The idea for the project first took shape in the mind of Frédéric Dugré, president and CEO of H2O Innovation, a Quebec City firm specializing primarily in water management for the industrial sector. The concept became the seed of a project when Luc-Alain Giraldeau, chief executive officer of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), decided the initiative aligned well with the institution’s mission, one of whose research centres is devoted to water, land and the environment. The City of Quebec then pitched in, first by funding preliminary and feasibility studies and, in 2025, by granting nearly $1 million to the Carrefour de l’eau, allowing it to truly begin taking shape. In March 2026, Quebec’s Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy provided $2.8 million in funding, further strengthening the project.
Today, the Carrefour de l’eau has seven partners: the City of Quebec, INRS, the CTeau college centre for technology transfer, the 2 Degrés clean-tech incubator, H2O Innovation, architecture firm Patriarche and the Port of Québec. All are driven by the desire to combine and build expertise in water technologies while giving it an international reach.
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