UFV receives more than $570,000 in federal research grants

UFV President Mark Evered and Abbotsford MP Ed Fast with UFV science students.

Faculty and students at the University of the Fraser Valley will have more opportunities for research thanks to several new federally funded grants that were allocated recently.

Ed Fast, the Member of Parliament for Abbotsford and Minister of International Trade, visited the Abbotsford campus of the University of the Fraser Valley to announce the research funding.

“The funding awarded to UFV by federal research granting councils is a valuable endorsement of the important research that occurs at the regional university level,” said Dr. Adrienne Chan, UFV Associate Vice President, Research, Engagement, and Graduate Studies. “These research projects will have an impact that is consistent with our strategic directions. These grants also allow us to continue to offer students applied research opportunities and enable our researchers to continue to collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders locally and globally.”

Dr. Noham Weinberg of the Chemistry department in the Faculty of Science received a Discovery grant totaling $100,000 over five years from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to enable him to continue research on Theoretical Studies of Chemical Systems and Reactions at High Pressures.

Weinberg runs the Molecular Modeling Lab at UFV, where he and his students practise a ‘what if’ type of theoretical research. Instead of using actual chemicals, equipment, and test tubes, they use computers to carry out simulated cyber-chemistry experiments using sophisticated software, providing outputs that match results of real experiments.

Dr. Zina Lee of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice received an Insight grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for a total of $220,444. The funds, to be allocated over a five-year span, will go toward a research project titled Antisocial and Prosocial Digital Activities in Youth: Risk and Resiliency.

Dr. Adrienne Chan received an Operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for a research project titled Building Resilience in Fraser Valley First Nations Youth. The grant total is $99,715, to be allocated over 1.5 years.

In addition, UFV received funding for undergraduate student research awards for six students in the amount of $27,000, an Institutional grant of $5,000, and support for research totaling $117,879.

“These projects, like so many others at UFV, take our faculty and their students into the frontiers of their disciplines and into areas of need in our communities,” said UFV President Mark Evered. “What better way to teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills and to make a difference in the lives we serve!”