Each year, we take a moment in December to reflect on the accomplishments of our community in advancing research that helps us tackle some of the world’s most pressing questions and societal challenges.

While 2021 offered glimmers of hope in moving beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, it also tested and challenged our research community in myriad other ways. In balance, this year also saw Queen’s rank 1st in Canada and 5th in the world in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which provided a testament to the impact of the university’s research and scholarship in advancing social impact and sustainability within and beyond our local community.

Through all of this, research prominence remained a key driver for Queen’s and our researchers continued to make national and international headlines for their discoveries and award-winning scholarship.

Join us as we review some of the highlights of 2021.

Recognizing research leadership

In 2021, Queen’s welcomed Nancy Ross as the new Vice-Principal (Research). Dr. Ross, an accomplished research administrator and renowned expert in population health, joined the university in August and succeeded Vice-Principal (Research) Kimberly Woodhouse, who had been interim in the role since 2018.

This year saw Queen’s researchers win some of Canada’s top awards and honours for research excellence and the university ranked third in Canada for awards per faculty member (2022 Maclean’s University Rankings).

Our international expertise in cancer research and cancer clinical trials was cemented with Elizabeth Eisenhauer’s receipt of the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award for outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science, and Joe Pater receiving the inaugural Canadian Cancer Society Lifetime Contribution Prize.

Praveen Jain was honoured with the prestigious IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, the highest international award in the field of electrical power, and world-renowned philosopher Will Kymlicka’s contributions to the humanities were recognized with the RSC Pierre Chauveau medal.

Queen’s also had a successful year earning fellowships within Canada’s national academies. Sari van Anders, Heather Castleden, and Karen Lawford were named members of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists  and professor emeritus John Berry was named a Fellow. Health administrators and research leaders Jane Philpott, Kieran Moore, Doug Munoz, and John Muscedere were inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and Kim McAuley, Mark Diederichs, Mark F. Green, and Ugo Piomelli were elected to the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Research that made headlines around the world

An exoskeleton designed by Queen's engineering researchers Michael Shepertycky, Qingguo Li, and Yan-Fei Liu that improves walking efficiency was featured in the leading academic journal Science and international media outlets, including the New York Times.

Health expert Christopher Mueller developed mDETECT, a cancer detection test that provides a real-time response to chemotherapy and early detection of relapse, while researchers Amber Simpson and Farhana Zulkernine applied AI and natural language processing techniques to CT scans, to predict cancer spread.

The much-anticipated UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) dominated headlines around the world and Queen’s environmental experts Kyla Tienhaara and John Smol shared their hopes for conference outcomes. On the ground at COP26, Ryan Riordan of the Institute for Sustainable Finance provided key takeaways and next steps for global governments. In the Canadian arctic, Queen’s researchers, the Government of Nunavut, and Indigenous community partners worked together to develop an innovative approach to studying the impact of climate change by monitoring the health and movements of polar bears.

New research by Chris Spencer showed that the mid-Proterozoic period, about 1.8 to 0.8 billion years ago, dubbed as the “boring billon” was actually a time of great mountain-building events. Researchers at the Queen’s Facility for Isotope Research joined the cast from The Curse of Oak Island to hunt for gold and silver treasure sediments in the water collected from boreholes on a Nova Scotia isle.

Funding future research

In 2021, Queen’s continued to attract competitive funding and awards, through a number of national and international programs. Hundreds of grants for new projects and research infrastructure were secured through CHIR, SSHRC, NSERC, and CFI, Canada’s national funding agencies, and other partners.

Here are a few examples:

• More than $10 million was secured by Queen’s researchers through CFI’s Innovation Fund for infrastructure that will help to combat climate change, treat cancer, and understand the fabric of the universe
• Over $6 million was awarded to Queen’s researchers through NSERC’s Alliance Grants to collaborate with industry partners in areas such as computing, wireless communications, and nuclear power
• Eight doctoral students earned prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships for exceptional scholarly achievement and leadership skills
• Over 125 Queen’s researchers across disciplines received support from SSHRC, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and NSERC as part of a bundled funding announcement under the banner of “Supporting BIG Ideas”
• Queen’s researchers received over $11.5M funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for projects addressing human health issues from cancer and pain to healthy aging
• With $1.6 million in funding, NSERC’s CREATE program supported the implementation of an experiential graduate training and research program in medical informatics, led by Parvin Mousavi at Queen’s
• A multidisciplinary team of Queen’s researchers received $7.9 million from Genome Canada for a new project exploring a microbial platform for breaking down and valorizing waste plastic, which can then be repurposed to produce recycled products
• Cathy Crudden received the largest NSERC Discovery Grant in Canada (valued at $605k over five years) for her breakthrough work in novel organic coatings

Mobilizing our knowledge

This year, we were again challenged to find creative ways to engage with our audiences and mobilize expertise. Research and alumni experts joined forces to provide insight into our post-pandemic future, through the Road to Recovery virtual event series. These events, moderated by multimedia journalist and Queen’s alumnus Elamin Abdelmahmoud, reached over 1000 attendees.  

Science Rendezvous Kingston celebrated its milestone 10^th anniversary and marked it with a series of virtual events and the development of an interactive, virtual Exploratorium with no geographical limitations to participation. Audiences also had the opportunity to experience, in-person and virtually, artistic interpretations of the elusive dark matter. The exhibition and residency project, Drift: Art and Dark Matter, generated by Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the McDonald Institute, and SNOLAB, brought together artists and scientists in the quest to understand the invisible substance that comprises about 80 per cent of the universe.

The WE-Can (Women Entrepreneurs Canada) program led by Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) celebrated supporting over 800 women from underrepresented groups and sectors regionally in achieving their entrepreneurial goals and pivoting their programs to an online format. This year’s virtual Indigenous Research Collaboration Day incorporated the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals in highlighting the importance of collaboration in research with Indigenous communities.

Hundreds of Queen’s researchers provided expert commentary to the media in 2021, and our community continued to mobilize their research and expertise through fact-based analysis on The Conversation Canada’s news platform. In 2021, 77 Queen’s graduate students and faculty published 74 articles that garnered over 1.5 million reads.

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Congratulations to the Queen’s research community for their resilience and successes this year. We look forward to seeing what new research and opportunities 2022 will bring. For more information about research at the university, visit the Research@Queen’s website.

On June 21, 2019, Bill C-81, An Act to ensure a barrier-free Canada (the Accessible Canada Act), received Royal Assent. The Act outlines several principles to be followed throughout its implementation, one being, “accessibility standards and regulations must be made with the goal of achieving the highest level of accessibility.”

One of the pillars of the Act is to ensure “accessible digital content and technologies.” However, standards for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies do not exist. With the goal of remedying this lack of standardization, Queen’s researchers Claire Davies (Mechanical and Materials Engineering) and Beata Batorowicz (School of Rehabilitation Therapy) are undertaking a multi-year study that aims to create optimal guidelines for the development of AAC technologies. In doing so, they hope to increase the employment potential of persons with disabilities by developing guidelines that produce more inclusive, universal, and effective AAC devices. This includes various forms of technology that assist someone with a speech or language impairment in communicating, usually in conjunction with a laptop, tablet, or specialized speech-generating devices. 

To aid in their research efforts, Drs. Davies and Batorowicz have received together close to $1 million in funding from the Government of Canada’s Accessibility Standards Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight program. 

Dr. Davies, whose work has focused on increasing independence for persons with disabilities, including developing strategies for eye-tracking, brain-computer interfacing, and other methods of communication through computer access, believes that access is a major barrier to employment.

“People with severe speech, communication, and physical disabilities experience profound social isolation, marginalization, and participation restrictions,” says Davies. “Their exclusion from participation in gainful employment has been particularly problematic. Only 47 per cent of persons who report having a disability are employed as compared to 74 per cent who did not report a disability.”

Through their research, Drs. Batorowicz and Davies are hoping to provide Accessible Standards Canada with information around “who uses what and how,” in terms of AAC technology. The researchers and their team are taking a 'co-design' approach to data collection which is meant to ensure collaboration from clients and families, and those working within Canada in the design and practice of AAC. 

Critical to the project’s success, according to the researchers, is that the voices of persons who have difficulty communicating are heard in their research.

“We have been conducting focus groups with service providers (speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, communicative disorders assistants, teachers) and are next moving to focus groups with persons who use (and those who were denied) augmentative and alternative communication systems,” says Dr. Batorowicz. “We’ll then speak to caregivers and host a final focus group of manufacturers.”

Dr. Batorowicz’s research has focused on improving outcomes for children and youth with little or no intelligible speech and physical disabilities, who require communication aids. Having worked to implement and evaluate the impact of AAC technologies in their daily lives, especially when it comes to autonomy, participation, and relationships, Dr. Batorowicz has an understanding of the important role of AAC systems plant in helping people to operate successfully in society, in both personal and professional environments. 

The insights collected from the project's participants will provide the research team and Accessible Standards Canada with invaluable insight into the day-to-day needs of people who use or can benefit from AAC technologies. The hope is that these insights will guide the development of AAC technology standards to ensure optimal effectiveness of devices. The researchers and their team also intend to use their project to advocate for increased access for persons with disabilities, especially in employment, and to aid in making suggestions for policy change around access to AAC devices, evaluation for AAC devices, and inclusivity when hiring/working with persons who use AAC devices. 

For more information on the research project or if you would like to participate in one of the focus groups, visit the website.