Researchers at five of B.C.’s biggest post-secondary centres are tapping $25 million from Victoria to examine everything from the relationship between people and their pets to how best to treat wastewater.
The latest grants being deployed by the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) are targeting 34 projects at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver-adjacent campus, UBC’s Okanagan campus, Simon Fraser University, Thompson Rivers University and the University of Victoria.
“Obviously we want to see potential commercialization opportunities,” B.C. Innovation Minister told BIV on Friday, referring to projects that could turn into university spinoffs or patent opportunities.
“But in some cases, it's societal challenges where we need to figure out ways to address it.”
The bulk of the funding it being directed to UBC’s campus near Vancouver, where a total of $22 million will support 24 projects.
There, three separate projects have landed more than $3 million each:
· Examining yeast for bioprocessing applications in items such as beer, wine and dough
· Deploying sensors to study the health and climate impacts of air pollution
· Studying the properties of antimatter to help uncover the origins of the universe
Previous recipients of the BCKDF funding include AbCellera Biologics Inc. (Nasdaq:ABCL) CEO Carl Hansen — a former UBC physics and astronomy professor — whose company is best known for partnering with Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) on a COVID-19 treatment; and UBC professor Pieter Cullis, whose company, Acuitas Therapeutics Inc., was instrumental in the development of the lipid nanoparticle technology used in every shot of Pfizer Inc.’s [NYSE:PFE] COVID-19 vaccine.
The BCKDF funding matches dollars made through the federal government’s Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), while both the province and CFI partnered on determining who was awarded funding.
Kahlon said the province was focused on projects in sectors such as life sciences, cleantech, genomics and biotechnology.
“As we go forward in the coming years and once the economic recovery plan is made public, we may modify some of the criteria. But as of now, that's the lens we used deciding on which projects,” he said.
The innovation minister added most of the researchers and institutions awarded funding were notified in the last few days.
“I geek out that some of the research that we're funding,” Kahlon said, adding he was particularly intrigued by one project establishing an artificial intelligence engineering lab at SFU that will be able to help advance research into dementia.
“They will help drive innovation, good-paying jobs, strengthen our economy. I think those are the keys to this type of investment.”
