重口味SM

Professor Paul Young, Dr. Bonnie Patterson (Council of Ontario Universities), Minister Reza Moridi (Ministry of Research and Innovation), Professor Shana Kelley, Professor Jim Woodgett (Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital & U of

Research gets $190-million boost from Province of Ontario

Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation Reza Moridi came to the 重口味SM on January 20 with news that brightened up a cold day: the province is investing $190 million over the next six years to help attract and retain top researchers, develop innovative technologies, increase investment and create jobs.

The new funding will see $65 million going to the Ontario Research Fund鈥檚 Research Excellence program (ORF-RE) and $125 million to the Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI) program.

ORF-RE provides research institutions with funding to help support the operational costs of large-scale transformative research of strategic value to Ontario.

ORF-RI provides funding to help support infrastructure needs such as modern facilities and equipment.

鈥淩esearch is the foundation of a knowledge economy 鈥 new findings lead to new technologies, companies and jobs,鈥 Moridi told a large audience gathered in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy building. 鈥淎cross the province, researchers and companies are improving competitiveness, launching new ground-breaking products and services and changing lives.鈥

One of those researchers is Professor Shana Kelley of Pharmacy and the Department of Biochemistry. She said that funding from the ORF-RI was instrumental in helping her and her team progress 鈥渇rom a great science project to a breakthrough product.鈥

Kelley鈥檚 research 鈥 focused on the detection of infectious diseases 鈥 enabled her to develop an automated diagnostic instrument that can test samples on demand and on the spot and that can be used easily by a variety of health care practitioners. In 2010 she was one of the founders of a start-up company, Xagenic, which now has 25 employees.

鈥淭he investment from the ORF-RI enabled us to achieve things that wouldn鈥檛 have been otherwise possible.鈥

Professor Paul Young, U of T鈥檚 vice-president (research and innovation) believes the new funding will be critical to enhance globally competitive research and innovation.

鈥淭ruly transformative research demands two essential qualities 鈥 talent and ingenuity. Both the ORF-RI and ORF-RE have already enabled hundreds of researchers 鈥 many of them at U of T 鈥 to make great progress on addressing challenges that face society. This new investment will open a vibrant new chapter in what we can do as researchers. We are deeply thankful to the Province of Ontario in making this funding available.鈥

Paul Fraumeni is a writer with the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation at the 重口味SM.

The Bulletin Brief logo

Subscribe to The Bulletin Brief