The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded over $2.7 million in funding to Mechanical Engineering faculty members. The funding includes ten Discovery Grants to support ongoing research, two Research Tools and Instrument grants for new equipment, one Discovery Accelerator Supplement, and one Discovery Launch Supplement. These grants are meant to support long-term research projects while allowing researchers the flexibility to follow new high-risk high-reward avenues, encourage Canadian research excellence, and foster research training by supporting the next generation of researchers including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Some examples of the awarded NSERC Discovery Grants for 2020 include:
- Gwynn Elfring – Modelling the dynamics of active matter | $320,000 + $120,000 Discovery Accelerator Supplement
- Ian Frigaard – Sealing, Plugging and Visco-plastic Networks | $380,000
- Robert Rohling – Advancing towards ubiquitous medical ultrasound | $320,000
- Minkyun Noh – Design and Control of Novel High-speed Bearingless Motors | $140,000 + $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement
Research Tools and Instrument grants were awarded to:
- Hongshen Ma for a wide-field microscope to support research programs in image cytometry and image-based cell separation | $150,000
- Boris Stoeber for Preparation and Characterization of Piezoelectric Materials | $142,591
The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry announced the NSERC Discovery program’s +$492 million in research funding for a broad range of projects in the natural sciences and engineering at Canadian institutions:
“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I’d like to thank the country’s researchers for the hard work they continue to do at such a challenging time. With this support, we are investing in, and celebrating, the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research.”
UBC researchers received a over 40 million dollars for 183 projects. See the full list of UBC researchers to receive NSERC funding here, and read the full NSERC announcement.