Representatives from local economic development groups and a Downtown-based private equity firm will meet today with a Canadian delegation interested in collaborating on biotech initiatives.

A contingent from Quebec, including Michel Robitaille, the province's Delegate General, and officials from Montreal's McGill University will gather at Downtown's Renaissance Hotel to brainstorm on ways the two regions can work together in the increasingly hot health and life sciences sector.

Local participants will include representatives from the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance and Innovation Works -- three nonprofits involved in economic and technology development.

"We want to try to start putting meat on the bones of this idea," said Charles Schliebs, a partner at iNetworks LLC, a Downtown venture capital firm participating in the daylong gathering.

Schliebs declined to specify how the two regions could collaborate but suggested areas of mutual interest such as medical device, nanotechnology and bioinformatics -- the use of computers to analyze biological data.

"We definitely have some ideas on the kind of projects we'd [like to work on]," said Schliebs. "We'll get together to try to create some kind of unanimity."

iNetworks also is trying to convince state officials that it is a viable contender to receive the remaining $10 million in tobacco settlement funds that have yet to be allocated to a local private equity firm.

The state had set aside $20 million for local firms to invest in fledgling biotechnology companies, but so far only $10 million has been spent because local investors have not been able to raise matching funds.

"We make no secret of the fact that we have an application in" to the state Department of Community and Economic Development, Schliebs said.