November 16, 2022
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced today an investment of more than $127 million through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to support upgrades to eight biocontainment facilities across the country.
This investment is part of a new CFI funding program — the Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF) — which was launched in September 2021. It responds to urgent and essential needs of postsecondary institutions and research hospitals by supporting containment levels 3 and 4 facilities capable of working with human pathogens. The funding will help institutions keep their facilities at the cutting-edge and strengthen their capacity to work with industry and government to advance promising discoveries and promote training and talent development in the biosciences.
This total investment includes over $98 million in research infrastructure funding and almost $30 million awarded under the Infrastructure Operating Fund (IOF), a mechanism that assists institutions with the incremental operation and maintenance costs associated with the new infrastructure.
Dr. Mel Krajden at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, and professor in UBC's department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, leads the project BOLSTER-3-Pathogen Research: Building Operational Laboratory Strength To Enhance Risk 3 Pathogen Research that was awarded over $4m in infrastructure funding. This project will modernize one of the containment level 3 labs at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control to focus on SARS-CoV-2, tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant pathogens.
This funding is part of an investment made by the Government of Canada of more than $1 billion in funding to support scientists, researchers and students that Minister Champagne announced today at the Canadian Science Policy Conference: Government of Canada announces major investments to support scientists, researchers and students.