NSERC awards over $35M to McGill scientists and engineers

All the tools and technology in the world are nothing without the talent to use them to their full potential. Thanks to a huge investment from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's (NSERC) Discovery Grants Program, McGill can engage its enormous research capacity in long term, fundamental science and engineering programs. With the associated funding from the Research Tools and Instruments Grants Program, McGill's researchers can also purchase equipment needed for world-leading discovery, innovation and training Minister of Science, Kirsty Duncan, announced the 2017 results of the NSERC Discovery Grants Program today in Victoria, British Columbia- a total investment of $515 million in support for fundamental research, over $35 million of which will go to McGill's researchers in the full range of science and engineering disciplines, from biology and chemistry to advanced materials engineering and astrophysics. McGill ranked third nationally in terms of total money granted, behind the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. "NSERC's Discovery Grants Program reflects the Government of Canada's commitment to fundamental science and the discovery of new knowledge. Thanks to significant federal investments such as these, McGill is generating new insights through basic scientific inquiry, for example, about the observed structure of the universe, the application of molecular genetic data in studies of plant evolution, and in the emerging fields of AI and machine learning.