The Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) announced June 26 that 39 researchers at York University have been awarded more than $5.1 million in NSERC grants, while five graduate students have received a total of $455,000 in funding for scholarships and fellowships. The funding was awarded following national, peer-reviewed competitions conducted by NSERC.
“NSERC’s investment in science, engineering and technological research reflects the strength and quality of the research programs at York and the commitment of our researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to excellence in scholarship,” said Robert Haché, York’s vice-president research & innovation.
Ed Holder, minister of state (science and technology), announced 3,796 research awards that will further discoveries in a full range of fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These awards comprise the 2014 competition results for NSERC’s Discovery Grants, Discovery Accelerator Supplements, Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships, NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships Program.
In the Discovery Grants and Discovery Accelerator Supplements Competition, the funding was granted for research programs covering a wide range of topics, including:
- fMRI and patient studies of remote spatial and episodic memory;
- online mining of big data streams using cloud computing;
- 3-D augmented urban space modelling for smart city;
- advanced design, planning and control algorithms for smart distribution grids; and
- hunting for bugs in source code of video and computer games.
The Discovery Grants Program supports ongoing programs of research in every scientific and engineering discipline. Discovery Accelerator Supplements, valued at $120,000 over three years, are awarded to researchers whose research proposals suggest and explore high-risk, novel or potentially transformative concepts and lines of inquiry, and are likely to have impact by contributing to groundbreaking advances in the proposed areas of research.
York researchers were also awarded $345,303 in funding in the Research Tools & Instruments Competition. The funding enhances the discovery, innovation and training capability of university researchers in the natural sciences and engineering by supporting the purchase of research equipment and installations.