Researchers at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) are among the recipients of over $1.3 billion in funding announced today (July 10) by the Government of Canada. The funding includes projects under the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada's (NSERC) CREATE program and Discovery Grants portfolio, as well as funding from five Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funding programs, including Insight Grants and Insight Development Grants.
In total, UNB-led research projects will receive $6,179,894 in funding support over the next two to five years.
Dr. Olga Palazhchenko, associate professor of chemical engineering, is the recipient of a $1.65 million CREATE grant for the "Canada's Life Cycle for Existing and Advanced Nuclear (CLEAN)" project.
Fourteen projects were awarded Discovery Grants, which provide an annual award for up to five years. Among these, seven also received a Discovery Launch Supplement, which consists of an additional $12,500 per year in funding.
- Dr. Hassan Alkomy, assistant professor of engineering, was awarded $38,000 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "Collaborative Robotic Payload Manipulation";
- Dr. Suchinta Arif, assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Ecological Modelling, was awarded $38,000 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "Uncovering the Causal Drivers of Marine Change";
- Dr. Zunaira Asif, assistant professor of engineering, was awarded $38,000 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "Innovative Solutions for the Analysis and Effective Removal of Emerging Air Pollutants";
- Dr. Andrea Burgess, professor of mathematics and statistics, was awarded $34,000 per year for the project, "Combinatorial Designs and Graphs";
- Dr. Hung Cao, assistant professor of computer science, was awarded $42,500 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "Toward Efficient Data Extraction with Edge-Cloud Continuum for Underwater Internet-of-Things";
- Dr. Bryan Crawford, professor of biology, was awarded $49,000 per year for the project, "Post-translational Regulation of Matrix Metalloproteinase Activity In Vivo";
- Dr. Sara Eisler, professor of chemistry, was awarded $36,000 per year for the project, "Maximizing Performance of Light-Absorbing and Light-Emitting Very Small Molecules for Organic Electronics Applications";
- Dr. Saqib Hakak, assistant professor of computer science, was awarded $41,000 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "Next Generation Methods to Counter Online Disinformation";
- Dr. Kenneth Kent, professor of computer science and Barrett Chair in Entrepreneurship for Digital Transformation, was awarded $62,000 per year for the project, "Accelerating Application Runtimes in Internet-of-Things Devices";
- Dr. Audrey Limoges, associate professor of earth sciences, was awarded $36,000 per year for the project "Climate-driven Changes in the Phenology of Primary Production in Arctic Outflow Waters";
- Dr. Amy Parachnowitsch, associate professor of biology, was awarded $49,000 per year for the project, "Nectar Evolutionary Ecology in a Changing World";
- Dr. Shivam Saxena, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, was awarded $42,000 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "An Intelligent Energy Management Framework to Unlock Controlled Environment Agriculture Systems as Virtual Power Plants";
- Dr. Dylan Spicker, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, was awarded $31,000 per year plus a Discovery Launch Supplement for the project, "Modern Challenges for Dynamic Treatment Regimes: Closing the Theory-Practice Gap";
- Dr. William Ward, professor of physics, was awarded $40,000 per year for the project, "Dynamics and Transport Between the Terrestrial Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere"; and
- Dr. Guohua Yan, professor of mathematics and statistics, was awarded $28,950 per year for the project, "Random Effects Models for Correlated Data of Mixed Types."
Dr. Audrey Limoges was also awarded a Northern Research Supplement valued at $17,500 per year for her project. Northern Research Supplements are additional funding support in recognition of the added costs unique to conducting research in the Canadian North.
The announcement also included the list of funding recipients from several SSHRC programs including the Insight Grants and Insight Discovery Grants.
Three UNB researchers were awarded more than $540,000 in Insight Grants for their projects:
- Dr. Stephen Schryer, professor of English, was awarded $84,206 over four years for the project, "Neoliberal Science Fictions: American Golden Age SF and Mid-Century Economic Theory";
- Dr. Matthew Sears, professor of classics and ancient history, was awarded $193,820 over five years for the project, "Place, Space, and the War Dead in Early-Iron-Age and Archaic Greece; and
- Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik, associate professor of sociology and Canada Research Chair in Resilient Communities, was awarded $263,374 over four years for the project, "Staying Housed: Working Alongside Lived Experts to Establish Programs and Policies That Improve Housing Stability in Individuals Waiting for Subsidized Housing."
Another seven UNB researchers were awarded nearly $440,000 in Insight Discovery Grants:
- Dr. Rachel Bryant, assistant professor of humanities and languages, was awarded $73,351 over two years for the project, "Seeing the Forests for the Trees: Intersections of Print and Paper in New Brunswick before 1910";
- Dr. Jonathon Edwards, professor of kinesiology, was awarded $74,250 over one year for the project, "Conflicting Logics in a Sport System - A case study of Mahone Bay United Soccer Club";
- Dr. David Garcia Leon, assistant professor of humanities and languages, was awarded $55,470 over two years for the project, "Mental Health Representations: A Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis of Latin American and Spanish Media Outlets (2008-2024)";
- Dr. Nathan Kalman-Lamb, assistant professor of sociology, was awarded $49,109 over two years for the project, "Why Risk Your Body? Ideological Coercion in Canadian Hockey and American Football";
- Dr. Jean Ketterling, assistant teaching professor of culture and media studies, was awarded $69,488 over two years for the project, "The Platforms, Pornography, and Play Project";
- Dr. Yasin Yasin, assistant professor of nursing, was awarded $68,875 over two years for the project, "Uncovering Key Determinants of Well-Being Among Older Canadian Retirees in New Brunswick: Insights to Support Healthier, More Fulfilling Aging"; and
- Dr. Yunzhijun Yu, assistant professor of marketing, was awarded $47,661 over two years for the project, "When AI Becomes 'Mine': Investigating the Effects of AI Customization on Psychological Ownership and User Overconfidence."
"Congratulations to all of our UNB recipients on their funding successes," said Dr. David MaGee, vice president research at UNB.
"Their success here points to the quality of their work and their projects. We share our funding agency partners' belief in this work, and the potential it has to make a positive difference in our world in such a wide range of topics. We look forward to seeing the results of your efforts."
