March 13, 2024
The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Transport of Canada and Quebec Lieutenant, announced more than $515 million in funding for research infrastructure through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
The funding will support 100 infrastructure projects at 32 postsecondary institutions and research hospitals across the country. These investments will help Canada remain at the forefront of exploration and knowledge generation and will support researchers in addressing global challenges and making meaningful contributions to social, health, environmental and economic benefits for Canadians.
Ten projects led by UBC researchers have been awarded $36 million in funding.
UBC researchers are also collaborators on funded projects led by other institutions.
The CFI Innovation Fund awards were announced as part of the Government of Canada's investment of over $1.7 billion in research. The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Transport and Quebec Lieutenant, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced support for over 7,700 researchers and research projects across Canada.
This investment includes funding for UBC researchers through the Canada Research Chairs program; CFI's Innovation Fund; NSERC Alliance Grants; and SSHRC Insight Development Grants as well as graduate student and postdoctoral scholarships and fellowships, and support through the Research Support Fund.
Read the Government of Canada announcement.
UBC-LED PROJECTS
- Infrastructure for Accelerated In Vivo Molecular Imaging and Theranostic Research
UBC Lead: Bénard, François (Radiology)
UBC Co-lead: Rahmim, Arman (Radiology and Physics & Astronomy)
- Materials for Net-Zero: Enabling the Clean Energy Transition
UBC Lead: Britton, Ben (Materials Engineering)
UBC Co-lead: Clifford, Amanda (Materials Engineering)
- SMART Labs
UBC Lead: Eng, Janice (Physical Therapy)
- Transformative and disruptive systems immunology
UBC Lead: Foster, Leonard (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Michael Smith Laboratories)
UBC Co-lead: Luo, Honglin (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine)
- Unlocking the Next Generation of Quantum Materials
UBC Lead: Hallas, Alannah (Physics and Astronomy)
UBC Co-lead: Bonn, Douglas (Physics and Astronomy)
- A New Correlator for CHIME
UBC Lead: Halpern, Mark (Physics and Astronomy)
- Improved Pre-clinical modeling of metabolic resilience for novel diabetes and obesity therapeutics
UBC Lead: Johnson, James (Cellular and Physiological Sciences)
UBC Co-lead: Rideout, Elizabeth (Cellular and Physiological Sciences)
- Multi-scale Seeing-Is-Believing Platform: Imaging and Advancing RNA Vaccines and Genetic Medicines
UBC Lead: Leslie, Sabrina (Physics and Astronomy and Michael Smith Laboratories)
- Field Camera and Shim System for Precision MRI
UBC Lead: Rauscher, Alexander (Pediatrics)
UBC Co-lead: Kozlowski, Piotr (Radiology and Urologic Sciences)
- BioSEED-Biopolymer Synthesis, Engineering, Extraction, and Design
UBC Lead: Samuels, Lacey (Botany)
UBC Co-lead: Rojas, Orlando (Chemical and Biological Engineering, Wood Science and Chemistry)
PROJECTS WITH UBC COLLABORATORS
- Searching for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay with nEXO at SNOLAB
Lead Institution: McGill University
UBC Lead: Chloé Malbrunot (Physics & Astronomy)
- Mid-Infrared Quantum Sensing and Spectroscopy (MIR-QUEST)
Lead Institution: Polytechnique Montréal
UBC Lead: Jones, David (Physics and Astronomy)
- CGEn – Canada’s national platform for genome sequencing and analysis
Lead Institution: The Hospital for Sick Children
UBC Lead: Steven Jones (Medical Genetics)
- Ecocosms and Mesocosms jointly Predict Ocean Weather and Ecological Response (EMPOWER)
Lead Institution: University of Calgary
UBC Lead: O'Connor, Mary (Zoology)
- TRaC: Therapies for Rare Cancers
Lead Institution: University of Calgary
UBC Lead: Strynadka, Natalie (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
- Canadian Technology Accelerator for Digital Transformation of Manufacturing (CAN-DX)
Lead Institution: University of Waterloo
UBC Leads: Xiaoliang, Jin and Altintas, Yusuf (Mechanical Engineering)
- A Canadian Free Electron Laser
Lead Institution: University of Waterloo
UBC Lead: Momose, Takamasa (Chemistry)
Projects supported through the Innovation Fund are eligible for additional funding through the Infrastructure Operating Fund (IOF) to cover the costs of operating the research infrastructure. The total investment of $515.3 million includes $117.7 million from the IOF. It also includes $5.5 million to cover incremental administrative costs associated with the management and governance of 20 projects that involve three or more collaborating CFI-eligible institutions.
Proposals for matching provincial funding for CFI awards may be pending confirmation.