$1M for equipment and infrastructure at University of Victoria

Victoria, BC – The University of Victoria is receiving $1,036,400 in funding from the federal government to increase research capacity and support services for the advanced technology sector on south Vancouver Island.

The money will go towards three projects:

– Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) will provide $570,000 in funding to help the university acquire and upgrade important research equipment, including a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer ($150,000), an electron beam lithography system ($290,000) and a Raman microscope ($130,000).

– WD, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Environment Canada will also provide $353,700 to allow the university’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences to purchase three new pieces of research equipment to study the Fraser River Delta. The equipment, seismic liquefaction in-situ penetrometers, will be used to better understand the behaviour of sedimentary deltas and will be the first array of its type in the world.

– WD will provide $112,700 in funding to assist the Vancouver Island Technology Park, owned by the university, to upgrade its existing business centre in order to enhance its services to the advanced technology sector on south Vancouver Island.

In addition to these technological and operational investments, NRCan is contributing expertise to help the university build and deploy an 8-km extension of the VENUS observatory in the Strait of Georgia. VENUS is one of the world’s most advanced cabled seafloor observatories, providing live data from the ocean floor.