Canada funds breakthrough ideas to help patients and improve lives

First round of New Beginnings Initiative will support exploratory collaborative research with 47 researchers across 22 organizations in Canada 

OTTAWA, June 20, 2019 /CNW/ - Through collaboration, researchers from different organizations can work together to explore, test and validate transformative research ideas that will benefit Canadians. As Canada's largest federal science and research organization, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is partnering with 47 researchers across 22 organizations to advance breakthrough research ideas that could evolve into future scientific breakthroughs or innovative technologies. 

Today, NRC President Iain Stewart, and Alex Munter, President and Chief Executive Officer, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), announced the first round of collaborative research projects funded through the New Beginnings Initiative. The Initiative supports small-scale, exploratory research projects with external collaborators like CHEO.  

One project receiving funding under the program is a CHEO/NRC collaboration aimed at improving treatment options for children with Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic epilepsy condition. Researchers coming from different perspectives in the lab can only result in innovation. Collaboration is the future of science.

Work on over 50 projects in a range of disciplines between NRC researchers and external collaborators is already underway as part of the Ideation Fund's New Beginnings Initiative.

Quotes

"Research organizations and businesses workig closely with the NRC will now be able to speed up their research, explore new ideas and advance new technologies. Thanks to the New Beginnings initiative, they will be able to lead ground-breaking, innovative research."

- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

Quick facts

• Launched in June 2018, the New Beginnings Initiative, which is part of the NRC's Ideation Fund, provides funding for projects of up to one year in duration.
• The New Beginnings Initiative has a total annual funding envelope of $2 million, which includes $1 million in operating funding for internal NRC expenses and $1 million in grant funding for external collaborators.
• Eligible recipients of grant funding under this initiative are domestic and international external collaborators such as small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-profit research organizations, and academic institutions.
• This investment is part of Canada's Science Vision and the Government of Canada's commitment of more than $10 billion to science and innovation.
• Budget 2018 also committed $700 million over five years to the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to support more small- and medium-sized enterprises across the country, including larger research projects up to $10 million.

Associated Links:

• The National Research Council of Canada
• Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute

Twitter: @nrc_cnrc
Instagram: @nrc_cnrc 

Twitter: @cheo 
Facebook: @CHEOkids

SOURCE National Research Council Canada

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