Spring brought good tidings to McGill last week in the form of major new funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The government body announced $3.5 million in research money for nine projects at the university that span a variety of disciplines. For the first time, researchers from the Faculty of Law and the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies will receive CFI funding.
The good news was announced at a ceremony on campus where the new Minister of Industry, Maxime Bernier, made his first official public appearance, addressing a packed room of media, researchers and McGill dignitaries including Principal Munroe-Blum.
"As Canada's most research-intensive university, McGill understands the important role of the CFI and its sister programs at the federal and provincial level in ensuring Canada's future and McGill's ability to contribute to the economic and social development of Canada and Quebec," said the Principal.
The ceremony included a tour of research labs at McGill and special addresses from two of the CFI recipients, Law Professor Frédéric Bachand and Microbiology and Immunology researcher Donald Sheppard. Bachand explained how his research database on international trade law will facilitate dispute resolution in commercial and political contexts, and Sheppard described his research on the use of genomics to fight invasive aspergillosis fungus.
The other CFI recipients at the ceremony underscored the breadth of the university's research capacities. Among them were scholars in the fields of medicine, biology, oncology and neurology. Along with Bachand and Sheppard, the recipients were: Maya Saleh (medicine); Marc Tischkowitz (genetics and oncology); Brian McGill (biology); Junjian Chen (medicine); Michael Sinnreich (neurology and neurosurgery); Catherine Guastavino (library and information studies); Chieh Chang (biology).
The new CFI funding will serve to further enhance McGill's research prowess, and arrives as a welcome complement to other forms of federal funding at the university that include the Canada Research Chair program and the national granting agencies.
The $3.5 million total award is comprised of $1.4 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. That amount is matched by provincial funds and topped up by contributions from the university and other sources.