From Idea to Impact: A Vision become reality with the Creation of the Aerospace and Mobility Collaborative Innovation Center (CCIAM) 

Boeing’s recent announcement of a $110 million strategic investment in the Espace Aéro innovation zone made headlines. More than just financial support, it affirms the strength of a unique innovation dynamic, a collective ecosystem that, for years, has been laying the foundation for a new industrial era rooted in collaboration. 

The creation of the CCIAM marks a turning point for the aerospace sector in Quebec and Canada. It brings to life a shared ambition: to position the country as a global hub of innovation, sustainability, and industrial competitiveness. 

First explored in 2017, this achievement stems from a transformative idea, co-developed by industry stakeholders including Innovitech: the most powerful innovations emerge from spaces where talent and resources converge. 

Much like ZAL in Hamburg or Aerospace Valley in France, the Aerospace and Mobility Collaborative Innovation Center (CCIAM) aims to create a collaborative infrastructure that turns cooperation into a lasting competitive edge, a space where Canada’s aerospace ecosystem can invent, test, and deploy with greater agility. 

For Innovitech, which supported the development and structuring of the CCIAM’s business plan, this announcement is the culmination of a vision launched nearly a decade ago: building innovation communities capable of transforming a strategic sector over the long term. 

Rethinking Industrial Innovation 

Insights from Camille Gagnon, Founder and Senior Partner, Innovitech 

« As early as 2017, we were convinced that the future of aerospace would depend on shared innovation platforms capable of bringing together companies, researchers, and startups around common challenges. 

This vision inspired the creation of CCIAM and, between 2020 and 2022, under Innovitech’s coordination, it became reality. The project moved from concept to strategic validation, thanks to a feasibility study that laid the groundwork for its implementation. » 

From its inception, the project aimed to go beyond traditional cluster or consortium models. 

CCIAM is not a virtual entity , it’s a physical, collaborative experimental infrastructure. A concrete space where industrial R&D meets academic research, where next-generation training goes hand in hand with the testing of new technologies. 

This model is based on a strong conviction: tomorrow’s challenges require open, physical, and agile innovation environments. 

By creating these spaces for exchange and experimentation, Quebec and Canada can accelerate the shift toward a sustainable, intelligent, and sovereign aerospace sector. 

The CCIAM Model as a Collective Lever 

Insights from Sofiane Benyouci, Managing Partner  

«CCIAM represents far more than an innovation facility, it’s a mechanism for collective orchestration. From the outset, the goal was to create a model in which collaboration becomes a strategic resource, one that generates shared value and strengthens the competitiveness of an entire sector. 

This model is built on a simple yet foundational principle: by bringing research, training, experimentation, and industrialization into one continuous flow, we transform cooperation into performance.» 

Under the leadership of Aéro Montréal, Excellence Industrielle Saint-Laurent, and their partners, Innovitech helped define the business plan, governance model, and strategic roadmap of the CCIAM, with a clear objective: to make it a long-term catalyst for industrial transformation. 

The center has been designed as a living infrastructure, capable of evolving with global technological transitions. Its academic partners, Polytechnique Montréal, McGill, and Concordia, play a key role: steering research, defining technological needs, and training a multidisciplinary next generation. 

By bringing together scientific knowledge, industrial capability, and strategic vision, the CCIAM becomes a model of ecosystem integration, where collaboration yields tangible results: accelerated technology maturation, increased international visibility, and strengthened industrial sovereignty. 

When Vision Fuels Global Competitiveness 

Insights from Sylvain Cofksy, CEO and Senior Partner, Innovitech 

«This success once again demonstrates Quebec’s maturity in collaborative innovation. It also shows how ecosystem thinking can reinforce Canada’s industrial sovereignty and international attractiveness.» 

Boeing’s investment is more than a win for CCIAM, it validates a collaborative innovation model where every actor, public and private, contributes to collective performance.

This model, built on trust, open governance, and strategic alignment, now stands as an international benchmark for industrial development. 

By bringing together companies, universities, and institutions around high-impact projects, Quebec continues to prove that it is possible to align sustainability, competitiveness, and technological sovereignty. 

This approach should inspire other sectors, defense and security, advanced air mobility, healthcare, where upcoming challenges will demand the same ability to unite and act collectively. 

The story of CCIAM shows that a long-held vision can become a driver of industrial and societal transformation. It speaks to the vitality of a Quebec where innovation is, above all, a collective endeavor. 

At Innovitech, we are proud to have helped structure this project from the start, and we remain committed to building innovation communities that turn challenges into opportunities, harness collective intelligence, and shape ecosystems that are resilient, agile, and future-focused.