For Immediate Release
September 22, 2006

McGUINTY GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING RESEARCH SUPER COMPUTERS

Investment Will Help Speed Up Research And Encourage Breakthroughs

Left to right:
Sandra Crocker, Associate VP Research;
Doug Somers, Chair, HPCVL Board of Trustees;
Ken Edgecombe, HPCVL Executive Director;
Prinipal Hitchcock, Queen's University;
John Gerretsen, MPP Kingston & the Islands and Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing

Dr. Art McDonald, Project Director, Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Centre for Neuroscience Studies Demonstration Left to Right:
Courtney Green, PhD Candidate;
Doug Munoz, Director;
Ken Edgecombe, HPCVL Executive Director;
Alana Mihic, Undergraduate Student.

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KINGSTON -- The McGuinty government is supporting a leading-edge virtual laboratory that will help cultivate scientific knowledge and lead to quicker research breakthroughs in Ontario, MPP John Gerretsen announced today.

"By providing more support for researchers, we are investing in one of Ontario's greatest assets — the skills and knowledge of our dynamic academic community," said Gerretsen, who made the announcement on behalf of Premier and Minister of Research and Innovation Dalton McGuinty.  "Our government is doing its part to invest in local research excellence to make Ontario an innovative economic power."

The Ministry of Research and Innovation is investing $11.5 million in Queen's University's High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory (HPCVL) to support up to 1,600 researchers over the next five years.  This brings the total investment by the Ontario government in HPCVL up to $39.2 million.

Led by Queen's University in Kingston, HPCVL is a network of seven Ontario research institutions including Royal Military College, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Loyalist College, Ryerson University and Seneca College.

Partner institutions house the computer clusters and run the network, which provides high-performance computing resources to researchers across Canada.

HPCVL provides high-speed computations for researchers in fields such as population health, photonics, psychology, economics and civil engineering.  This cutting-edge research requires intricate mathematical calculations and analysis that would take years to perform on even the most sophisticated desktop computer.  Using HPCVL, researchers can get data and analysis in weeks, days or hours.

The investment comes from the $550-million Ontario Research Fund.  Through the fund, the McGuinty government is making sure Ontario researchers have the resources to lead our province into a new era of innovation.

Investing in innovative research and development is the latest example of how the McGuinty government is working on the side of businesses and families to strengthen Ontario's economy.

Other initiatives include:

• Encouraging strong job creation, with 268,000 net new jobs since taking office
• Helping to generate almost $7 billion in automotive investments that retain and create thousands of high-value jobs
• Launching a $500-million Advanced Manufacturing Investment Strategy to help manufacturers develop cutting-edge technologies
• Investing $6.2 billion in our universities, colleges, student financial assistance and training programs.

"Supporting successful research at Ontario's post-secondary institutions strengthens the quality of research talent that enters the workforce," said McGuinty.  "Our government recognizes that robust research will help ensure that this province remains globally competitive."

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