By the Numbers: Research projects across Canada receive a $635 million boost

Guest Contributor
July 7, 2021

The Government of Canada has directed $635 million of funding to research projects through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Research Chair (CRC) programs.

Funded projects will investigate research topics in areas including media literacy, education, Indigenous knowledge, biomedical technology, AI and quantum physics, among others. 

The $635 million comes from existing programs at the granting councils but is now being distributed to researchers, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED).

NSERC Discovery Grants made up the majority of the research funding, with $310 million going towards more than 3,000 projects. Four different SSHRC programs and Canada Research Chairs also provided funding to hundreds of other projects.

Grant Total Funding ($M) Number of Projects
Discovery Grants (NSERC) 310 3400
Partnership Grants (SSHRC) 47 19
Partnership Development Grants (SSHRC) 30 95
Insight Grants (SSHRC) 91 638
Insight Development Grants (SSHRC) 32 563
Canada Research Chairs (CRC) 125 156

The Discovery Grants program was established to provide researchers with funding for long-term projects in either natural sciences or engineering.

SSHRC's Insight program, which includes the Insight, Insight Development, Partnership, and Partnership Development grant programs, supports research and research training in the social sciences and humanities, while Canada Research Chairs funding goes toward renewing existing chairs and creating positions for new chairs.

SSHRC's Partnership Grant program awarded the largest grants, with up to $2.5 million in funding, including a Carleton University project on global media and a UBC project to determine potential uses of AI in archives and records.

The funded projects included the following science and technology projects: 

Recipient Funding (CAD) Research area Research institution International collaborators Program
Gérard Duhaime $2,500,000 Arctic economy Université Laval Russia, Greenland, USA, Norway, Sweden, Finland

Partnership Grant

Ito Peng $2,500,000 Sustainable social and economic development University of Toronto Kenya, Senegal, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Costa Rica, UK

Partnership Grant

Dwayne Winseck $2,500,000 Global Media and Internet Concentration Project Carleton University Israel, Argentina, Ireland, France, USA, Australia, Denmark, South Africa, Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Argentina, Spain, Uruguay, Mexico, New Zealand, Finland

Partnership Grant

Benoit Dupont $2,494,323 Human-centric cybersecurity partnership Université de Montréal

Partnership Grant

Luciana Duranti $2,489,577 Artificial Intelligence in archives University of British Columbia USA, Spain, UK, Sweden, Croatia, South Africa, China, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Brazil, Iran, Chana, Bulgaria, Belgium, France, Slovenia

Partnership Grant

Stanley Asah $1,400,000 Human behaviour and clean technology Dalhousie University

Canada Research Chair

Matthew A. Schnurr $291,393 Digital agriculture and surveillance capitalism Dalhousie University USA Insight Grant
Louise Vandelac $200,000 Impact of digital technology and genome agriculture University of Quebec at Montreal

Partnership Development Grant

Armel Brice Adanhounme $200,000 Canadian mining companies in collaboration with West Africa University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali

Partnership Development Grant

Zhenghong Zhu $64,000 Dynamics and Control of Tethered Spacecraft Systems York University Discovery Grant
Shawn Marshall $61,000 Modelling Glacier and Ice Sheet Response to Climate Change University of Calgary Discovery Grant

The full lists of funded projects can be found on the following pages:

R$


Other News






Events For Leaders in
Science, Tech, Innovation, and Policy


Discuss and learn from those in the know at our virtual and in-person events.



See Upcoming Events










You have 1 free article remaining.
Don't miss out - start your free trial today.

Start your FREE trial    Already a member? Log in






Top

By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies. We use cookies to provide you with a great experience and to help our website run effectively in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.