By Meaghan Thurston
On Thursday, May 4, the Honorable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, announced $126 million in funding for 142 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at universities across Canada. Fifteen CRCs valued at $12 million went to McGill faculty.
Additionally, the Government announced $7.3 million in support for state-of-the-art research tools through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund. The CFI partners with the Chairs Program to help universities attract and retain top researchers in Canada by equipping them with the tools they need to stay on the cutting edge. Three of McGill’s chairholders, Professors Haidar, Orthwein and Watson, collectively bring $350,000 in funding for infrastructure to the university.
Minister Duncan also announced on new measures designed to ensure better representation among chairholders of women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities. These new measures are immediately effective for universities with five or more chairholder allocations. Of McGill’s 15 new and renewed chairholders, six are women.
“Our government is committed to promoting equity and diversity within the sciences. We need to work harder to ensure that talented researchers have the opportunity to advance. The announcement of the action plan is an important step towards a more inclusive, open and diverse research environment in Canada,” said Duncan.
CRCs are granted to outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. The CRC program was created to enable Canadian universities to attract and retain established and emerging world-class researchers. McGill projects to be supported by this new round of CRC funding range from those devoted to hard and soft tissue regeneration to improve prosthetics and implant procedures, to research regarding voice disorders, vocal fold biology, and wound healing. Other research areas include analytic number theory and issues of early psychosis and early intervention among youth.
“I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the new and renewed Canada Research Chairs,” said Rosie Goldstein, Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation. “McGill is grateful for the ongoing support of the Canada Research Chairs program, which helps us to attract some of the most innovative thinkers and researchers from around the world. McGill is also committed to further strengthening our efforts to promote equity and diversity within the Canada Research Chair program.”
There are two types of Canada Research Chairs. Tier 1 Chairs are tenable for seven years and renewable. Each Tier 1 Chair is valued at $200,000 annually. Tier 2 Chairs, valued at $100,000 annually for five years with one opportunity for renewal, are for exceptional emerging researchers, acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field.
Eight new Tier 2 Chairs and one new Tier 1 Chair were granted to McGill researchers in this round. Six McGill researchers were granted renewals on their Tier 1 and Tier 2 awards.
Here is the full list of McGill’s newest CRCs:
- D. Scott Bohle, Canada Research Chair in Bioinorganic Chemistry, NSERC, Tier 1 (Renewal)
- Marta G. Cerruti, Canada Research Chair in Biosynthetic Interfaces, NSERC, Tier 2 (Renewal)
- Russell Davidson, Canada Research Chair in Economics, SSHRC, Tier 1 (Renewal)
- Ahmad Haidar, Canada Research Chair in Artificial Pancreas Systems, CIHR, Tier 2 (New)
- Dennis Jensen, Canada Research Chair in Clinical Exercise and Respiratory Physiology, CIHR, Tier 2 (New)
- Bartha Maria Knoppers, Canada Research Chair in Law and Medicine, CIHR, Tier 1 (Renewal)
- Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur, Canada Research Chair in Photonic Integration Towards Emerging Applications, NSERC, Tier 2 (Renewal)
- Nicole Yee-Key Li-Jessen, Canada Research Chair in Personalized Medicine of Voice Disorders, CIHR, Tier 2 (New)
- Ashok K. Malla, Canada Research Chair in Early Psychosis and Early Intervention in Youth Mental Health, CIHR Tier 1 (Renewal)
- Alexandre Orthwein, Canada Research Chair in Genome Stability and Haematological Malignancies, CIHR, Tier 2 (New)
- Maksym Radziwill, Canada Research Chair in Number Theory, NSERC, Tier 2 (New)
- Signy Sheldon, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory, CIHR, Tier 2 (New)
- David M. Theodore, Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Health, and Computation, SSHRC, Tier 2 (New)
- Nathalie Tufenkji, Canada Research Chair in Biocolloids and Surfaces, NSERC, Tier 1 (New)
- Ian R. Watson, Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomics of Melanoma, CIHR, Tier 2 (New)