34 UBC-led Projects Awarded $9.1m in Infrastructure Funding through CFI JELF Competition

August 29, 2023

The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, on behalf of the Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced more than $113 million to support 396 research infrastructure projects at  56 universities across the country.

This contribution, through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), will help universities more competitively recruit and retain outstanding researchers by helping acquire the state-of-the-art labs, equipment and facilities they need to make discoveries that will have an impact on Canadians.

A total of 34 projects led by UBC researchers were awarded $9.1 million in funding.

The CFI-JELF awards were announced as part of the Government of Canada's investment of $960 million for research. The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and of the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced support for over 4,700 researchers and research projects across Canada. These investments of over $960 million through grants, scholarships and programs are part of the government’s ongoing support for Canada’s research ecosystem.

This includes funding for new UBC-led projects through the Canada Research Chairs program; CFI's John R. Evans Leaders FundNSERC Discovery research programsNSERC PromoScienceSSHRC Insight Grants, Partnership Grants and Partnership Development Grants; Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships; and Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships.

Read the Government of Canada announcement.

Read the CFI announcement

UBC-led Projects

  1. Beck, Sara (Civil Engineering)    
    Microbial and Chemical Contaminant Removal in Decentralized Water Treatment Systems
     
  2. Britton, Ben (Materials Engineering)    
    3D-MARVIN: 3D Microstructural Analysis, Reconstruction, Visualization & INspection   
     
  3. Carey, Trevor (Civil Engineering)    
    Cyclic Direct Simple Shear Equipment for Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Testing
     
  4. Chan, Jessica (Okanagan School of Education)
    Improving Literacy Outcomes for Diverse Students and their Families in the Reading, Language, and Mathematics Lab
       
  5. Evgin, Laura (Medical Genetics)    
    Delineating Aggressive B-cell Lymphomas Heterogeneity and Pathogenic Trajectories to Optimize Cell-based Immunotherapies
     
  6. Fewster, Kayla (Kinesiology)    
    Infrastructure for Advanced Spine Mechanics Research  
     
  7. Gargoum, Suliman (School of Engineering)    
    Smart Analytics Lab for Modelling Advanced and Livable Infrastructure Systems 
     
  8. Gao, Zu-hua (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine)    
    Hydrogel-based Adhesive Artificial Mucosa (HAAM): A Novel Versatile Platform for Cancer Therapy and Prevention
     
  9. Gaynor, Kaitlyn (Zoology)    
    Facility for the study of People-Predator-Prey Interactions (P3I)
     
  10. Götz, Friedrich (Psychology)    
    Personality and Geographical Ambiance (PANGEA) Lab: A Locally-rooted Globally-connected Big-data Research Hub
     
  11. Hilton, Brett (Cellular & Physiological Sciences)    
    Development of the Spinal Cord Injury Connectomics Laboratory
     
  12. Holzman, Jonathan (School of Engineering)    
    Emerging Technologies for Optical Wireless Communications
     
  13. Irani, Pourang (Computer Science)    
    Infrastructure for Exploring In-situ Interfaces
     
  14. Jones, David  (Physics and Astronomy)    
    Advanced Laser Ablation Spectroscopy: A Green Path to Canada's Critical Minerals
     
  15. King, Kayla (Zoology)    
    Laboratory for Experimental Evolution of Pathogens (LEEP)
     
  16. Kitts, David (Land and Food Systems)    
    UBC Food & Beverage Innovation Center
     
  17. Li, Xiaoxiao (Electrical and Computer Engineering)    
    Building a Decentralized Future with Foundation Models:  Continual Learning and Monitoring at the Edge
     
  18. Pouladi, Mahmoud (Medical Genetics)    
    The use of Human Stem Cells to Understand Mechanisms and Develop Treatments for Neurological Disorders
     
  19. Reid, Gregor (Pediatrics)    
    BRAvE at BCCH
     
  20. Stairs, Ingrid (Physics and Astronomy)    
    Pulsars and Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Extreme Universe
     
  21. Tsang, Teresa (Medicine)    
    Transforming Heart Failure: Integrated Network Redesigned for Improved Outcomes (TOHFINO): An AI- Empowered Paradigm
     
  22. Wright, David (Land and Food Systems)    
    Metabolic Caging for the Assessment of Energy Balance and Substrate Utilization in Mice
     
  23. Cohen, Tamara (Land and Food Systems)    
    Nutrition and Eating Behaviour Laboratory
     
  24. Hawley, Alyse (School of Engineering)  
    Applied Microbial Systems Ecology: An Integrated Approach to Stable Bioprocesses
     
  25. Loucks, Catrina (Pediatrics / Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics)    
    The Loucks Pain Management Pharmacogenomics (PMP) Lab
     
  26. Man, Allison Wing Shan (Physics and Astronomy)    
    Infrastructure for Advancing Galaxy Evolution Research with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Gemini Observatory
     
  27. Moore, Alexandria (Forestry)    
    Coastal Wetland Ecology and Restoration   
     
  28. Richman, Joy (Dentistry)    
    Multimodal Slide Scanning for Dental Research
     
  29. Salfi, Joseph (Electrical and Computer Engineering)    
    Quantum Computation and Networks with Spins    
     
  30. Scholes, Rachel (Civil Engineering)    
    Stormwater Infrastructure for Treatment of Emerging Trace Organic Contaminants    
     
  31. Tobber, Lisa (School of Engineering)    
    Multi-Axial Subassemblage Test System (MAST) to Develop Resilient and Sustainable High-rise Buildings
     
  32. Todesco, Marco (Michael Smith Laboratories/Botany/Biology)    
    Plant Diversity, Adaptation and Bioengineering (PDAB) lab    
     
  33. Velenosi, Thomas (Pharmaceutical Sciences)    
    Pharmacometabolomics for Precision Cancer Treatment
     
  34. Wei, Kevin (Zoology)    
    Dissecting the Genomic Impact of Transposable Element with the High-throughput Genome Conflict Lab   

Proposals for matching provincial funding for CFI awards may be pending results.