By the Numbers: Research projects across Canada receive a $635 million boost
Guest ContributorJuly 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:
- Discovery Grants
- Insight Grants
- Insight Development Grants
- Partnership Grants
- Partnership Development Grants
- Canada Research Chairs
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