Quebec cybersecurity institute gets $1.3 million grant from Google

Google’s philanthropic arm is giving a $1.3 million grant to a Quebec agency for cybersecurity research.

The company said today the funds from Google.org are going to the Multidisciplinary Institute for Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience (IMC2) to support research on the growing number of global cyber risks.

IMC2 is a partnership between Polytechnique Montréal, the initiator of the project, the University of Montreal, and HEC Montréal. Google.org says it supports nonprofits and social enterprises “whose work has the potential to produce meaningful change.”

Google Canada will also launch the Google Cybersecurity Certificate, an online course from Grow with Google that prepares learners for entry-level jobs in cybersecurity in less than six months, in French.

Google Canada will work with non-profit partners CyberQuebec, Hackfest, Cybereco, Canada Learning Code, and ComIT to provide scholarships to at-need communities and those in their networks to access the certificate for free.

Graduates from the Google Career Certificates program are connected to an employer consortium of companies including Bell, Shopify, Publicis Groupe and Unilever that consider students for relevant open roles. In Canada, over 19,000 people have graduated from the Google Career Certificate program, the company says.

“The grant from Google.org empowers IMC2 to drive cybersecurity initiatives which are essential for our vision of a cyber-resilient society,” Marc Gervais, the institute’s executive director, said in a statement. “The project focuses on four critical areas: fostering a cyber-aware and cyber-responsible society, implementing a secure platform for our researchers to share and leverage cybersecurity data, addressing the alignment between cyber initiatives and the creation of an environmentally friendly future, and driving economic growth and employment opportunities in Québec and Canada by supporting the entrepreneurial spirit in cybersecurity ventures.”