Jean-Claude Gavrel

Associate Vice President
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Networks of Centres of Excellence Division
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Mr. Gavrel was appointed Associate VP of the Networks of Centres of Excellence Program in October 2007, having served as Program Director since 2000. Under his leadership, the program has acquired expanded responsibilities and launched several new initiatives, including the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, the Business-Led NCEs and the Industrial R&D Internship program.

Mr. Gavrel has a broad and intimate knowledge of the issues surrounding R&D partnerships, gained over 25 years working with both private and public research organizations.

Prior to joining the NCE program, Mr. Gavrel worked for the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance and with the Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Credit Program of the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency.

Previous appointments included terms as Vice-President of the Computer Research Institute of Montréal (CRIM), Vice-President of PRECARN Associates, an industrial research consortium in robotics and artificial intelligence.While at PRECARN, he helped launch, and then managed, the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, a successful NCE.

Mr. Gavrel served as an advisor to a technology venture capital fund and was President of IVS Canada, an Ottawa-based high-tech firm.

A computer science graduate from the University of Ottawa, Mr. Gavrel began his career in software product development in advanced areas of technology, including machine
translation, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and network management.