New round of Research Chairs receive $80M in funding

Ottawa, ON June 30, 2003 The federal government has announced funding of C$80 million to support the creation of 80 new Canada Research Chairs. The government says that 30 of these new chairs are exceptional international researchers and expatriates.

The new chairholders include:

Dr Sarah Childs who is returning to Canada from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. As Canada Research Chair in angiogenesis and genetics at the University of Calgary, she will be researching effective treatment of blood vessel abnormalities by identifying the genes that are important to build strong blood vessels. This could help develop diagnostic tests for screening people at risk for diseases such as strokes.

Dr Paul Grogan, who is one of the 16 new foreign recruits. He is coming from Cranfield University in the UK to pursue his research on global climate change predictions at Queen’s University. As Canada Research Chair in Northern Ecosystem Climate Change, Dr Grogan will examine the effects of climate change on northern ecosystems and identify best management practices to address the impact of these effects.

Dr Eric Renault, Canada Research Chair in financial econometrics at the Universit de Montral, who wants to advance the study of financial econometrics and develop innovative applications to address issues related to integrated risk management, asset pricing and the economics of uncertainty.

The funding includes $69.7 million from the Canada Research Chairs Program and $10.3 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to provide infrastructure support to Canada Research Chairholders. Of the 32 universities across Canada receiving funding, three are receiving their first Chair: the University of Lethbridge, the University College of the Cariboo and Brandon University. All universities eligible for a Canada Research Chair have filled at least one chair.

The Canada Research Chairs Program (www.chairs.gc.ca), which was established three years ago, has awarded 926 chairs to date. The number of international recruits has risen to 191 (21%) with this latest announcement, including 99 expatriate researchers who have returned to Canada to pursue their careers.