New labs and equipment through the CFI’s Innovation Fund will help six transformative McGill research projects to collaborate, innovate and train the next generation of scientists for the jobs of tomorrow.
Today at the Université de Montréal, the Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, on behalf of the Minister of Science, Kirsty Duncan, announced an investment of $67 million through the CFI’s Innovation Fund to support research infrastructure in Quebec, including more than $31 million for McGill. The funding is part of the more than $554 million announced by Minister Duncan in October 2017.
Quebec’s Minister of Higher Education, Hélène David, committed matching funds for the Quebec-based projects. With the generous contribution from industrial partners, the total value of these six infrastructure awards at McGill is $59 million.
McGill’s projects, including Biomedical Research and Informatics Living Lab for Innovative Advances of New Technologies (BRILLIANT) in Mobility, will use the funds to purchase new, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to accelerate research. BRILLIANT, led by Professor Sara Ahmed of the School of Occupational and Physical Therapy, is a collaborative initiative of researchers from McGill and Université de Montréal focused on improving mobility among those with acquired brain injury (ABI), such as from a stroke or cerebral palsy. Professors Timothy Geary (Department of Parasitology), Anja Geitmann (Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences), Subhasis Ghoshal (Department of Civil Engineering), John Gyakum, (Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) and Dr. Abbas F. Sadikot (Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital) were each awarded funding in this round. Collaborating across disciplines, these researchers will tackle a diverse set of problems, including exploring the interactions of parasites with their environment, performing an intensive study of the St. Lawrence River Valley ecosystem, developing new techniques for image-guided neurosurgery and helping to improve the sustainability of a new class of physical substances called nanomaterials.
Over the lifetimes of the projects, the CFI will contribute $9.3 million for operations and maintenance of the infrastructure. McGill is concurrently collaborating on ten CFI-funded projects across the country, including with researchers at Carleton University, the University of Toronto, Dalhousie University and Queen’s University.
“Thanks to these significant investments from the governments of Canada and Quebec as well as from our industrial partners, McGill’s researchers and their collaborators will accelerate discoveries that address environmental challenges and improve the health and quality of life of all Canadians,” said Martha Crago, Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation). See more
(Photos: Vincent Allaire for McGill University)
