By: Laura Matthews
8 Sep, 2016
CIFAR congratulates Government of Canada for landmark investment in Canadian research
September 8, 2016
The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Canada’s Minister of Science, announced Tuesday, September 6, that the Government of Canada is investing $900 million in 13 major research initiatives, aimed at strengthening Canada’s position of leadership in global research.
The funding, awarded as a result of a competitive process under the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), aims to strengthen strategic areas of research and supports the development or expansion of research centres across Canada. Many of the successful applications in both this round and the previous round align with CIFAR’s global research programs.
“CIFAR congratulates all the successful universities and applauds the Government of Canada for their foresight in investing in Canadian research excellence,” says Dr. Alan Bernstein, President & CEO of CIFAR. “This investment will help to ensure that Canada is positioned as a global leader in critical areas of science and is able to address some of the most challenging and exciting issues of our time.”
Of the 13 successful proposals, six align with the missions of CIFAR research programs and received CIFAR’s support in the application process. Successful proposals linked to CIFAR include initiatives to advance quantum science (University of Waterloo), improve human brain health (McGill University and Western University), further our understanding of the evolution of structure in the universe (Queen’s University), accelerate innovation in data science (Université de Montréal), and develop future energy systems (University of Alberta).
CIFAR’s global networks are comprised of close to 400 CIFAR fellows based at the world’s leading research institutions, with almost half of CIFAR’s fellows and advisors at 27 Canadian universities. Many of the successful CFREF proposals were led by CIFAR program directors, including CIFAR co-director for Learning in Machines & Brains Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal); the co-directors of the Azrieli Brain, Mind & Consciousness program, Mel Goodale and Adrian Owen (Western University); and the leaders of CIFAR’s Quantum Information Science program, director Ray Laflamme and advisory committee chair David Cory (University of Waterloo).
“Our Canadian university partners are central to CIFAR’s success in contributing to global research excellence,” adds Denis Thérien, CIFAR VP Partnerships. “We look forward to working with them in key areas of alignment to strengthen international collaborations and ultimately to increase the impact of our collective efforts.”