Canada invests in world class research on environmental sustainability, health innovation and more

The Government of Canada continues to prioritize investments in science, research and collaboration across multiple sectors to generate innovative, game-changing solutions for priorities such as environmental sustainability, health innovation and cybersecurity.

Today, the Honourable François‑Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced an investment of more than $19 million from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to advance over 60 world class innovative research projects under the NRC's Ideation Fund initiatives, Challenge programs and the Global Innovation Clusters support program. These initiatives and programs are collaborations between NRC researchers and Canadian and international academia, industry and non-profit organizations to address some of Canada's most pressing challenges.

Examples of projects receiving funding include:

Environmental sustainability

• CTT Group (Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.) is receiving $285,970 to evaluate the long-term performance of polymer glazings as part of the Canadian Lightweight Initiative on Polymer Glazings (CLIP Glazings). This industrial R&D group gathers industry partners from across the transportation supply chain and public sector to develop high performance polymers to replace conventional glazings for cars and buses which will improve energy efficiency both of combustion engines and electric vehicles.
• The University of British Columbia (Vancouver, B.C.) is receiving $264,000 to develop bio-based crop protection solutions against root rot diseases using beneficial microbes from the soil, which will help farmers achieve better yields, reduce the use of agrochemicals and improve the environmental impact of plant-based protein production.
• Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John's, Nfld.) is receiving $217,690 to work on an improved training simulator to teach trainee ship operators how to navigate waters with unpredictable ice due to climate change.
• Dalhousie University (Halifax, N.S.) is receiving $99,464 to determine the size of micro-plastics floating underwater using image processing of the photo-acoustic data.

Health innovation

• The BC Cancer Agency (Vancouver, B.C.) is receiving $2 million, and the Centre de commercialisation en immunothérapie du cancer (C3i) is receiving $1 million to better equip hospitals with specialized infrastructure, expertise and technologies required for biomanufacturing-engineered cell products, which will help advance early-stage discoveries into clinical evaluation and make these lifesaving therapies more accessible and affordable.
• McGill University (Montréal, Que.) is receiving $297,000 to look at how well transit systems across Canada serve the aging population and how we can do better, so that Canadians can stay connected and live in their current homes as long as possible.
• The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Ottawa, Ont.) is receiving $198,000 to use artificial intelligence to speed up the design of stem cell therapies and help uncover new ways to treat degenerative muscle diseases.
• McMaster University (Hamilton, Ont.) is receiving $150,000 to create textile wearables embedded with smart technology that help stimulate muscle movements to keep blood moving, joints healthy, relax muscles and reduce pain in our aging population with arthritis and similar conditions.

Artificial intelligence and cybersecurity

• The University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, N.B.) is receiving $787,138 to work on cybersecurity solutions that enhance the security of future smart and autonomous transportation and enable decision-making at the speed of a fast-moving vehicle.
• The University of British Columbia (Vancouver, B.C.) is receiving $570,900 to develop deep learning algorithms that can extract high-quality information on tree species, biomass and growth rates to improve forest management practices and measure the impacts of climate change.
• The University of Waterloo (Hamilton, Ont.) is receiving $213,840 to provide state-of-the-art seasonal forecasts of sea ice conditions in the Canadian Arctic using artificial intelligence, contributing to safer navigation of the Northwest Passage.
• The University of Windsor (Windsor, Ont.) is receiving $160,600 to develop a secure and scalable framework that enables the use of predictive analytics to help healthcare workers save time in diagnostics and produce better outcomes (such as for breast cancer detection), while protecting privacy across multiple healthcare jurisdictions.