Details slow to emerge on the latest Networks to join NCE program

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program has approved the creation and funding of two new Networks. In a press release that was quietly released in early July, the NCE steering committee headed by Dr Tom Brzu-stowski gave the nod to ArcticNet and the Canadian Advanced Foods and Bio-Materials Networks (CAFBN). They prevailed in the competition for $12 million in annual funding that attracted 53 letters of intent and seven full proposals (see chart).

Details on ArcticNet were unveiled late last month in Quebec City where the inaugural mission of the research icebreaker funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) was being celebrated. With administrative headquarters at Laval Univ, ArcticNet will receive $25.7 million over four years, with three more years of funding if it passes a mid-term review. It can also apply for a second seven-year funding envelope.

Laval Univ biology professor Dr Louis Fortier is ArcticNet’s scientific director and will oversee a research program that draws upon researchers from the natural, social and medical sciences. More than 145 researchers from 41 Canadian and foreign universities will participate in the research program examining the environmental and socio-economic impacts of Arctic warming. The Network has also attracted the participation of 27 government agencies, departments and public sector supporters but only two industrial partners.

ArcticNet’s research themes are: integrated regional impact studies in the coastal marine Canadian High Arctic, terrestrial Ecosystems in the eastern Arctic, Hudson Bay and formulation of policies and adaptation strategies for the Canadian coastal Arctic. The research is considered both important and timely as the effects of human- induced climate change will be felt first and most severely in the North before gravitating to southern Canada. Evidence shows that an Arctic meltdown is already occurring, with significant temperature increases in the Western Arctic and a reduction of sea ice cover over the Arctic ocean.

Federal commitments to Arctic research this year now stand at $66.4 million. This includes the CFI-supported Arctic research vessel ($27.7 million) and $10 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES). The latter involves 13 Canadian universities in a multi-year project studying the ecosystem and climate impacts of melting ice in the Arctic Ocean. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans also contributed $3 million to convert a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker into a dedicated Arctic research platform. The commitment exceeds the dollar value of recommendations made in 2000 by a task force which found that the state of Arctic research at that time to be verging on a national disgrace (R$, October 2/00).

FOODS AND BIO-MATERIALS

Few details are known about the Canadian Advanced Foods and Bio-Materials Network (CAFBN). The official announcement has been repeatedly postponed and is now slated for November 4. NCE officials and Network participants won’t comment until then, but information obtained by RE$EARCH MONEY shows that its annual budget is approximately $5.6 million and will support three research themes. They will be overseen by scientific director Dr Rickey Yada, professor of food science at the Univ of Guelph.

The research themes and their project leaders are: Structure-Dynamics-Function of Food and Bio-Materials (Dr John Dutcher, Univ of Guelph), Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals (Dr David Jenkins, Univ of Toronto), and Genetics, Ethics, Economics, Environment, Law and Society (GELS) (Dr Conrad Brunk, Univ of Victoria). Brunk headed an expert panel that issued a highly contentious report on the regulation of genetically modified foods for the Royal Society of Canada (R$, March 5/01).

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