New SAIT research facility is largest ever corporate post-secondary gift in Alberta

By Kaiden Brayshaw, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology announced a partnership with Imperial Oil Limited Tuesday morning. 

The announcement was centered around a $37 million research facility. The facility was gifted to the institute to support its applied research. 

The facility, Imperial Energy Innovation Centre, is a 40,000 sq foot space, it is already built and will not be on the SAIT campus. It is around the Quarry Park area of southeast Calgary. 

SAIT will take over the facility in mid-2025, according to a press release. 

Mark Butler, Vice President of Corporate Development, Applied Research, International at SAIT, said that SAIT will create four to five labs in the building, with Imperial Oil keeping a lab of their own. 

“Imperial remains committed to its industry-leading upstream research program. The company will continue to use the SAIT-operated facility to support its ongoing research efforts focused on increasing efficiencies and reducing the environmental impacts of its operations,” SAIT said in a release. 

Labs will include steam generation, water and analytics, among others. Butler said the labs should provide upwards of 80 to 100 work integrated learning opportunities for students. 

The labs will balance research with traditional energy like oil and gas, with alternative energy sources like hydrogen and carbon capture.  

“This is going to expand and help us understand better either the next energy or help to make the current energy more environmentally safe and cleanest and forward-looking,” Butler said.  

Butler said that Imperial is one of the largest oil companies in the country. The company has made multiple previous donations to the school.  

Butler called this latest donation a “natural evolution between friends.” 

Currently, SAIT is the fifth-ranked applied research institute or college in Canada. Butler hopes this lab will create more industry engagement and ultimately help the school reach the top rank.  

Butler said that being engaged with industry is SAIT’s “DNA.”  

“We are a big picture, big vision, and working with one of the largest companies around there, just shows that we’re going to continue to lead the pack,” he said.  

“This centre is going to be unique in the world with the types of conventional and non-conventional energy research we’re going to do in the scale and scope.”