Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 19, 2005 – Canada’s largest science and engineering granting agency, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), will present its national annual awards for excellence in innovation at an awards ceremony tonight at the Halifax World Trade and Convention Centre.
“The 2005 NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation celebrate the very best Canadian achievements in R&D collaboration between universities and industry,” said the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC. “Collaborations such as these are responsible for new products, new services, and new ways of doing things. They make this country one of the world’s most innovative and ensure our future prosperity and quality of life.”
Six partnerships will be singled out for national prizes. The university leaders in the winning collaborations each receive a $25,000 NSERC research grant.
The University of New Brunswick (Saint John), Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. and Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute will be honoured for world leadership in pinpointing the source of pulp and paper mill compounds that cause reproductive changes in fish, and in validating a reliable technological remedy.
The University of Manitoba wins a prize with Vector Construction Group for a remarkable long-term collaboration that has combined innovative ideas with leading-edge materials and systems to advance the state of the art in the restoration and monitoring of concrete and timber structures.
The University of Manitoba also collects an award for its work with Manitoba HVDC Research Centre and RTDS Technologies Inc. Together, they developed and commercialized state-of-the-art technologies for power systems simulation and created an outstanding corps of dedicated, highly trained professionals and leaders in the field.
Simon Fraser University and VSM MedTech Ltd. will receive a prize for a 30-year partnership that has developed revolutionary medical imaging technologies and opened new frontiers in the understanding of brain function and the evaluation and treatment of neurological disease.
The University of Toronto, TD Bank Financial Group, RBC Financial Group, Bell Canada and BMO Financial Group win for their collaborative work in finding unconventional solutions to such challenges in the financial services sector as evaluating mutual fund performance and corporate failure, estimating the relative efficiency of production units and improving the accuracy of the automated detection of credit card fraud.
The Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and Hydro-Québec will receive the NSERC Leo Derikx Award for an extraordinary, long-term collaboration that resulted both in the creation of the world’s largest laboratory for understanding the effects of ice build-up on electric transmission equipment, and in the development of new technologies to reduce this damage.
“Synergy prizes celebrate effective partnerships that connect university research leaders with the private sector to deliver research results to the marketplace,” said Nigel Lloyd, NSERC’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer.
Also to be honoured tonight will be Benjamin Hatton, of the University of Toronto, top prize winner in NSERC’s Innovation Challenge Awards competition.
In this annual competition, launched in 2004, graduate students from across Canada are invited to identify potential products and services that could be created from their thesis findings. Dr. Hatton won the top prize of $10,000 for his outstanding proposal to develop and commercialize nanoporous films for applications in microelectronics. Two runners-up in the competition – Richard Yuqiang Tu of Simon Fraser University and Razvan Nutiu of McMaster University – will each receive $5,000.
“The quality of entries in this year’s Innovation Challenge was very impressive and reflected Canada’s broad research in many fields,” said Dr. Lloyd. “It’s very encouraging to see such exciting new talent maturing and finding their place in our universities.”
The NSERC Innovation Challenge is co-sponsored by GrowthWorks, a leading venture capital fund manager, Bell Canada, MDS Sciex, and Foragen Technologies Management Inc.
NSERC is a federal agency whose role is to make investments in people, discovery and innovation for the benefit of all Canadians. With an annual budget of more than $860 million, the agency supports more than 22,000 university students and postdoctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 10,000 university professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 600 Canadian companies to participate and invest in university research projects.
Backgrounders on the winners are available at http://www.nserc.gc.ca/award_e.asp?nav=synergy&lbi=current.
For more information, contact:
Christiane Fox
Office of the Honourable David L. Emerson,
Minister of Industry Canada
Tel.: (613) 995-9001
Arnet Sheppard
NSERC Public Affairs
Tel.: (613) 794-9170
E-mail: communications@nserc.ca
Dan TanakaUniversity of New Brunswick at Saint John
Tel.: (506) 648-5697
E-mail: dtanaka@unbsj.ca
Steven De Sousa University of Toronto
Tel.: (416) 978-2105
E-mail: steven.desousa@utoronto.ca
John DanakasUniversity of Manitoba
Tel.: (204) 474-8551
E-mail: john_danakas@umanitoba.ca
Chantale Leblond
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Tel.: (418) 545-5011
E-mail: chantale_leblond@uqac.ca
Marianne Meadahl Simon Fraser University
Tel.: (604) 291-4323
E-mail: marianne_meadahl@sfu.ca
