Project examples

Labs and classrooms for tomorrow’s catch

Training the next generation of scientists is “key” for Dr. Simon Peacock. And so is having modern labs to do that. The dean of science at the University of British Columbia says the Science building “hadn’t been upgraded since the sputnik was launched…you couldn’t operate in those conditions.” But with a $64.2-million overhaul – $31.7 million from KIP – Dr. Peacock is happy knowing biology and zoology students and faculty will now be able to conduct research and teach, everything from genes to ecosystems, in modern open-concept labs. He hopes to see a new aquatics lab with 10-metre high tanks, swimming with fish, from stickleback to salmon, improved controls that replicate living conditions – salt levels, temperatures and light – along with Internet monitoring, making life easier for scientists investigating the effect of climate change on fish. Uncovering the mysteries of life is what happens in labs and a lab that is attractive to up-and-coming researchers is important to Dr. Peacock, who is hopeful the new Bioscience Complex will “help UBC continue to attract the brightest minds from around the world.”

Universities are building green with KIP funds

Canada’s first, shellfish field station is green from its foundation up. Vancouver Island University’s $8.6-million Deep Bay Field Station is an extension of VIU’s Centre for Shellfish Research. The new station is a leader in sustainability – in operations, teaching, research and the community. The unique, 13,000-square foot, clamshell-like building on Vancouver Island’s waterfront is built with renewable resources including wood and local, recycled materials. Wood waste is converted to topsoil; roads are crushed oyster shells and the plants are indigenous. It houses seawater labs for research, a shellfish hatchery, and a home for marine environmental studies and coastal ecosystems. KIP’s $2.1-million investment has contributed to a centre of excellence – a teaching tool for university students, island residents and aquaculture workers. It will generate jobs for Aboriginal Canadians and people living along the coast.

Canada’s universities are building for Aboriginal students with KIP funds

With 50% of Aboriginal youth under the age of 25, providing access to a university education has never been more important and the University of the Fraser Valley – Chilliwack Campus is doing something about it. UFV is building a First Nations’ Longhouse, as part of their new campus development at the Canada Education Park in Chilliwack, B.C., assisted by $3.1 million from KIP. The Longhouse will provide for ceremonies, celebrations, student activities, and a lounge for elders. UFV believes that the longhouse, anchored in Aboriginal culture, knowledge and tradition, will play a pivotal role in attracting Aboriginal students to the university. UFV is also indigenizing its campuses around the valley offering programs in Native Indian Teacher Education (with UBC), Indigenous Art, Social Work with a First Nations component and a transition year in Aboriginal culture and language. Anthropologist and filmmaker, Hugh Brody, Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies, is teaching a new generation of Aboriginal students to research and to discover what is needed to create sustainable communities.

KIP puts muscle into research on the move

Everyone’s on the move at the University of New Brunswick. Walking, running, balancing is all in a day’s work at UNB. Dean of kinesiology Dr. Wayne Albert says the new $62.5-million – $8 million from KIP – Richard J. CURRIE CENTER is impressive outside and even more so inside. At the heart of the five-storey, light-filled building is the Human Performance Laboratory that studies everything from workplace injuries to rehab. State-of-the-art, motion capture systems can track movement, estimate joint loads and monitor muscle activity. With the Center opened in May 2011, you’ll now find Dr. Vicky Chester, specialist in clinical biomechanics, working with children with cerebral palsy or with children using a brace. Dr. Chris McGibbon, who studies the biomechanics of human movement, will be working with the elderly with balance issues or arthritis. Applied research like this, notes Dean Albert, is exciting for faculty and students and it benefits surgeons, nurses and workers at the Fredericton hospitals, rehab centre and the world at large.

KIP’s investment in infrastructure is a framework for teamwork

Université de Sherbrooke has a vision for cancer research. And its new, retrofitted, $31.4-million Applied Cancer Research Building – $9.1 million from KIP – will reflect it. Sherbrooke is at the forefront of cancer research, particularly in digestive cancers and genome work, which helps to detect early cancer and to find specific treatments. Vice-dean of research Dr. Darel Hunting believes cancer, being a complex disease, requires a multi-disciplinary approach. And getting another 3000 square metres of research space will bring together 31 cancer research groups currently working in separate locations. Researchers in biochemistry, molecular biology and immunology will be able to work in harmony like an orchestra with a conductor, as Hunting likes to say. Together, the re-furbished high-tech centre, the teamwork and the highly sophisticated equipment will give Sherbrooke an edge in applied cancer research, which in the long run should reduce the burden on health care through early detection and more effective reliable treatments for cancer.

Brock has the bug for health cures

Brock University’s new Cairns Family Health and Bioscience Complex will enhance research capabilities and further Canada’s reputation as a leader in human health and biosciences. The $111.4-million complex – $38 million from KIP– features a ‘bio-containment level 3’ facility to house insects. Black flies, ticks and mosquitoes will be under study for Lyme disease, Dengue fever and West Nile virus. Dr. Fiona Hunter will be working on the West Nile virus and black flies. Down the hall, in the greenhouse, Canada Research Chair Dr. Vincenzo De Luca will be investigating the Madagascar periwinkle, which is used for two major anti-cancer drugs. And in his lab, Canada Research Chair Dr. Tomas Hudlicky – who has attracted international talent to work with him – will be studying analgesics and anticancer drugs, using green chemistry. On the ground floor, Brock will bring it all together in the ‘business incubator’ where faculty and business leaders will work together to develop and market their discoveries.

KIP funds a cool pool for aquatic research

Diving, head first, into Laurentian University’s new Vale Living with Lakes Centre, will be a thrill for more than 80 researchers. The director of Laurentian’s Climate Change and Multiple Stressor Aquatic Research Program, Bill Keller, says the centre will advance research on stressed water systems in the region and serve as an important model internationally. Designed to resemble the ice-age glacier that carved out the area thousands of years ago, the $20.3-million centre – $5.2 million from KIP – will house Laurentian’s Freshwater Ecology Unit, already a leader in freshwater restoration. The 26,000-square foot facility will support a whole range of water activity – the effect of climate, invasive species and the impact of mining and industry on rivers, streams and lakes. It will have a cold lab, labs to process fish and bottom-dwelling invertebrates – including tissue sampling for toxins – and a ‘vehicle wash’ that deals with invasive species.

Making room for students, research and cuting-edge facilities is a class act

The University of Toronto Mississauga campus was bursting at the seams until new money arrived. Armed with $70 million – $35 million from KIP – U of T Mississauga began building. Enrolment has doubled in the past six years making seating difficult and forcing weekend classes. The new state-of-the-art Instructional Centre will take care of that. It will house a 500- seat and a 300-seat auditorium, three lecture theatres, private study spaces and 19 ‘smart’ classrooms – e-connected and equipped with everything from interactive iclickers to video conferencing. To top things off, the campus has built ‘green’ with geo-thermal heating, energy-efficient lighting, waterefficient fixtures, renewable or recycled building materials, and a green roof. Once the new centre opens its doors to students, it will not only provide the space needed for students now, but will allow U of T Mississauga to expand in the future.