Collaborate with Research Experts
Accelerate your research. Fast-forward your development.
Leverage world-class expertise
Our faculty experts are recognized as leaders in their fields around the globe, and supervise research teams made up of graduate-level and post-graduate specialists who have come from all over the world to pursue research at UBC.
Our faculty members pursue research in several interdisciplinary areas, and apply their expertise to multiple industry sectors, including:
Our Research Our Impact Recognized Expertise
Access funding through research collaborations
When you collaborate with UBC Mech, you significantly multiply your company’s research dollars.
When you enter a research agreement, you gain access to expertise from leading researchers and top graduate and undergraduate students. Collaboration can accelerate your research and development, and provide access to grants that leverage your company’s research dollars.
Our researchers have access to a wide range of grants to match, partially match, supplement, or fund industry projects. Collaborative research can significantly leverage your research budget.
At UBC Mechanical Engineering, there is no single template for a successful research partnership. The subject, scope, degree of involvement, funding, and intellectual property agreements are negotiated and approved in advance – you can be confident about working alongside our researchers. UBC staff will guide you through the process of starting a partnership.
For more information, please contact: ea@mech.ubc.ca.
Examples of available grants
These links are examples of grants UBC Mechanical Engineering faculty members can access. It is not an exhaustive list of the funding opportunities that are available. Your university collaborator will advise you on the most appropriate grants, and lead the grant application process.
Alliance grants encourage university researchers to collaborate with partner organizations, which can be from the private, public or not-for-profit sectors. These grants support research projects led by strong, complementary, collaborative teams that will generate new knowledge and accelerate the application of research results to create benefits for Canada.
ALLIANCE ADVANTAGE
The NSERC Alliance Advantage grants (formerly Alliance cost-sharing option 1) are for partner-driven projects. They fund projects focused on the partners’ goals, with at least one partner sharing in the costs of research. Research supported by Alliance Advantage grants will:
- generate new knowledge and/or technology to address complex challenges
- create economic, environmental and/or other societal benefits
- contribute to Canada’s long-term competitiveness
- support public policy
- train new researchers in areas that are important to Canada and partner organizations
- draw on diverse perspectives and skill sets to accelerate the translation and application of research results
ALLIANCE SOCIETY
The NSERC Alliance Society grants (formerly Alliance cost-sharing option 2) fund projects with societal impact as the main driver. Research supported by Alliance Society grants will:
- address a societal challenge that will result in new natural sciences and engineering knowledge and societal impact
- bring together academic, partner organization and societal perspectives and skill sets throughout the collaboration
- demonstrate how all interested individuals will learn about and use the products, services or policies that stem from this research
- generate new knowledge and/or technology to address complex challenges
- create economic, social and/or environmental benefits
- contribute to Canada’s long-term competitiveness
- support public policy
- train new researchers in areas that are important to Canada and the partner organizations
- draw on diverse perspectives and skill sets to accelerate the translation and application of research results
MITACS
Mitacs Canada is a non-profit national research organization that supports research partnerships between Canada and international partners, and also provides funding to research internships between Canadian universities and industry. The organization manages and leads major research projects across Canada through its various programs.
NSERC Idea to Innovation
Idea to Innovation (I2I) grants are designed for highly promising R&D projects with recognized technology transfer potential. In providing assistance in the initial stages of technology validation and market connection, the grant aims to accelerate the development of the technology and promote its transfer to a Canadian company.
CIHR Project Grant Program
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes. It supports research projects proposed and conducted by individual researchers or groups of researchers, at any career stage, in all areas of health. The best ideas may stem from new, incremental, innovative, and/or high-risk lines of inquiry; or knowledge translation approaches.
The Project Grant program will:
- Support a diverse portfolio of health-related research and knowledge translation projects at any stage, from discovery to application, including commercialization;
- Promote relevant collaborations across disciplines, professions, and sectors; and,
- Contribute to the creation and use of health-related knowledge.
Canada Biomedical Research Fund and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund
In alignment with Canada's Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy, the Canada Biomedical Research Fund and the Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund will help ensure Canada is prepared for future pandemics by increasing domestic capacity through investments and partnerships across the academic, public, private and non-profit sectors to produce life-saving vaccines and therapeutics.
The following opportunities are not specifically oriented to industry-university collaborations, however academic researchers may apply to the opportunities below to support collaborative projects.
NSERC Discovery Horizons (pilot)
The NSERC Discovery Horizons grants support investigator-initiated individual and team projects that broadly integrate or transcend disciplines to advance knowledge in the natural sciences and engineering (NSE).
New Frontiers in Research Fund
The Government of Canada's New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) supports world-leading interdisciplinary, international, high-risk / high-reward, transformative and rapid-response Canadian-led research. It has three funding streams: Exploration, Transformation, International, Special calls.
NSERC Funding Opportunities
See the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's (NSERC) searchable list of funding opportunities to find other programs that support research and development projects.