APSC-based water health and advanced manufacturing networks receive $3.2M in federal funding

Two knowledge mobilization networks based at the UBC Faculty of Applied Science will each receive $1.6 million over four years under the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence Knowledge Mobilization (NCE-KM) Initiative, it was announced today.

The RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation (RESEAU) and the Composites Research Network Knowledge Mobilization Centre (CRN-KMC) will use the funds to help translate world-class research into positive real-world impacts, particularly benefiting the small communities and small-to-medium-sized businesses that form the backbone of the country.

RESEAU has developed a unique, sustainable, community-based model known as Community Circles^TM that has improved the water health of numerous non-urban and Indigenous communities in Canada. It now aims to broaden and strengthen the impact of the model across the country, as well as to apply it to problems involving other aspects of community health, including housing, energy and infrastructure.

CRN-KMC will offer Canada’s first and only scalable, member-accessible repository of composites technology and engineering research and know-how. By enabling rural, often family-owned enterprises to access leading-edge composites manufacturing knowledge, it seeks to promote skills mobilization, collaboration and growth within the composites industry — and ultimately provide better, cleaner, cheaper products to Canadians.

Thanks to the support of the NCE-KM Initiative, UBC is well-positioned to remain a leading source of impactful research across a range of key disciplines. The university was recently named number one in the world for taking urgent action to combat climate change and number one in Canada for making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable in the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings 2019, the first global ranking to measure institutions' social and economic impact.

RESEAU will be directed by Madjid Mohseni, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at UBC, and CRN-KMC will be directed by UBC materials engineering professor Anoush Poursartip.

For more information about the NCE-KM Initiative and its funding recipients, please see the news releases by the Government of Canada and UBC Media Relations.