Appreciative University of Guelph researchers from a wide range of disciplines gathered on campus Friday for a provincial funding announcement.
The occasion, held in the Ontario Veterinary College’s Lifetime Learning Centre, was an opportunity to learn the amount of provincial money each researcher received. And it gave them a chance to take a bow.
U of G research, the room heard, leads to important innovations, and innovations spur Ontario’s economy.
Guelph MPP Liz Sandals announced that ten research projects will share just under $2 million dollars.
Among those funded are a pair of early researcher awards recipients – Thomas Gadegaard Koch in advanced health technology, and Stephen Brown, who is studying the relationship between the lumbar spine and its muscles. Each received $140,000.
Sandals said the early researcher awards are crafted to support researchers who are just beginning their careers. The money “helps get them started,” she said.
Ontario provided about $11 million to 79 research projects at 22 research institutions across the province through the early researcher awards.
Sandals, the president of the treasury board, said advanced university-level research is very sophisticated and could not get off the ground until some quite expensive equipment is purchased.
In 2016, she said, the Ontario Research Fund has spent about $34.7 million on research infrastructure. U of G researchers attracted nearly $2 million of that money.
Among them were Trevor DeVries, who is developing new tools to monitor the behaviour and health of dairy cattle, Nicole Nemeth and Leonardo Susta, who are studying viral pathogens in birds, and Philip Millar, to establish a laboratory to study aspects of human cardiovascular physiology.
The province is also funding large scale applied research projects at U of G, such as the work of Filippo Miglior related to feed efficiency and methane reduction in the dairy industry ($390,000), and Bonnie Mallard’s work in the use of genomics to improve disease resistance and sustainability in pork production ($250,000).
Malcolm Campbell, U of G vice-president, research, said the many types of research at U of G that are funded by both the federal and provincial governments, speaks to the breadth and depths of the research going on at the university.
The research, he added, enables discoveries that lead to economic prosperity.
According to the province, the research funding boosts Ontario’s ability to attract and retain highly skilled researchers and innovators, sharpening the competitive edge of the province.
