UPEI awards internal research grants to faculty members

UPEI awarded research grants totalling $62,788 to 13 faculty members in 2024. Five faculty members received internal research grants (IRG), six were awarded Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Explore research grants (SERG), and two were awarded Lévesque human health internal research grants.

The IRG program supports research projects across a range of fields at UPEI. Through this internal funding, researchers provide high-quality student training opportunities and often develop new collaborations with others from different but complementary disciplines. The SERG program supports research pursuits in the social sciences and humanities. 

The Fondation J.-Louis Lévesque, a generous supporter of health research at universities and institutes across the country, supported the Lévesque human health internal research grants. J.-Louis Lévesque graduated from Saint Dunstan’s University—one of UPEI’s founding institutions—in 1934 and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1964.

“On behalf of UPEI, I congratulate all faculty members who received funding for their projects,” said UPEI Vice-President Academic and Research Greg Naterer. “Their work is contributing to the University’s growing reputation for excellence in research.”

Recipients of the IRG awards are as follows:

• Dr. Marissa Clapson, Faculty of Science (chemistry): “Base metal Lewis acid derivatized PCsp3P pincer complexes for CO2 and nitrate reduction”
• Dr. Trevor Clark, Faculty of Science (chemistry): “Time-based extractions of bacterial natural products to obtain comprehensive representation of biosynthetic potential”
• Dr. Aadesh Gokul, Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering: “Unveiling opportunities and strategies for integrating mobile technology and applications in PEI's smart agriculture landscape”
• Dr. Maria Kilfoil, Faculty of Science (physics): “Activity and dynamics of membraneless condensates of DNA and topoisomerase II”
• Dr. Sundeep Singh, Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering: “Development of an optimal catheter design and power algorithm to enhance the efficacy of pulsed field ablation (PFA) for treating cardiac arrhythmias”

The SERG recipients are as follows:

• Dr. Scott Cassidy, Faculty of Business: “The effects of remote work on employee job demands, resources, and work attitudes”
• Dr. Martha Giraldo-O'Meara, Faculty of Arts (psychology): “Exploration of mental contamination experiences in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder”
• Dr. Andrew Halliday, Faculty of Arts (island studies): “Content analysis of Canadian media reporting of September 2022’s Hurricane Fiona in Prince Edward Island, Canada"
• Dr. Stacey MacKinnon, Faculty of Arts (psychology): “The Influence of reading with purpose and media type on information retention, understanding, and quality of questions produced”
• Dr. Tess Miller, Faculty of Education: “Mathematics anxiety: Measuring the causal factors of mathematics anxiety and piloting a new instrument to measure mathematics anxiety"
• Dr. Lyndsay Moffatt, Faculty of Education: “Supporting our students: School libraries in Atlantic Canada”

The Lévesque research grants recipients are as follows:

• Dr. Patrice Drake, Faculty of Nursing: “An intervention to improve care for childbearing persons experiencing miscarriage in the ED (phase 1)”
• Dr. Desiree Seib, Faculty of Science (biology): Effects of maternal antibiotic exposure on fetal brain development, physiology, and the placenta”

UPEI acknowledges the assistance of Canada’s tri-council of federal granting agencies—the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)—through its Research Support Fund, which helps fund services and infrastructure that support research activities at the University. In 2023–2024, UPEI was allocated $931,234.00 from the RSF.