Automotive partnership fund makes four awards

The Automotive Partnership Fund (APF) has invested $14.9 million in four university-based projects worth a total of $28.7 million. The largest award ($10.6 million) goes to a $16-million R&D project at McMaster Univ for a project entitled Network for the Engineering of Complex Software Intensive Systems for Automotive Systems in collaboration with General Motors Canada, IBM Canada and Malina Software. The other awards are: $3.6 million to the Univ of Waterloo for development of key technologies and full vehicle testing for electric vehicles in collaboration with General Motors and Maplesoft, $500,000 to the Univ of British Columbia to continue research into low-emission natural gas heavy duty engines with Westport Innovations as a partner, and $234,000 to the Univ of Toronto for a thermal energy storage system in collaboration with Dana Canada Corp. As the largest contributor to the APF, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council coordinates the program on behalf of several other research agencies (R$, September 22/09)….