For 17 consecutive years, the University of Waterloo has been recognized as Canada's top comprehensive research university driven by a bold, multi-disciplinary approach and strong industry partnerships that turn ideas into impact.
Waterloo researchers are receiving more than $32 million to support research as part of a $1.3 billion Government of Canada announcement for research across Canada.
The funding announced for Waterloo researchers includes support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Government of Canada's New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).
This year, more than 100 Waterloo researchers from all six faculties were awarded funding through the NSERC Discovery research program, including:
- Anita Layton | Faculty of Mathematics Understanding the effects of sex and age in electrolyte homeostasis: Modelling and analysis ($685,000 over five years)
- Brian Dixon | Faculty of Science Antigen Presentation in Teleost Fishes ($480,000 over five years)
- Karim Sallaudin Karim | Faculty of Engineering - Radiation detectors and systems for spectral and phase contrast X-ray imaging ($450,000 over five years)
- Evan Risko | Faculty of Arts Basic Processes in the Monitoring and Control of Cognition ($325,000 over five years)
- Brian Laird | Faculty of Health - Speciation, bioaccessibility, and new approach methods for metals in wild-harvested fish in northern environments ($325,000 over five years)
- Richard Petrone | Faculty of Environment Vegetation change and water use in alpine ecosystems ($300,000 over five years)
The recent Government of Canada announcement was made by the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, and the Honourable Marjorie Michel, Minister of Health supporting more than 9,700 researchers and research projects across Canada.
Numerous researchers have also received funding under the following grants and programs:
Several Waterloo researchers received awards through the NFRF 2024 Exploration Competition, a Government of Canada program that supports high-risk, interdisciplinary projects with the potential to drive transformational innovation in areas with strong engineering and societal applications.
The recipients have demonstrated exceptional research leadership across engineering, natural sciences, health sciences and social sciences. With this federal government funding, Waterloo researchers are advancing bold ideas that will transform future societies, health, economies, technologies and the environment. Learn more about their research projects below.
SSHRC Insight grant
Wendi Adair | Faculty of Arts
Understanding diversity cues and buffering social identity threat to improve representation, collaboration, and climate in Canada's diverse workplace
$258,291
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Jennifer Asanin Dean | Faculty of Environment
Immigration and small communities: Exploring regional place-based settlement initiatives in Ontario and their impact on immigrant and community wellbeing
$99,953
Hilary Bergsieker | Faculty of Arts
Responsive social support for lived experiences of racism
$188,233
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Douglas Brown | Faculty of Arts
Mitigating Abusive Supervision by Enhancing Self-Control: An Examination of Four Processes
$277, 351
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Frankie Condon | Faculty of Arts
In The House of the Hangman
$73,182
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Robert Danisch | Faculty of Arts
Primal Communication: What Rhetoric Can Learn from Mycelium, Mammals, and Machines
$132,779
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Jonathon Andrew Deman | Faculty of Arts
Sequential Scholars
$116,764
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Brian Doucet | Faculty of Environment
Transit-induced gentrification and displacement: centring tenant experiences in policy solutions to build and maintain affordable housing along new rapid transit lines
$175,407
Interdisciplinary Approaches toward Responsible Facial Recognition AI: Developing Technical, Ethical, and Regulatory Recommendations for Policymaking in Canada
$ 382,300
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Bryan Grimwood | Faculty of Health
Tourism, ruination, and regenerative futures
$379,953
Greta Kroeker | Faculty of Arts
The Artemisia Project: Rape in Early Modern Europe
$76,840
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Kimberly Lopez | Faculty of Health
Listening to make care labour harm-less: Restorative practices for personal support care (PSC) workers amidst gender and race-based harm (GRBH)
$388,982
Ian Milligan | Faculty of Arts
Digital Terror: The September 11th, 2001 Attacks Online
$75,543
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Mingyue Zhang | Faculty of Arts
Human Capital Investment in Financially Distressed Firms
$98,668
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
SSHRC Insight Development grant
Muhammad Azim | Faculty of Arts
Government Sensitivity to Negative Tax News in Procurement
$51,879
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Marta Berbés | Faculty of Environment
Looking 'Blackward' to the Future: Reclaiming the place of African American communities in Phoenix, AZ
$75,000
Hilary Bergsieker | Faculty of Arts
Identifying illusory indirect effects and indexing individual-level variation in mediation analysis
$57,567
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Rosella Carè | Faculty of Environment
Decarbonizing Finance: Frameworks and Tools for Institutional Divestment Strategies
$68,294
Warren Dodd | Faculty of Health
Enhancing adaptive capacity to extreme heat amid housing precarity: A community-based research study in Waterloo Region
$75,000
Outcomes of youth attending the Future Launch Program
$50,135
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Fatma Gzara | Faculty of Engineering
Workload balance and measurement in multi-tasking environments: The case of airline flight dispatching
$69,000
Sheereen Harris | Faculty of Health
Exploring dynamic interactions between psychological and contextual factors on effort-based decision-making
$70,917
Colin Hastings | Faculty of Arts
Mobility Data for Public Health? An Institutional Ethnography of the Promises (and Perils) of Emerging Surveillance
$55,649
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Sharleen He | Faculty of Engineering
The Psychology of Innovation with Generative AI: Understanding Human Ideation Processes
$69,254
A Tipping Point? The Effect of Tipping on Employee Motivation
$55,444
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Christine Logel | Renison University College
A psychological approach to understanding barriers to affirmative consent communication
$73,150
Reina Neufeldt | Conrad Grebel University College
Desegregating Peace: Interracial Peace and 20th Century Peace and Conflict Studies
$53,228
Kim Hong Nguyen | Faculty of Arts
Resisting Chemical Futures in the Waterloo Region: A Curatorial Project
$74,979
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Nicole Nolette | Faculty of Arts
Cinquante ans de recherches théâtrales au Québec sous le prisme de la SQET
$74,904
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Gennaro Notomista | Faculty of Engineering
Painting music with robot swarms
$74,054
Christopher Perlman | Faculty of Health
Suicidality amongst Black people living in the Americas and Carribean
$74,447
Clemens Possnig | Faculty of Arts
Strategic Algorithms: Impacts on the Economy
$63,834
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Andrea Quinlan | Faculty of Arts
Technology-facilitated Sexual Violence in Canadian Sport
$66,626
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
The emotional blueprint: How early home environments shape gendered avoidance of anger and sadness
$74,858
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Brendan Riggin | Faculty of Health
Accessibility in Learning in Higher Education Through Open Education Resource Implementation
$64,813
Olga Vechtomova | Faculty of Engineering
Reimagining Dance: Real-time Music Co-creation between Dancers and AI
$68,439
Brianna Wiens | Faculty of Arts
Reactionary Rhetorics: Mapping Digitally Mediated Rhetorics of Gendered Violence
$71,940
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
Seth Wynes | Faculty of Environment
Dietary shifts as climate mitigation: Understanding emerging trends and testing novel interventions
$72,969
Mingyue Zhang | Faculty of Arts
Business Combinations, Innovation, and the Valuation of Intangible Assets
$52,759
Read on the Faculty of Arts website.
SSHRC Partnership Development grant
Lola Sheppard | Faculty of Engineering
Title: Uvaguqatsiarniq (A Home for All): Co-Designing Supportive Housing in Nunavut
$199,735
NFRF 2024 Exploration
Rodrigo Costa | Faculty of Engineering
A computer-vision-based approach for retrieving longitudinal disaster recovery data from past events
$250,000
Moojan Ghafurian | Faculty of Engineering
Training System for Dementia Caregivers to Gain Knowledge on the Affective Component of Interactions
$249,587
HJ Kwon | Faculty of Engineering
Transforming Non-Invasive Cancer Therapy with AI-Enhanced Imaging for Precise Treatment Guidance
$250,000
Kevin Musselman | Faculty of Engineering
Enzyme-laden smart-coating technology to eliminate microplastics
$250,000
Hamed Shahsavan | Faculty of Engineering
Soft Microrobots for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (SMART)
$250,000
Ting Tsui | Faculty of Engineering
Developing Sustainable Processes for Advanced Microchip Manufacturing
$250,000
Read more on the Faculty of Engineering website.
For a full list of recipients and funding amounts, visit the Government of Canada website.