—By Stewart Aitchison

Welcome to the research section of the Faculty Newsletter. In this column we aim to keep you appraised of changes in the funding environment, new research opportunities and highlight award winners. Feedback and suggestions - both on this newsletter section and on how to develop the research community within the Faculty - are always welcome.

New Federal Science and Technology Strategy

In May, the Government of Canada released its Science and Technology strategy: “Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada’s Advantage”. The document, along with a 10-page executive summary can be found at: www.ic.gc.ca/epublications . Some key points of interest are:

• The strategy aims to create an entrepreneurial, knowledge and people advantage for Canada in four priority areas:

Environmental science and technologies
bq. Natural resources and energy
bq. Health and related life sciences and technologies
bq. Information and communications technologies

• Four core principles were outlined in the document:

Promoting world-class research
bq. Focusing on priorities
bq. Encouraging partnerships
bq. Enhancing accountability

More Federal funding opportunities will be aligned to the Priority areas.

Research Opportunities

The Canada Fund for Innovations will be calling for proposals in January 2008. The timeline for applications is:

• week of November 12 or 19th:  release of draft Call
• January 2008:  final Call
• April 2008: NOI deadline
• October 2008: full proposal deadline
• November 2008- February 2009:  expert review
• March 2009: MACs
• May 2009: SMAC
• June 2009:  decisions released.

Recent Research Awards

We would like to congratulate the following 12 colleagues who were awarded Early Researcher Awards over the summer:

• Ning Yan, cross-appointment to Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry
• Constantin Christopoulos, Civil Engineering
• Cristiana Amza, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Amr S. Helmy, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Ben Liang, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Konstantinos Sarris, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Greg Steffan, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Kevin Truong, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Warren Chan, IBBME
• Milica Radisic, IBBME
• Christopher Beck, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
• Hani Naguib, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

We would also like to congratulate the following who were awarded Canada research Chairs over the summer:

• Timothy Barfoot – UTIAS – Chair in Autonomous Space Robotics
• Brendan Frey – The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Chair in Information Processing and Machine Learning
• Olivera Kesler – Mechanical and Industrial Engineering – Chair of Fuel Cell Materials and Manufacturing.