March 7, 2007

KINGSTON RECEIVES $17 MILLION FOR RESEARCH

Through the Research Excellence program of the Ontario Research Fund, the McGuinty government provides research institutions with funding to undertake major research projects, hire research teams and cover other operational costs. This first round of funding under the Research Excellence program will invest $17,022,522 to support two projects at Queen’s University. The funding will be matched by 11 industry partners.

Projects

Innovative Research Using High Performance Computing

Computers will speed up research and encourage breakthroughs

Lead institution: Queen's University
Lead researcher: Dr. Ken Edgecombe
Total project cost: $34,651,400
Provincial funding: $11,538,915

The High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory (HPCVL) is a consortium of seven post-secondary institutions led by Dr. Ken Edgecombe of Queen's University and includes Carleton, Ottawa, Royal Military College of Canada, Ryerson, Seneca College and Loyalist College. HPCVL provides secure high-speed computational services for researchers in fields such as population health, photonics, psychology, economics, nuclear physics, civil engineering, nanomaterials, applied mathematics and bioinformatics. Overall, HPCVL supports more than 600 researchers and anticipates adding an additional 1,000 within five years.

Major industry and other partners:
Sun Microsystems, Entrust Inc.

Ontario Fuel Cell Research and Innovation Network: Realizing the Full Benefits of Fuel Cell Power in Ontario

Versatile green power to emerge from fuel cell research

Lead institution: Queen's University
Lead researcher: Dr. Brant Peppley
Total project cost: $16,462,933
Provincial funding: $5,483,607

In the search for clean, abundant energy alternatives to oil, fuel cells command a great deal of attention. Highly efficient, they can produce electrical power, with minimal greenhouse gas emissions, from hydrogen and a variety of other fuels like natural gas, propane, biogas, kerosene, gasoline or diesel. There are a number of technical challenges to realizing the full economic and environmental benefits of fuel cells, however. The Ontario Fuel Cell Research and Innovation Network (OFCRIN), will address these challenges on three fronts – storage and supply of hydrogen, reliability and durability, and cost reduction. OFCRIN is composed of research scientists from eight universities and eight industrial concerns in Ontario. Led by Dr. Brant Peppley, they are looking to take great commercialization strides. The complexity of fuel cell systems parallels that of automobiles. OFCRIN believes auto manufacturing methods can be adapted to fuel cell production and help make Ontario a leading global fuel cell manufacturing location.

Major industry and other partners:
DaimlerChrysler, Dana Corporation, E.I du Pont Canada, Enbridge, EnPross, Hydrogenics, INCO, Kingston Process Metallurgy, QuestAir Industries.

This announcement is part of a series of investments through the Ontario Research Fund’s Research Excellence program. Under the first round of investments, the government will provide $115 million to support research across the province.