The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has approved $23.8 million for 124 projects across the country under its New Opportunities Fund (NOF) and Infrastructure Operating Fund. Established to assist universities in their recruitment efforts of top researchers, the NOF has awarded $300 million to date, helping institutions retain or attract 2,080 researchers.

The latest awards were shared among 40 universities, with the greatest number going to the Univ of Toronto (12), McGill Univ (11) and the Univ of Ottawa (8). The largest amounts were awarded to the Univ of Toronto ($1.9 million), McGill Univ ($1.5 million) and the Univ of Waterloo ($1.3 million) which received five awards.

The projects cover infrastructure for a diverse range of disciplines and research areas, from semiconductor nanostructures (Dalhousie Univ) and enzyme mechanisms and protein engineering (Queen’s Univ) to a computational facility for quantum chemistry (Univ of Waterloo) and a happiness laboratory (Carleton Univ).

MATCHING FUNDS DIFFICULT

NOF provides 40% of approved project costs with the remainder coming from university, provincial and other sources. The matching requirement has been met with increasing resistance from some provinces who are either finding it difficult to source the funding or contend that it usurps their authority in setting provincial research priorities.

At this stage at least four provinces have ceased or are considering stopping the automatic matching of NOL awards

At the Univ of Alberta, for example, there have been no provincial matching funds for either NOF or the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program for two years, leaving 25-30 NOF awards and 20 chairs outstanding.

“New Opps and the CRCs are where we are most challenged. We have to deal with the accumulation,” says Dr Gary Kachanoski, U of A’s VP research. “We are in intense discussions with the province. We may get some matching funds this week but not all.”

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