Three UPEI research projects win funding through the Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF)

The Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of National Revenue, Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, announced funding on January 26 for seven research and development projects on Prince Edward Island - three of which are innovative projects of UPEI researchers.

'This is an exciting day for UPEI,' said Dr. Katherine Schultz, UPEI's Vice President of Research and Development. 'This funding affirms ACOA's commitment for fostering R&D in Atlantic Canada. It also builds on UPEI's growing reputation for research excellence - excellence that nurtures ideas into action.'

One of those projects, Discovery Space, created by University Librarian Mark Leggott, works to advance Canada's cyber infrastructure and to transform the way innovative research is conducted. The Discovery Space will continue to build on UPEI's Virtual Research Environments (VREs), transforming the way R&D data are managed and used. VREs create a collaborative environment to provide public and corporate groups with a platform to support the creation and management of data storage, transformation, discovery, and distribution.

Veterinary Laboratory Quality Assurance Program Expansion (VLA-QAP) is a project of the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) led by C. Ann Muckle, AVC's Lab Director of Diagnostic Services. AVC will develop software and systems for web-based delivery of impartial, objective, verification program for veterinary labs to verify and assure diagnosis. This project assures quality assurance standards, and eliminates issues surrounding shipping biological materials across the border.

Biomedical Infrared Technologies is another project of the AVC, led by Dr. Christopher Riley, to create a series of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), which is a software-based infrared test to detect immunoglobulin (antibodies) in animals. This is a highly cost-effective technology, able to generate in minutes extremely sensitive, specific and accurate test results, where current technologies take hours.

This is the seventh round of AIF-funding announced by ACOA since the program began in 2001. This announcement brings UPEI's total number of funded project through AIF to 15.

UPEI has had a more than 600 per cent increase in external research funding over the last decade, ranking it number one in research income growth for the years 2002-2007 by Research Info$ource. Maclean's magazine ranked UPEI number two in research funding in 2009 for undergraduate universities in Canada.