Senate Research Report - February 2024

  Research News  

$4.1 Million Awarded to Health Researchers at Queen’s

Queen’s researchers were awarded five Project Grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant Program as well as one priority announcement ($100K) for a total of $4,178,978 in funds. The aim of the Project Grant program is to advance knowledge and research, in health care and systems, with the greatest potential. With a success rate of 13.5% (the national success rate was 17.2%), funded projects aim to bolster research in areas such as detection, surveillance and diagnosis of tick-borne diseases in Canada, treatment and therapy trials in patients with advanced melanoma, and determinants of wasted ventilation in patients at initial stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Congratulations to the successful CIHR Project Grant recipients.

Bruce Mitchell Research Program, Doctoral Trainees

In early 2023, Bruce Mitchell gave a generous gift to Queen’s research to boost research intensity. Among other initiatives, the VPR launched the Bruce Mitchell Research Program, doctoral trainees competition with the goal of enhancing the hands-on capabilities and talent within research spaces. This Bruce Mitchell Research Program competition will provide 52 doctoral trainees, through the selected faculty members, with $35,000 per year for four years. Forty-two applicants received funds for students.

The VPR received 167 applications to a university-wide call for submissions to enhance high-quality research training environments through support for new doctoral trainees to Queen’s. Application adjudication took place in mid-February and successful applicants were notified the week of February 19.

Learn more about the Bruce Mitchell Research Program

The Vice-Principal Research Portfolio Celebrates Love Data Week

The Vice-Principal Research Portfolio (VPR) participated, alongside colleagues from the Queen’s University Library (QUL), in a virtual session on research data management (RDM) in honour of Love Data Week.

Love Data Week is an international celebration of data that takes place every year during the week of Valentine's Day. The purpose of Love Data Week is to bolster awareness and appreciation of data’s impact and value and to encourage the appropriate handling of data.

Representatives from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) attended a Resources for Researchers at Queen’s (R4R@Q) session hosted by the VPR on February 15, and provided an update on the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy. Initial policy implementation details, requirement timelines and ongoing feedback efforts from international and Canadian research communities were shared. At the session, members of the VPR and QUL presented results from the RDM survey conducted at Queen’s in 2022, which investigated Queen’s level of knowledge of the Policy and level of preparedness to meet the forthcoming requirements. Finally, presenters discussed initial steps to respond to the survey results through various, ongoing initiatives, such as the Queen’s Data Champions (2022-2023) information series and the development of new resources.

A recording of the session is available on the R4R@Q website.

The VPR continues to look for opportunities to support the research community in their RDM journeys. Please look for updates and guidance on RDM best practices on the VPR website.

Learn more about Love Data Week 2024

Research Security Town Hall

The Vice-Principal Research Portfolio (VPR) will host a town hall event on March 19 from 9:30am-11:30am to provide more detailed guidance to the research community and answer any questions as they prepare for the new STRAC policy implementation, which will go into effect on May 1, 2024.

On January 16, 2024, the Federal Government announced its new policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC). The policy provides the new Named Research Organizations List (NROs) as well as an updated list of Sensitive Technology Research Areas. The policy will be applicable to all federally funded applications submitted from that date.

To support the research community, the VPR and its research security team ( researchsecurity@queensu.ca) has updated its website to reflect this shift in the security landscape. Continue to look to the VPR website events page for registration for the research security town hall.

Learn more about safeguarding your research