Another big research win for New Brunswick.
Gotcha.
Today Royal Galipeau, Member of Parliament for Ottawa-Orleans and Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole House, on behalf of the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), announced the winners of a special $15-million nanotechnology research funding competition. Five projects will be funded over three years. BDC assessed the commercial potential of the proposed projects and will help the researchers move their technologies toward commercialization.
The five winning teams combine the expertise of NRC researchers from several disciplines with collaborators from 14 academic institutions: Concordia University, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, McGill University, Queen’s University, Simon Fraser University, Universite Laval, Universite de Sherbrooke, University of Alberta and Concordia University College of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, University of Victoria and University of Waterloo. Each research team has also secured industry support.
Hey, be nice. We just got some more call centre jobs last week.
Great post. We need innovation.
We have something started, check:
http://www.unb.ca/news/view.cgi?id=1326
Just need to connect it to industry. How about nano applications for our forestry setcor?
How come our research chairs in New Brunswick all seem to be nickel and dime? Do we have any $10 million? Any $25 million? Just a question.
Take a step back Dave, that’s actually a very interesting post and development. Unfortunately, what is lacking is any discussion on this guys’ companies. If he was head and president of two companies in houston, what became of them? Why isn’t NB on that nano list? The Chair may not be worth much, but the industry backing MAY be substancial, depending on what this guy has brought to the table. At least this link shows they are on the board, don’t be TOO negative…until all the facts come out.
You are right. That’s a bit nasty – I have a nasty streak. The problem is that so many people have been crapping on UNB to me lately that I feel jaded. I probably should spend more time looking for the good news stories up there.
There is no doubt universities have room for optimization and productivity improvements; they have to spend research dollars wisely.
It is tough to be empathetic to their constant pleas for more research money. Salaries, facilities, administration and operating costs are already covered mostly by taxpayers and most profs have a low teaching load and are paid to research.
Universities are doing an important job but we are paying a lot for them and have every right to be demanding good return on our money.
There’s two parts there, I just thought it sounded a bit TOO nasty to berate the university for not being involved in the nanotechnology funding, then when somebody mentions nanotech at the university to come down on THAT.
My concern is more for the blogger, since more than one blogger has been brought down by constant negativity.
The criticism may be well founded, since the link above says the Chair in nanotechnology was just created last august. So for a grant of this kind, they would simply be too late to get this round of funding.
So it can well be asked why the university is about ten years behind all the other universities and its hard to get excited just by the announcement.
However, there is two million in funding, and a new chair that at least has lots of contacts. If he started two companies in Texas then it can well be asked why exactly he’s heading for UNB. Perhaps he wanted to come home, but perhaps his contacts are from long ago. However, its certainly better than finding out that there was NO chair of nanotechnology, or that some no name bureaucrat or prof was offered the post and the only money they got was from the provincial government and not from Bell labs.
It’s not a GREAT news link, but at least its something. If EVERY project gets greeted with derision, its much harder to find the joy in life. And at least no pollution results from it.
“most profs have a low teaching load and are paid to research. “
Think so? A student would say they are paid to teach.
If NB wants to harness science in energy, nanotech, etc for development purposes, then that message needs to be delivered to the UNB administration. Right now, UNB operates on an undergraduate-centred model. What NB needs is a university that has as its top priority the development of strong science research programs.
Provincial and federal governments have to find a way to free UNB from the need to attract undergraduates at all costs. Then they have to replace the current administration with one that has the skills to pump up science reearch at UNB.
What, in your view, is the special allure for Second Life content creators, assuming of course that they are already competent with the Blue Mars-compatible software and not just working with prims? ,
A related ambiguity is questions which have the form of yes-no questions, but which are intended not to be. ,