Funding to fuel research and innovation

News & Announcements | 24 Sep 2024

From heart injury to cancer imaging, the work of three Queen’s Health Sciences researchers was recently supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Their funding is part of a larger federal $200 million investment to empower researchers at all stages of their research in tackling the world’s biggest challenges through the CFI John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) and SSHRC Insight programs. QHS researchers Sarah Dick (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences), Pilar Camargo Plazas (Nursing), and Paul Kubes (Sinclair Cancer Research Institute; Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) are part of a larger group of faculty at Queen’s that received $5.4 million.

Included in this round of funding is support for Queen’s newest Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC). Announced this past winter, Kubes and Yanwen Zhang have joined Queen’s to establish globally leading research programs. Both will be receiving $800,000 from JELF to support the infrastructure critical to their research. Dr. Kubes is the CERC in Immunophysiology and Immunotherapy, studying how and why changes in a person’s immune cell biology can alter the stability of the body’s chemical and physical state to decipher the complex immune pathways involved in cancer, infection, and chronic disease.

Learn more about the QHS research projects:

JELF

Sarah Dick: Cardiac Macrophage Subset Maintenance and Expansion in the Healthy and Injured Heart – $175,000
Paul Kubes: Imaging Immunity in Chronic Disease and Cancer – $800,000

SSHRC Insight

Pilar Camargo Plazas (Nursing): Sound the Alarms! The Rampant Escalation of 'No Money for Food': A Participatory Approach to Addressing Canada's Commitment of Food Security for All – $213,429

“Queen’s researchers are working to address the world’s most significant challenges, such as developing novel cancer treatments and achieving a low-carbon future. We are grateful for the funding from CFI and SSHRC which is helping our researchers advance all stages of their work – from supporting initial experimentation to acquiring the equipment that enables discovery,” says Nancy Ross, Vice-Principal (Research).

The JELF program provides vital infrastructure support to help Canadian researchers remain at the forefront of innovation. It assists universities in their efforts to recruit and retain outstanding researchers, acquire the tools that enable their work, and offer them research support in combination with partner organizations.

SSHRC Insight Grants provide support for larger-scale research initiatives and offer funding for between two to five years with the intention to develop understanding from interdisciplinary perspectives and mobilize knowledge. There is also a significant focus on providing high-quality research training experiences for students.

A longer version of this story originally appeared in The Gazette.

Funding to fuel research and innovation

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