Three months after a scathing report found the federal government’s flagship supercluster innovation program was missing funding targets, three of the five clusters now say they’re on track to max out their budgets nearly two years ahead of schedule. 

With a slate of new COVID-19-related projects, the federal government has accelerated spending after a sluggish start to the program. Now CEOs of three of the superclusters are lobbying the government for additional funding to carry them through the five-year project period—and beyond.