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Senate Research Report - January 2022

The Vice-Principal Research portfolio would like to congratulate all researchers who worked through the challenges of fall operations to meet their submission deadlines. We recognize that meeting the demands of work and personal life has been difficult.

With the ever-changing COVID landscape, the research community is encouraged to start planning early for 2022 applications and project deadlines. Guidance and updates on timelines and restrictions are available from your Faculty/School Associate Deans of Research, Research Project Advisors, and are posted on the Vice-Principal Research website. Please reach out as appropriate to determine the best path forward for upcoming competitions. For the latest update on COVID-19 impacts on Queen’s Research please visit queensu.ca/vpr/covid-19.

  Research News  

  • On January 4, 2022, the Vice-Principal Research released new directives for research activities in response to the COVID-19 epidemiologic situation. Directives will remain through the month of January, at which time we will assess the need to amend and or extend these timelines. 
     
  • Presentations for the 2021 Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowships (USSRF) have been posted.  Twenty-three undergraduate students share a three-minute summary of their experiential learning research project. Applications for the 2022 USSRF program will be accepted until March 1, 2022.
     
  • University Relations has released their annual Year in Research. 
    Highlights include:
    • Introduction of Nancy Ross as the new Vice-Principal (Research);
    • Research that made headlines around the world;
    • Funding future research;
    • Mobilizing knowledge.
       
  • The Prizes for Excellence in Research is set to re-launch, with a new focus on Outstanding Emerging researchers to help position early career scholars for further success with discipline-specific, national, and international prizes.  Full details on the competition are available on the Prizes for Excellence in Research webpage.
     
  • The Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) “helps competitively selected Canadian postsecondary institutions turn their key strengths into world-leading capabilities,” by supporting large-scale research initiatives aligned with Canada’s science, technology, and innovation priorities. As an Institution can be identified as the lead institution for only one proposal within a given competition, the Vice-Principal Research is working with faculties to identify the most competitive applications. 
     
  • The Canada Excellence Research Chair program strengthens Canada’s ability to attract the world’s top researchers to be at the leading edge of breakthroughs in priority research areas expected to generate social and economic benefits for Canadians. The values of the awards vary between $500 k/yr and $1 M/yr for a period of up to 8 yrs.  Queen’s has a $2M envelope to apply towards the CERC competition, allowing for 2-4 nominations based on level of funding requested. This is an exciting and important competition for the Canadian and Queen’s research communities, and the VPR is working with faculties to identify the appropriate CERC research areas.
     
  • The Government of Canada, in line with its , is investing more than $2.2 billion over seven years to continue growing a strong, competitive biomanufacturing and life sciences sector, and to ensure Canada is prepared for future pandemics. Queen’s is well-positioned to take advantage of these opportunities, and we encourage you to stay engaged. .

  Partnerships and Innovation

  • From research to commercialization to a public offering: a rewarding journey for Queen’s researchers and Forward Water Technologies .
    When a technology goes from lab to market, it is typically many years in the making rather than an overnight success. Such is true for the journey of the switchable water technology developed by a Queen’s University research team led by Professor Philip Jessop and Forward Water Technologies, the company that is now advancing its forward osmosis clean-water technology toward full commercialization. 
     
  • Dr. Farhana Zulkernine, Associate Professor and the Coordinator of the Cognitive Science program at the School of Computing and her .
     
  • Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) provides support for two Queen’s University professors to developed the .
     
  • Industry and academic partnership sees Queen’s join forces with industry giants such as lululemon and Microsoft on Wellbeing.ai project. Wellbeing.ai will be an app that uses virtual agents, which will function like an advanced chatbot, to help users better understand their physical and mental health. More about this partnership .
     
  • Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) is helping Theia Markerless and their human movement mapping technology get ready for rapid growth through the High-impact Mentorship program. QPI is helping them prepare for the future stages of their development. Working on medical applications of their software in the United States requires receiving FDA approval. See how QPI helps prepare companies for rapid growth .