Saint Mary's to Help Local Industry

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT-Saint Mary's to Help Local Industry

Researchers at Saint Mary's University will soon be using new equipment to help Nova Scotia's environmental industries develop better filters for smokestacks and alternatives to pesticides.

Researchers will use a new scanning electron microscope to study pollutants in airborne dust particles. Their results will help industry to develop better filters for lowering pollutant emissions. Other equipment will help researchers to develop alternatives to pesticides such as using pheromones to lure insects into traps. Pheromones are hormones secreted by animals to attract one another and are less harmful to the environment.

Provincial and federal governments are investing more than $1.3 million in new equipment to support these research projects. The funding will also help the university to buy a high-performance computing system for a wide variety of interdisciplinary research projects.

"We very much welcome the commitment of government and private sector partners to these important research projects," said incoming Saint Mary's president Colin Dodds. "In addition to the research itself and its benefits to the province's economy, this funding will enable our students to use state-of-the-art equipment and to participate in front-line research with faculty."

The Canada/Nova Scotia COOPERATION Agreement on Economic Diversification is investing $521,107 in environmental science laboratory equipment, including the microscope, for the university. The agreement is managed by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Nova Scotia Economic Development.

"Research is important to growing our economy because it helps industry to develop new products and services for export," said Economic Development Minister Gordon Balser. "Our investment in research tools for Saint Mary's means more new products that local entrepreneurs can use to build businesses, expand into new markets and create jobs for Nova Scotians."

"Ecosystem remediation and high-performance computing are projects that contribute a great deal to our goal of making Nova Scotia an international centre for education and research," said Senator Bernie Boudreau, Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister responsible for Nova Scotia, on behalf of George Baker, Secretary of State for ACOA. "These projects will enable us to continue building on the level of excellence in research in the province, while offering real solutions to the challenges we face in business, the environment and the scientific community."

The Economic Diversification Agreement is also investing $112,139 in a high-performance computer and software for the university. With this computer, researchers from a number of departments can solve complex equations related to such subjects as the formation of stars. Members of the university's math and finance faculties are collaborating on a research project to track natural resources like fish stocks. The project will help to better manage natural resources.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) provided the initial funding of $706,897 to the university's research projects last year.

"The Canada Foundation for Innovation is pleased to support these research projects at Saint Mary's University, which will contribute to the preservation of Nova Scotia's and Canada's intellectual capital," said David Strangway, president and CEO of the CFI.

The CFI is an independent, not-for-profit corporation established by the Government of Canada in 1997 to address an urgent need of Canada's research community - new, state-of-the-art research infrastructure. The CFI has been entrusted with a capital budget of $1.9 billion, and its investments are made in partnership with all levels of government, as well as with the private and voluntary sectors. Its work focuses on health, the environment, science, engineering and the social sciences in universities, colleges, hospitals and other research institutions across Canada.

Saint Mary's is one of Canada's leading post-secondary institutions with a science faculty widely known for conducting leading-edge research. Science programs at Saint Mary's are attracting some of the best students in Canada, who are drawn by the combination of top-level research, quality teaching and small classes.

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