HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 4, 2010 — Thanks to an investment by the Government of Canada at universities across the country, young researchers will have an opportunity to expand their professional and personal skills to prepare for the workplace. The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology), made the announcement while speaking at Dalhousie University.
“Our government is committed to developing, attracting and retaining the world’s best researchers here in Canada,” said Minister of State Goodyear. “Through the investment of the Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Program, recent graduates are making a successful transition into the knowledge workforce and are strengthening Canada’s economy.”
Through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC’s) CREATE Program, 20 projects will receive $32 million over six years that will help science and engineering graduates upgrade their skills to make a successful transition to the workplace. The projects explore a variety of research areas, including photonics, climate change, civil engineering and optical networks.
At Dalhousie University, one project will train civil engineering students in the management of water, while the other will focus on the development of lithium-ion batteries used in cellphones and laptops.
In addition to the advanced training already received in their science and engineering studies, the training and mentoring projects funded through the CREATE Program will help students and post-doctoral fellows further improve their employability skills. The program will help attract highly qualified students, increase their mobility nationally and internationally, and establish links that will further their chosen careers.
“NSERC’s CREATE Program helps graduating students become highly sought-after professional researchers in the natural sciences and engineering, both in Canada and abroad,” said Dr. Suzanne Fortier, President of NSERC. “The program helps not only to improve the skill set of the next generation of Canada’s research talent, but also to support their retention in the workforce.”
More information on the CREATE Program is available in the attached backgrounder. To view the list of projects funded, visit NSERC’s website.
NSERC is a federal agency whose vision is to help make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for the benefit of all Canadians. The agency supports some 28 000 students and post-doctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 11 800 professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 1500 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects.
For further information, please contact:
Gary Toft
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Gary Goodyear
Minister of State (Science and Technology)
613-947-2956
Shannon Cobb
Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer
NSERC
613-996-3861
shannon.cobb@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
Backgrounder
Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Program
The CREATE Program, launched in May 2008, is designed to raise the standards for mentoring and training new Canadian researchers for careers in industry, government or academia. Grants are to be used primarily for direct student and post-doctoral support. Remaining funds are to be used to establish and maintain training programs.
CREATE program funding is directed to the following priority areas:
- environmental science and technologies;
- health and related life sciences and technologies;
- information and communications technologies; and
- natural resources and energy.
Projects consist of initiatives led by teams of Canadian university researchers who see the value in helping students acquire personal and professional skills that are not part of their normal academic training. Students will have the opportunity to enhance their ability to work productively in a research environment that has become increasingly multidisciplinary. Important areas of training include commercialization, communication and project management.
While the primary focus is on natural sciences and engineering, training may also include interdisciplinary projects across the natural sciences and engineering and the social sciences and health domains. If appropriate, students may also be exposed to other research groups, either nationally or internationally, establishing links that will further their chosen careers.
The 2010 grants support 20 projects that will receive $32 million over six years. They focus on a variety of areas, including photonics, climate change, civil engineering and optical networks.
The CREATE Program will help attract highly qualified people and retain them in Canada’s workforce. It will increase student mobility nationally and internationally, between individual universities and between universities and other sectors.
Here is the list of researchers whose projects will be receiving CREATE funding:
Dr. Carl-Eric Aubin
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montreal
The MEDITIS biomedical technologies program will foster an enriched training environment designed to produce highly qualified personnel in health engineering, a rapidly expanding discipline. For post-doctoral students, the emphasis will be on the development of new technologies to study, diagnose and treat cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases, the two most significant categories of disease in terms of direct and indirect costs in industrialized countries.
Dr. Christian Baron
Université de Montréal, Montreal
Classical scientific training programs are primarily anchored in individual disciplines and academic departments and do not provide students with the appropriate interdisciplinary and practical training required for the labour market of today. The Cellular Dynamics of Macromolecular Complexes program will help to close this critical gap in a very important area of the molecular biosciences.
Dr. Hugo Beltrami
St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish
This project aims to develop a post-graduate training strategy designed to prepare graduate students to address the impacts of climate change. The strategy will emphasize training opportunities that are rooted in systems science, interrelationships between systems, measurement approaches, processes, modelling, practical experiences, communications and crossover opportunities with industry and government.
Dr. Dominique Berteaux
University of Québec in Rimouski, Rimouski
Developing Nordic environments is a field of science that gives rise to significant territorial, ecological, social and economic issues. This science also poses enormous challenges for training as a result of the great distances between university centres and most Nordic environments. The continental Nordic environmental sciences training program (EnviroNorth) will be pan-Canadian, transdisciplinary and multi-institutional, and it will involve approximately 260 post-doctoral students and interns.
Dr. Allan Bertram
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Atmospheric aerosols and their relationship to climate, air quality and health constitute a challenge that requires both research and training in a multidisciplinary approach. Students studying atmospheric aerosols are currently being trained in traditional disciplines (such as chemistry, physics or engineering), with very little interdisciplinary training or exposure. To address this problem, the project aims to establish a unified training program and collaborative research environment on atmospheric aerosols.
Dr. Peter Constabel
University of Victoria, Victoria
Global forests are a vitally important carbon sink for the biosphere, storing more than twice the mass of carbon that is found in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The program will provide interdisciplinary training for young scientists and professionals to better understand the interactions of climate with forests and to develop strategies to counteract the effects of climate change on Canada’s forests.
Dr. Paul Corkum
University of Ottawa, Ottawa
The photonics revolution, unleashed by lasers and optical fibres, has transformed our daily life, but there is a growing need to train scientists, engineers and technicians in the science and applications of photonics. The program in extreme photonics (a new frontier in laser science) will fuel new opportunities for next-generation imaging, diagnostic, material processing, and instrumentation and device technologies.
Dr. Catherine Crudden
Queen’s University, Kingston
In the increasingly multidisciplinary and international world of science, traditional training programs for highly qualified personnel are not very competitive. The project will enable the development of a training program in novel chiral materials and help to further strengthen international collaborations with French, Japanese and Swedish research groups.
Dr. Jeff Dahn
Dalhousie University, Halifax
The Dalhousie Research in Energy, Advanced Materials and Sustainability (DREAMS) training program will support research trainees who will address important aspects of energy production, storage and sustainability. The DREAMS researchers will tackle some of the most important problems through advanced materials research; and, using a novel training approach, this program will facilitate the transition of new researchers from trainees to productive participants in the Canadian economy.
Dr. Paul De Koninck
Université Laval, Québec City
The future of progress in life sciences, from understanding basic biochemistry to complex biological organisms and environmental issues, hinges on our ability to improve ways to study and manipulate molecules and living organisms with increased precision and reduced invasiveness. The project aims to provide trainees enrolled in biophotonics research with true interdisciplinary training at the interface between life sciences and optics/photonics.
Dr. Graham Gagnon
Dalhousie University, Halifax
Public expectations for clean water at the tap and in the environment have contributed to driving the water sector from its historical “low-tech” image to become a key component of the “clean-tech” economy. The Systems Training and Education in Water Assets Research and Development (STEWARD) program will help to train the next generation of young professionals in the water industry through a collaborative approach that is unique to Canada.
Dr. Andrew Kirk
McGill University, Montréal
The development of new sensor systems to meet future needs requires expertise from many disciplines. This program brings together a team from four Montréal-region universities that has a history of strong research collaboration and will now design a training program to develop the next generation of Canadian experts in integrated sensor systems.
Dr. Yves Pouliot
Université Laval, Québec City
The health food and technologies sector is a combination of food sciences and medical knowledge. The program for multidisciplinary training in the health food and technologies sector (FAST) is a joint initiative of the Université Laval’s Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods, the University of Manitoba’s Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals and the Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Health and Medicine. FAST will respond to the urgent need for highly qualified staff in the Canadian biopharmaceutical and agri‑food industries.
Dr. John Preston
McMaster University, Hamilton
The program in photovoltaics will train Canada’s next generation of engineers and scientists in the most advanced concepts for the conversion of sunlight to electricity. The program will provide the Canadian photovoltaic manufacturing sector with the highly qualified personnel it needs to be internationally competitive. It will also provide the students with an opportunity to acquire a comprehensive set of professional skills for creating new business ventures and participating in public policy development.
Dr. Wei Qiu
Memorial University, St. John’s
The Offshore Technology Research Training Program focuses on offshore oceans and the technology required for the development of natural resources. The program aims to ensure the continued development of Canadian natural underwater resources by addressing problems identified by industry and providing a highly trained workforce to maintain Canada’s competitive advantage.
Dr. Steven Siciliano
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
Canadians face an ever-increasing number of potential health risks from environmental contaminants. The government, scientists and the public need to know the dangers that contaminated soil, water, air, foodstuffs and consumer products pose to humans and the ecosystem and how to manage these risks to protect human and ecological health. The program will train a new class of professionals who understand the entire process of assessing and managing the risk that environmental contaminants pose to humans and ecosystems.
Dr. Kimberly Strong
University of Toronto, Toronto
The training program aims to significantly enhance the educational opportunities available to young researchers interested in polar, atmospheric and climate sciences, enabling them to build professional networks, and to develop research, technical, communications and organizational skills. The program will also take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), which is dedicated to addressing issues related to air quality, ozone and climate change.
Dr. Philippe Teillet
University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge
The AMETHYST Pathways project will create the first imaging science degree program in Canada. The high-tech field of imaging is used daily throughout society and provides essential information for major job sectors in Canada, including natural resource management in the energy, forestry and agriculture industries, as well as medical imaging, national security, climate, water and the environment. The program will carry out leading-edge interdisciplinary research in critical areas and produce a broader base of entry-level specialists to help address critical and long-term needs within this substantial and growing job market.
Dr. John Valliant
McMaster University, Hamilton
The impact of the recent shortage of medical isotopes highlighted the importance that molecular imaging and the associated probes has on the health of Canadians and on the economy of Canada. The Molecular Imaging Probe Program (C-MIPP) is a new training program the will educate undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in health and related life sciences and technologies.
Dr. Scott Yam
Queen’s University, Kingston
The Next Generation Optical Networks program will prepare highly qualified personnel trained in the integrated disciplines of optical devices, photonics communication systems and information technology. The training program is designed to develop professional skills in graduate trainees that will complement their qualifications and technical skills and will facilitate their transition to the workforce in the optical engineering sector.
