Montréal, July 6, 2021 – CRIM held its Annual General Meeting virtually on June 17, 2021. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Guillaume Bazinet, CEO of FX Innovation and Chairman of the Board of CRIM. CRIM would like to thank the members who took part in this overview of a year that was anything but ordinary for the research center.
Mr. Bazinet reported on the year’s results. They are presented in the annual report 2020-21. Despite the health crisis, CRIM demonstrated its resilience and the relevance of its activities by conducting both research activities to remain a leader in high-impact technological trends, and numerous customized projects with companies. Mr. Bazinet also presented CRIM’s updated governance structure, developed by the Board in line with best practices in not-for-profit organizations. The number of directors has been reduced, and the executive committeé replaced by four committees with distinct mandates, enabling greater involvement of each director.
At the meeting, a new new Board of Directors was elected, comprising 9 directors: Guillaume Bazinet (FX Innovation), Éric Bergeron (IXIASOFT), Hélène Chartier (Réseau QG100), Marie Côté (Côté Multimédia), Pierre Dumouchel (École de technologie supérieure), Daniel Granger (ACJ Communication), Josée Lanoue (Praeneste Technologies), Olivier Laquinte (Talsom) and Julie Lévesque (Banque Nationale).
The event kicked off with a keynote address by a distinguished guest: Mr. Frédéric Bove, Managing Director of Prompt, a major partner of CRIM. Mr. Bove emphasized the uniqueness of CRIM, which brings together researchers and practitioners under one roof. CRIM’s professionals are as familiar with the realities of the business world as they are with cutting-edge technological issues: this reduces uncertainty when developing customized applied research projects, particularly for the SMEs that make up Quebec’s industrial fabric.
Françoys Labonté, CRIM’s President and CEO, presented a review of the year’s activities, and offered a glimpse of the organization’s vision for the coming years. Mr. Labonté also reported on the $20 million grant from the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation, announced on May 20 by Minister Fitzgibbon. This grant is in addition to CRIM’s current funding to support its activities over the next 5 years. In addition, through the Programme de soutien aux organismes de recherche et d’innovation, the Québec government is granting CRIM $2 million to support its Computing and Storage Infrastructure project for research and development activities.
CRIM’s mission remains as relevant today as it was when it was founded 35 years ago. The pool of multidisciplinary experts that CRIM brings together enables us to take into account all aspects of a technological project to ensure maximum impact: from the processing of various types of data by AI algorithms (text, sound, image, video, structured data) to the architecture to design a tool that is perfectly integrated into the client company’s systems, not forgetting the crucial issues of data integrity and security.
CRIM is a crucial ally in integrating the latest technologies into organizations in all sectors, helping to build the Quebec of today and tomorrow. With an eye to the future and feet firmly planted in reality, “CRIM knows how to see far ahead”, asserts Mr. Bove: in a context of recovery, it is precisely such players that the Quebec economy needs.
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Guillaume Bazinet, Chief Executive Officer ofFX Innovation and Chairman of the Board of CRIM |
Frédéric Bove,
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Françoys Labonté,
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About CRIM
CRIM is a center for applied research and expertise in information technologies, helping organizations to improve their performance and competitiveness through the development of innovative technologies and the transfer of cutting-edge know-how, while contributing to scientific progress. It enables organizations, mainly SMEs, to demystify and gain access to cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, in order to effectively resolve the technological issues they face. Its researchers and IT professionals are developing a wide range of applications in diverse sectors, and work in fields of expertise such as machine learning, computer vision, speech recognition, automatic natural language processing, data science and operations research. As a non-profit organization, CRIM’s neutrality and the strength of its network make it an indispensable resource. Its actions are in line with the policies and strategies steered by the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation, its main financial partner.
Related links
- Press release Review of the CRIM 2021 Annual General Meeting [PDF]
- CRIM grant announcement
- Board composition
- Rapport annuel 2020-2021
For information
Diane Fortin, Communications Advisor
CRIM – Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal
diane.fortin@crim.ca Tel. : 514 840-7493
