June 23, 2009

ONTARIO RESEARCH FUND

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE PROGRAM

Through the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence program Round Three the McGuinty government is investing $10,478,736 to support 24 world-class researchers at the McMaster University.

Thellungiella Stress Genomics for Sustainable Crop Production in Canada
Lead Institution: McMaster University
Lead Researcher: Dr. Elizabeth A. Weretilnyk
Number of Researchers Affected: 5
Provincial Funding: $3,553,045
Funding Program: Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence Program

Ontario crops grown for food or bioenergy production must be increasingly resilient to bad weather. This will ensure a safe, high quality, and sustainable agriculture industry for the province.  McMaster’s research focuses on a highly stress-tolerant native plant (Thellungiella salsuginea) that is closely related to the canola plant. It is able to grow in cold areas where there is little water. The research will identify genes in this plant that are associated with stress-tolerance.

Private Sector Partners: Performance Plants, Ontario Corn Producers Association
Canola Council of Canada

Certification of Safety Critical Software Intensive Systems
Lead Institution: McMaster University
Lead Researcher: Dr. Tom Maibaum
Number of Researchers Affected: 19
Provincial Funding: $6,925,691
Funding Program: Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence Program

There is an urgent need for tools and methods to certify critical, often safety-critical (e.g., pacemakers), software systems in the biomedical, financial, and nuclear industries.  McMaster University’s team will research and develop tools, methodologies and product-focused approaches to achieve this. The university’s industrial partners will commercialize the research products. The proposed research will establish Ontario as a world leader in the increasingly vital area of software certification. The work will directly benefit the targeted biomedical, financial, and nuclear industries (which are critical to Ontario’s economic future), and potentially others such as the automotive industry.

Private Sector Partners: Biosign Technologies, Legacy Systems International
Ontario Power Generation, AECL, Systemware Innovation, AMD, QNX Software Systems International, Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology

Investing in research and innovation has been a cornerstone of Ontario’s economic planning since 2003 and is captured in Ontario’s Innovation Agenda. The agenda is a $3.2 billion plan to make Ontario one of the best places in the world to turn world-class research into world-class jobs.