Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Marine Institute’s newest facility, dubbed The Launch, located on the site of the old fish plant in Holyrood, N.L. officially opened on May 15, 2023.
Formerly known as the Holyrood Marine Base, the location received a $22-million facelift that was built in a series of steps since 2010 to provide students, scientists and industry with a state-of-the-art ocean technologies laboratory and learning facility.
“The facility and where it’s located provides what we like to call a living lab environment,” said Kelly Santos, the director of The Launch. “It’s a safe, sheltered environment, but it provides real-world conditions. Our clients are able to bring their technology here and to demonstrate it, to test it, to move it into a stage where they’re able to move it into their operations.”
The main draw of The Launch is the Arthur W. May building, a 3,345 square-metre multi-purpose building featuring high bay workshops and access to the facility’s wharf. The building is named after the former president of Memorial University, who served in the role from 1990–1999. May is credited with bringing the Marine Institute under the Memorial University umbrella during his tenure.
The Launch also features a 557-square-metre building for ocean observation and survival training, laboratories, classrooms as well as conference, office and collaboration spaces.
The Launch is also home to the Subsea Centre of Excellence — a water lot with infrastructure to support the development of ocean technologies, autonomous systems, remote operations and ocean vehicle training.
“Technology is such that it doesn’t matter what the ocean sector is, there’s room for growth. Doesn’t matter if it’s aquaculture or fisheries or marine shipping or the ocean tech sector in general. It’s an incredibly exciting place to be right now,” said Santos. “Our local ecosystem is incredibly strong — it’s growing at a very significant pace. The timing of this facility is fantastic in that it will be able to support that growth.”
