Supporting big research ideas

Over 125 Queen’s researchers across disciplines have received support that will advance discovery, innovation, and collaboration in their research programs. Today, The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (ISED), announced a bundled research announcement under the theme "Supporting BIG ideas!", meant to continue the Government’s historic investments in support of a strong and vibrant world-leading research ecosystem.

The bundled announcement includes funding from a variety of programs under the umbrellas of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Canada Research Chairs program. More than $635 million is being invested in scholars across Canada through new grants or grant extensions.

"We are proud to continue investing in, and celebrating, the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of Canada’s research ecosystem," says Minister Champagne. "It is inspiring to see the ingenuity and dedication Canadian researchers embrace in exploring big ideas that will fuel the discoveries and innovations of tomorrow to make our world a better place and create prosperity for Canadians."

The funding will advance the research continuum from fundamental to applied scholarship at Queen’s. In addition to pandemic-related projects, these investments will support emerging and ongoing research in areas of critical importance, such as precision medicine, military family health, particle physics, climate change, citizenship and social justice, chronic pain, and gender, race, and inclusive policies. For more information on each of the funding programs and the Queen’s recipients please see below:

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

The goal of SSHRC’s Insight program is to build knowledge and understanding about people, societies, and the world by supporting research excellence in all subject areas eligible for SSHRC funding. Insight grants provide stable support for long-term research initiatives, while the Insight Development grants support research in its initial stages. The grants enable the development of research questions, as well as experimentation with new methods, theoretical approaches, and/or ideas.

Partnership Development grants provide support for new and existing formal partnerships over four to seven years to advance research, research training, and/or knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities. Partnership funding is intended for formal partnerships between postsecondary institutions and/or organizations of various types.

SSHRC Partnership Development Grants 2020

Principal Investigator	Affiliation	Project Title
Heather Aldersey	School of Rehabilitation Therapy	Redefining the social contract: Rebalancing formal and natural support for people with disabilities and their families
Heidi Cramm	School of Rehabilitation Therapy; Psychiatry	Families matter: A partnership of partners to study, serve, and support the families of military, Veterans, and public safety personnel

SSHRC Insight Grants 2020

Principal Investigator	Affiliation	Project Title
Elizabeth Brulé	Gender Studies	Decolonizing the academy: Indigenizing the university seven generations in the future
Rosa Bruno-Jofré	Education; History	Giving the past a new meaning to re-imagine the future in education
Pierre Chaigneau	Smith School of Business	Too many rewards? Performance shares and the optimal structure of executive pay
Amanda-Mae Cooper	Education	Social science research funding agencies' support and promotion of knowledge mobilization and research impact: Learning from high impact case studies of collaborative research networks
Theresa Claire Davies	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	A Delphi Study to advance research on accessibility standards for augmentative and alternative communication
Anthony Goerzen	Smith School of Business	Improving global value chain governance
Kerah Gordon-Solmon	Philosophy	Duties, constraints, prerogatives, and permissions: Or, how to defend lesser-evil options
Oded Haklai	Political Studies	Population settlements and territorial control
Fiona Kay	Sociology	Paralegals and access to justice: Regulation, job rewards, and legal services during COVID-19 pandemic
Benjamin Kutsyuruba	Education	Understanding the well-being capacity of pre-service teachers
Susan Lord	Film and Media; Art History; Gender Studies; Cultural Studies	Under the shadow of empire: Minor archives and radical media distribution in the Americas
David McDonald	Global Development Studies; Geography and Planning; School of Environmental Studies	Public Banks + Public Water
Nicole Myers	Sociology	Risky decisions: Professional judgement, public safety and the bail decision
Steven Salterio	Smith School of Business	Understanding the extant and nature of replication research in social sciences: The case of accounting research
Marcus Taylor	Global Development Studies; Sociology; School of Environmental Studies	Can climate-resilient crops transform smallholder agriculture? A comparative sociological analysis
Veikko Thiele	Smith School of Business; Economics	Scale-up Ecosystems: Theory and Empirical Evidence
Grégoire Webber	Law; Philosophy	Recovering the good in law

Canada Research Chairs

Part of a national strategy to attract and retain leading and promising minds, the Canada Research Chairs program aims to make Canada one of the world's top countries in research and development. The program invests approximately $265 million per year to attract and retain some of the world's most accomplished and promising researchers. Queen’s is currently home to 51 Canada Research Chairs across a variety of disciplines.

Canada Research Chair (CRC) Renewals

Name	Affiliation	Status	Research Area
Heather Castleden	Geography and Planning; Gender Studies	Tier 2 - CRC in Reconciling Relations for Health, Environments, and Communities	Applying Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to research involving social and environmental justice and health equity: this research aims to create healthier relationships between Indigenous peoples and Settler (non-Indigenous) Canadians by advancing recognition, responsibility, and reconciliation in community-driven and participatory ways.
Philip Jessop	Chemistry	Tier 1 - CRC in Green Chemistry	Using carbon dioxide as a “trigger” for “switchable materials” able to change from one form to another: this research will make industry safer and more environmentally-benign through the reuse of waste carbon dioxide gas.
Mark Ormiston	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences; Medicine; Surgery	Tier 2 - CRC in Regenerative Cardiovascular Medicine	The study of Natural Killer (NK) cells in the development of diseases such as pulmonary arterial hypertension: this research could lead to the creation of new immune-based treatments that could reverse changes made in a person’s lungs.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

The Discovery program supports ongoing research with long-term goals. These multi-year grants recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances. Discovery program grants are considered “grants in aid” of research, as they provide long-term operating funds and can facilitate access to funding from other programs, but are not meant to support the full costs of a research program.

Notably, Cathy Crudden (Chemistry), Canada Research Chair in Metal Organic Chemistry, received the largest Discovery grant in Canada (valued at $605k over five years) for her project Nanoclusters, nanoparticles, and surfaces: Bridging the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis.

NSERC Discovery Program Grants 2020/2021

Principal Investigator	Affiliation	Project Title
Furkan Alaca	School of Computing	Securing user authentication in emerging threat landscapes
Brian Amsden	Chemical Engineering	Aliphatic polycarbonates: Building blocks for new biodegradable biomaterials
Levente Balogh	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Structure-property relations of materials having complex microstructures generated by radiation damage and additive manufacturing
Sameh Basta	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	M2a macrophage activation and the regulation of immune functions
Albrecht Birk	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Safe transport and storage of pressure liquefied hazardous materials
Amanda Bongers	Chemistry	Cognition in chemistry: Exploring how the brain encodes and manipulates scientific models
Joseph Bramante	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Astroparticle theory for dark sectors
Chantelle Capicciotti	Chemistry; Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Chemical biology tools for probing and discovering glycan-protein interactions
Pascale Champagne	Civil Engineering; Chemical Engineering	Photosynthetically-enhanced eco-engineered treatment systems
Che Colpitts	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Membrane rearrangement by positive-sense RNA viruses: Molecular mechanisms and cellular responses
Cathleen Crudden	Chemistry	Nanoclusters, nanoparticles, and surfaces: Bridging the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis Critical replacement of super critical fluid HPLC for chiral separations Variable temperature UV/Vis spectrophotometer for study of NHC-stabilized gold nanoclusters
Michael Cunningham	Chemical Engineering; Chemistry	Replacing traditional surfactants in the preparation of polymer nanoparticles
Mark Daymond	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy; Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Effect of local microstructure on cracking of materials for next generation reactors Characterising irradiation induced damage and phase changes
Kevin Deluzio	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Tools for the biomechanical analysis of human movement
George diCenzo	Biology	Gene networks of Sinorhizobium meliloti
Marc Dignam	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Nonlinear and quantum optics in two-dimensional materials and nanophotonic systems
Steven Honghui Ding	School of Computing	Assistant professor
Juergen Dingel	School of Computing	Model-driven engineering for distributed, reliable, adaptive, web-based software
Cao Thang Dinh	Chemical Engineering	Electrode engineering for carbon dioxide electroreduction to fuels and chemicals
Paul Duchesne	Chemistry	Earth-abundant heterogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of renewable fuels
Christopher Eckert	Biology	Ecology & evolution of species range limits
Dixia Fan	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Physics-informed (and -informative) reinforcement learning and bio-inspired design of a smart morphing flapping wing for dual aerial/aquatic-propulsion and maneuvering
Laura Fissel	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Understanding the role of magnetic fields in star and planet formation using stratospheric balloon-borne polarimeters
Luis Flores	Psychology	Brain function and real-world choice and effectiveness of intrapersonal and social forms of emotion regulation
Georgia Fotopoulous	Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering	Fusion of heterogeneous geosensing observations for enhanced site characterization
Jason Gallivan	Psychology; Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Human functional neuroimaging stimulus presentation and data collection system for studies of action, perception and decision-making
Jun Gao	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Surfaces and interfaces of luminescent polymer mixed ionic/electronic conductors
Charlotte Gibson	Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining	Surface analysis for the concentration and extraction of metals using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy Concentrating minerals critical to energy storage applications from Canadian hard rock deposits
Guillaume Giroux	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	NEWS-G search for light dark matter with spherical proportional counters
Sidney Givigi	School of Computing	Safe adaptive social cyber physical systems
Farnaz Heidar-Zadeh	Chemistry	Theoretical chemical design with machine learning: Model development and applications
Tom Hollenstein	Psychology	Integrated psychophysiology and observational system for synchronous measurement and analysis
Neil Hoult	Civil Engineering	Reimagined environmentally-friendly (RE-Design) of reinforced concrete infrastructure
Graeme Howe	Chemistry	Tracing enzyme mechanisms across evolution to elucidate the origins of enzymatic catalysis
Stephen Hughes	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Dissipative mode theories and reservoir engineering in quantum nanophotonics
Robin Hutchinson	Chemical Engineering	Measurement and modeling of polymerization kinetics for process and product development
Judith Irwin	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	From galaxy to intergalactic medium -- the magnetic connection in the age of the square kilometre array
Shideh Kabiri Ameri Abootorabi	Electrical and Computer Engineering	High performance visually imperceptible on-skin sensors and electronics based on nanomaterials
Frederick Kan	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Oviductal regulation of gamete interaction and reproductive function
Sadan Kelebek	Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining	Investigations on the separation of metal-bearing values from secondary sources in the production of value-added products
Il Yong Kim	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	System, layout, and topology optimization for automotive and aerospace design
Marianna Kontopoulou	Chemical Engineering	Environmentally friendly and scalable processes for the production of graphene and applications in advanced functional materials and technologies
Ehssan Koupaie	Chemical Engineering	Techniques for enhanced anaerobic digestion and bioenergy and conversion of pulp and paper sludge
Valerie Kuhlmeier	Psychology	Cognitive origins of ownership concepts
Yanzhe Lei	Smith School of Business	Real-time dynamic optimization for omnichannel retailers
Guang Li	Smith School of Business	Revenue management and policy design in the presence of customer multi-item shopping behavior
Qingguo Li	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Biomechanical energy harvesting: Optimization, control and biomechanics
Hok Kan Ling	Mathematics and Statistics	Shape-constrained inference: Testing and estimation for incomplete survival data
Alexander Little	Biology	Mechanisms and costs of adaptive plasticity in a starlet anemone (Nematostella Vectensis) model
Christopher Lohans	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Mechanistic enzymology of beta-lactam antibiotic resistance mechanisms and target proteins
Alan Lomax	Medicine; Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Analysis of the vagal afferent innervation of the mouse colon
Stephen Lougheed	Biology	Digital PCR infrastructure to enhance research and HQP training in biology High performance computing infrastructure for evolutionary biology, spatial ecology, and conservation biology
Giusy Mazzone	Mathematics and Statistics	Partially dissipative systems with applications to fluid-solid interaction problems
Kim McAuley	Chemical Engineering	Combining fundamental models with data
Chris McGlory	School of Kinesiology and Health Studies	Mechanisms underlying the regulation of human skeletal muscle protein turnover by omega-3 fatty acids
Jordan Morelli	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Applied magnetics - nuclear fusion
Michele Morningstar	Psychology	Development of neural and cognitive processing of peers' nonverbal cues in adolescence
Parvin Mousavi	School of Computing	Learning algorithms for predictive modeling in biomedical computing: Methods and applications
Christian Muise	School of Computing	Advanced techniques for action model solicitation, verification, and induction
Kevin Mumford	Civil Engineering	Contaminant transport and remediation in dynamic gas-and-groundwater systems
Ram Murty	Mathematics and Statistics	Zeta functions and probability theory
Sara Nabil	School of Computing	Advanced techniques for everyday embodied interaction E-textiles digital design and fabrication
Guy Narbonne	Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering	When life got big - Ediacaran evolution in a period of profound global change
Jianbing Ni	Electrical and Computer Engineering	Secure and privacy-preserving edge caching in next-generation mobile networks
Jean-Michel Nunzi	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy; Chemistry	Life-mimetic nano-photonics
Gema Olivo	Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering	Mineral resources in basins: Base metal ore systems and footprint
Mary Olmstead	Psychology	Immune-reward interactions: Contributions of the endocannabinoid system
Christopher Omelon	Geography and Planning	Impacts of talik microbial geochemistry on a changing permafrost landscape
Diane Orihel	Biology; School of Environmental Studies	A new ecological framework for adverse outcomes of contaminants on ecosystems: Microplastics as a case study
Patrick Oosthuizen	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	Numerical and experimental studies of steady and unsteady natural and mixed convective heat transfer from horizontal and inclined surfaces of complex shape
Anna Panchenko	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences; Pathology and Molecular Medicine; School of Computing	Deciphering the mechanisms of modulation of DNA accessibility in chromatin: Discovery of novel pioneer transcription factors
Sarah Jane Payne	Civil Engineering	Elucidating drinking water quality deterioration in premise plumbing
David Reed	Medicine	Inhibition of visceral sensation by cannabinoids in the gastrointestinal tract
David Rival	Mechanical and Materials Engineering	High-speed, plane-wave ultrasound imaging for Lagrangian particle tracking
Matthew Robertson	Mechanical and Materials	Novel robot actuators leveraging the molecular mechanics and topology of biological muscle
Nir Rotenberg	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Frontiers of nonlinear quantum optics: From fundamentals to technology Ultra-coherent lasers for the exploration of quantum photonic nonlinearities
Karen Rudie	Electrical and Computer Engineering	Keeping secrets: Realizing the potential of decentralized discrete-event systems
Sarah Sadavoy	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	The role of magnetic fields in forming stars, disks, and planets
Yuksel Asli Sari	Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining	Innovative dynamic short-term, medium-term and long-term mine planning strategies incorporating new automation and data analytics technologies
Jessica Selinger	School of Kinesiology and Health Studies; Mechanical and Materials Engineering	A lower-limb exoskeleton system for investigating the neuromechanical control of human locomotion and designing assistive robotic aids
Bhavin Shastri	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Neurophotonic-electronic brain-machine interface system
Zhe She	Chemistry	Probing molecular interactions of soft surfaces by scanning probe microscopy
Amber Simpson	School of Computing; Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Integrated computational modeling of multi-scale biomedical data
Gregory Smith	Mathematics and Statistics	Combination algebraic geometry
Yanglei Song	Mathematics and Statistics	Sequential decision making under uncertainty: Fundamental limits and applications
Sameh Sorour	School of Computing	Enabling intelligence on multi-access edge networks with heterogeneous resources
Christopher Spencer	Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering	Constraining the interplay of geodynamics with the biosphere and atmosphere across the Archean-Proterozoic boundary
Patrick Stroman	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Functional MRI investigation of spinal cord resting-state networks and their physiological relevance
Myron Szewczuk	Biomedical and Molecular Sciences	Nobel biased G-protein coupled receptor-signalling paradigm regulating growth factor and pathogen-sensing receptors
William Take	Civil Engineering	Landslide triggering, mobility, and monitoring in a changing climate
David Thomson	Mathematics and Statistics	Statistical spectrum estimation and solar gravity modes
Aaron Vincent	Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Discovering the dark sector with astroparticle phenomenology
Bas Vriens	Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering	Sustainable mine waste management: From microscale hydrogeochemical processes to macroscale prediction models
Jeffrey Wammes	Psychology	Mechanisms underlying learning-related representational reorganization
Robert Way	Geography and Planning	Susceptibility of peatland permafrost in coastal Labrador to future environmental change
Peng Wang	Chemistry; Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy	Discovery and development of crystalline radiation detection materials
Joshua Woods	Civil Engineering	System-level multi-element analysis of structures using hybrid-simulation (SMASH) lab High-performance structural systems for seismic protection and resilience of built infrastructure
Gang Wu	Chemistry	Development of new 17O NMR spectroscopic techniques for studying biological systems
Sarah Yakimowski	Biology	The evolution of herbicide resistance
Laurence Yang	Chemical Engineering	Learning models of metabolism and gene expression from biological big data
Scott Yam	Electrical and Computer Engineering	Intelligent fiber sensors via digital signal processing and machine learning
Mohammad Zulkernine	School of Computing	Building and monitoring security in emerging softwarized systems

For more information on the Government of Canada’s Support BIG Ideas announcement, please visit the website.

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