UBC researchers addressing global challenges through the bioeconomy as part of National Science Foundation Global Centers

October 2, 2024

October 2, 2024

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Council (SSHRC) announced that four Canadian research teams have recently been selected to work with international partners to address global challenges through the bioeconomy as part of the National Science Foundation Global Centers initiative.

The Bioeconomy is the share of the economy based on products, services, and processes derived from living systems. Involving the natural sciences and engineering, the bioeconomy includes contributions from fields such as chemistry, materials science, mathematics, data sciences, the humanities and the social sciences. This year’s competition provides an opportunity for international, multi- and inter-disciplinary teams involving the natural sciences and engineering and the social sciences to use knowledge and research on the bioeconomy to address a global challenge facing humanity. 

Dr. Rashid Sumaila has been awarded $2.5 million from NSERC and SSHRC to lead UBC's research team collaborating on Global Centers: International Bioeconomy Macroalgae Center (IBMC). The project is led by Dr. John D. Coates at UC Berkeley.

Read the NSERC announcement


First Nations land acknowledegement

We acknowledge that UBC’s two main campuses are situated within the ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people, and in the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.



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