a global technology partner advancing solutions "from seabed to space".
The site's marine terminal operates a 51,000 square metre water lot with year-round, ice-free access to the harbour. It has floating docks, a wharf face and finger piers served with internet, electricity and potable water. Wharfside electrical stations provide up to 600 VAC for industrial work and for charging electric vessels. On shore, COVE offers offices, shared workspace, laydown and storage areas and event space for its tenant community.
For in-water testing COVE runs the Stella Maris Testing Solution, which has four elements:
- a multi-sensor subsea platform for long-term deployments, which CBC reported sits about 10 metres underwater
- a dockside testing station for short-term trials
- a shoreside operations centre
- a real-time data portal with 24/7 access
Instruments connect to the operations centre servers through a plug-and-play device, so developers can verify and modify oceanographic equipment quickly. Related programs include:
- Digital Harbour, a shared real-time marine data environment supported by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)
- MORI (Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure)
- DeepSense, an ocean data and analytics initiative
- Seasonal Vessel Tracking, a dual-use acoustic and environmental monitoring project
Defence and uncrewed systems are a growing part of COVE's work. Its Defence R&D Maritime Trials expression of interest, which closes in October 2026, seeks technologies at TRL 6 or higher in four streams: sensors, maritime uncrewed platforms, software and system integration, and enabling technologies. The uncrewed platforms stream covers USVs, UUVs, gliders and UAVs and asks about NATO STANAG 4817 compliance. Trials may run at COVE, at The Launch, or in Canada's Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic waters. Example use cases include wide-area surveillance with surface and subsurface uncrewed systems, underwater docking and charging for UUVs, and inspection of critical undersea infrastructure. With Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), COVE supported the first Canadian Autonomy Trials Series-Maritime (CATS-M) in May 2026. The trial was held at The Launch in Holyrood, Newfoundland and Labrador, and integrated systems from Open Ocean Robotics, JASCO Applied Sciences and General Dynamics Mission Systems-Canada. In December 2025, COVE, DRDC, Ultra Maritime Canada and ACOA announced C$9.69 million in federal funding for a containerized at-sea test system for towed-array sonar. COVE states that it is the only Canadian accelerator site selected by NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).
COVE's Innovation Challenges, run with Thales Canada since 2023, have used six challenges to deploy more than C$1 million to Atlantic Canadian SMEs. The challenges have covered maritime robotics, digital shipyards, environmental monitoring and operational analytics. The 2026 Naval Technology Innovation Challenge, which offered C$187,500 in funding to successful participants, was won by Curion and Elituq Technologies. L3Harris Technologies sponsors a separate modular innovation challenge. In October 2026 ACOA committed a non-repayable C$2,576,667 to expand the program across more defence domains and prime contractors. COVE also has partnership agreements with:
- MITRE, for shared testing infrastructure and workforce training
- ORE Catapult, for offshore renewable energy
- German and Norwegian partners, under a joint MOU
- The Launch, operated by Memorial University's Fisheries and Marine Institute
COVE is led by CEO Melanie Nadeau.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
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Contact COVE (Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship)
WEBSITE
https://covesolutions.comPHONE
+1 902 334 2683HEADQUARTERS
Canada
Company Facts
Founded
2018
Primary Role
Industry Association
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Grant / Non-profit
Funding Total
-
Keywords
- COVE (Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship)
- Stella Maris Testing Solution
- marine terminal
- Digital Harbour
- Defence R&D Maritime Trials
- CATS-M autonomy trials
- Naval Technology Innovation Challenge
- ocean technology incubator
- subsea sensor test platform
- NATO DIANA accelerator
- Halifax Harbour
- Industry Association
- Unmanned Marine Vehicle
- Subsea
- Education & Research
- Defense & Security
- Oil
- Gas & Energy
- Research Platform
