Tracking dreams through wearable technology, creating just transitions in food systems, studying interacting galaxies in the cosmological context, and using organic matter to mitigate global warming are among 18 Trent-led research projects to receive $1.5 million in new federal funding, as part of recent government funding announcements. 

“The awarded $1.5M showcases how researchers at Trent are committed to engaging in collaborative research focused on complex problems in our active pursuit of creating healthy and sustainable environments and communities” said Dr. Cathy Bruce, vice president of Research and Innovation at Trent. 

Trent researchers received a combined total of $1,502,419 in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Partnership and Insight development grants, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). 

The full list of awarded Trent researchers and their projects are:  

SSHRC Insight Grants: building knowledge and understanding about people, societies, and the world. 

• Dr. Arne Bialuschewski, History, Guna Ethnohistory: Resistance and Adaptation in the Darien, 1637-1727, $66,750
• Dr. Finis Dunaway, History, The Crying Indian: Iron Eyes Cody, Colonial Mythmaking, and the Origins of Greenwashing, $58,370 
• Dr. Melanie Rosen, Philosophy, Tracking dreams with wearable technology, $89,805 

SSHRC Partnership Development Grants: supporting research in the social sciences and humanities while encouraging the design and testing of new partnership approaches to develop best practices. 

• Dr. Evan Bowness, School of the Environment, Building the Just Transitions in Food Systems Network, $200,000 

CFI’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund: supporting researchers in tackling complex issues about individuals and society. 

• Dr. Kira Borden, School of the Environment, Gas Flux Instrumentation for Novel Investigations of the Plant-soil-atmosphere Continuum in Agroecosystems, $113,737  

NSERC Discovery Grants & Supplements: recognizing the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances.

• Dr. Kira Borden, School of the Environment, Harnessing plant-soil interactions in agroecosystems to improve nutrient cycling and mitigate climate change, $30,000 Discovery Grant, $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement
• Dr. Michelle DiLeo, Environmental and Life Sciences, Evaluating adaptive capacity to climate change across spatial scales, $33,000 Discovery Grant, $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement  
• Dr. Catherine Eimers, Water Sciences, From fields to waterways: The hydro-chemical implications of agricultural intensification, $35,000
• Dr. Wenying Feng, Computing and Information Systems, Nonlinear operator equations and deep neural networks, $27,000
• Dr. Joanna Freeland, Biology, Adaptation and plasticity in cattail species and their hybrids across the northern hemisphere, $51,000
• Dr. Magali Nehemy, School of the Environment, The hydraulic connectivity between transpiration source water and streamflow, $35,000 Discovery Grant, $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement
• Dr. Christopher Kyle, Forensic Science, Evolutionary potential of long-lived northern mammals in context of rapidly changing selective pressures, $44,000
• Dr. David Patton, Physics and Astronomy, Interacting galaxies in a cosmological context, $32,000
• Dr. Aaron Shafer, Forensic Science, Quantitative epigenomics of natural populations, $44,000
• Dr. Andrew Tanentzap, Canada Research Chair, Climate Change and Northern Ecosystems, Ecological importance of organic matter in a warming world, $70,000 Discovery Grant, $14,000 Northern Reasearch Supplements Program
• Dr. Stephanie Tobin, Biology, Mechanisms of inflammatory memory in skeletal muscle, $33,000 Discovery Grant, $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement 

NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grants Program

RTI grants facilitate discovery, innovation, and training in natural sciences and engineering disciplines by supporting research equipment purchases. 

• Dr. Huy Dang, Chemistry, School of the Environment, Greenhouse gas stable isotopes for investigating the carbon cycle, $149,945
• Dr. Catherine Eimers, School of the Environment, Carbon-Nitrogen Analyzer, $89,170
• Dr. Cheryl McKenna Neuman, School of the Environment, Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA) replacement, $86,643 
• Paul Szpak, Canada Research Chair, Environmental Archaeology, An Urgent Replacement and Upgrade in Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry at Trent's Water Quality Centre, $149,999 

Learn more about the full research funding announcement.