The University of Regina has been granted more than $3 million by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for two research projects through its New Initiatives and Leading Edge Fund programs. The Foundation was created by the Government of Canada to fund world-class research at universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions.
Most of the funding - $2,799,999 - will be used by Dr. Peter Leavitt and colleagues in the Departments of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Environmental Engineering to research how combinations of organic pollutants affect environmental quality, public health, and agriculture. This project is a collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan and three other institutions in Canada and the United States.
As well, $202,658 will be used by Dr. Allan East and colleagues, mostly in the Department of Computer Science, to study how organizations can improve ways of storing and processing large amounts of information. The project will look at the generation, classification and searching of large computer datasets. Part of the research will include looking at enhancing internet search engines.
In addition, Dr. Darren Candow in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies was awarded $58,830 from the CFI through the Leaders Opportunity Fund for research into how exercise and nutrition affect the aging process of muscles and bones.
As well as these direct grants to the U of R, Dr. Sheila Petty - the Dean of Fine Arts at the U of R - was a successful co-applicant with Dr. Bertrand Gervais, a professor of Literature at L'Université du Québec à Montréal, for CFI funding. Petty is part of a team, along with researchers at five universities in Quebec and collaborators in Paris, that was awarded a CFI grant of $2,270,000 to conduct interdisciplinary research on hypertext, and bring together literature, art history and film studies.
The U of R vice-president of Research and International, Dr. David Gauthier, says these funding commitments from the CFI demonstrate the recognition of the high quality of research being carried out at the U of R. "We are very pleased with the opportunities this funding will mean for the University and our community," says Gauthier.