The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has announced that six Carleton researchers will benefit from the Leaders Opportunity Fund. The fund is designed to help universities attract and retain the very best of today’s and tomorrow’s researchers at a time of intense international competition.
The total amount of money to be received by Carleton researchers is nearly $2 million. CFI’s portion is nearly $800,000, with the rest of the funds matched by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation under the Ontario Research Fund and industry.
The Leaders Opportunity Fund will help Carleton acquire infrastructure for research faculty to undertake cutting-edge research. It will also help Carleton create competitive packages of research support in the form of infrastructure and a portion of the operating and maintenance costs from the CFI, coupled with direct research costs from partner organizations.
“The Canada Foundation for Innovation’s support will help ensure that Carleton maintains its reputation as a first-rate research institution,” said Kim Matheson, Vice-President (Research and International). “The Carleton researchers recognized by CFI are among the very best in their fields, and the investment in their research infrastructure will allow them to pursue research that will make a difference.”
Funded Carleton researchers include Computer Science Prof. Sonia Chiasson; Civil and Environmental Engineering Prof. Mohammed Rayhani; English and Literature Prof. Stuart Murray; Physics Prof. Thomas Koffas; Geography Prof. Derek Mueller; and Alex Wong, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology.
Here are the details of the projects that have been funded:
Sonia Chiasson: $100,000
Carleton’s Human Oriented Research in Usable Security (CHORUS) Lab
The CHORUS lab is a centre for multi-disciplinary research on improving computer security and privacy for end-users and for experts. This applied research integrates human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer security disciplines.
Mohammed Rayhani: $100,000
Earthquake Simulation Facility with Network Interface Capabilities for Collaborative Earthquake and Vibration Research
The proposed earthquake simulator facilitates earthquake research by creating a device that can reproduce the earthquake ground-shaking loading in order to perform seismic testing of large-sized soil-structure models, such as high-rise building, bridges and other critical infrastructure.
Stuart Murray: $100,000
Infrastructure for the Digital Rhetorics Laboratory
The requested lab infrastructure will provide multi-touch computing surfaces and interactive devices to support research in innovative forms of communication, relationality and ethical subjectivity – forms that will be more commensurate with the ways in which we interact through increasing digitization.
Thomas Koffas: $143,117
Research and Development for Optical Identification of Single Barium Ions
This project will develop novel techniques to eliminate background contributions in large-scale xenon detectors enhancing their sensitivity for measuring the absolute scale of the neutrino mass via the observation of the neutrinoless double-beta decay.
Derek Mueller and Murray Richardson: $185,000
Water and Ice Research Laboratory
The Water and Ice Research Laboratory is a new facility at Carleton University that examines the impacts of climate change and other environmental issues on aquatic and cryospheric systems. This research makes use of innovative field approaches, laboratory equipment and geospatial computing.
Alex Wong: $150,000
Infrastructure for Microbial Evolutionary Genomics
Dr. Wong studies the evolution of genomes, with a particular interest in the evolution of antibiotic resistance in disease-causing bacteria. Genome sequencing of bacterial populations will be used to clarify the principles by which antibiotic resistance evolves, and to devise novel treatment strategies.
Brilliant Research. Brilliant Researchers
Carleton University is a dynamic, interdisciplinary research institution located in Ottawa-Canada’s capital. It has innovative programs in sciences, engineering, arts, and public administration and has realized partnerships with numerous public and private sector organizations. Its strengths have led to international recognition for its faculty, as well as an ability to attract outstanding students.
About the Canada Foundation for Innovation
The Canada Foundation for Innovation gives researchers the tools they need to think big and innovate. By investing in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment in Canada’s universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions, the CFI is helping to attract and retain the world’s top talent, to train the next generation of researchers, to support private-sector innovation and to create high-quality jobs that strengthen the economy and improve the quality of life for all Canadians. For more information, visit innovation.ca.
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For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations Co-ordinator
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
613-355-0336
christopher_cline@carleton.ca