Steven Rogak receives $250k for COVID-19 research project

Steven Rogak, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of British Columbia, has been awarded $250,000 through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Exceptional Opportunities Fund to "cover the urgent need for equipment" for his ongoing research related to COVID-19. 

Rogak's project, which aims to assess the effect of aerosol and droplet control measures in indoor spaces, is one of five projects led by UBC researchers to receive support through the fund. The funding was announced today by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“Canadian researchers and scientists are helping to protect our health and safety and are key to finding our way out of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Bains in the announcement. "With this funding through the Exceptional Opportunities Fund, the Government of Canada is ensuring these talented Canadians have the equipment and tools to support them in their very important work.”

The Exceptional Opportunities Fund is "designed for those very few instances when an exceptional research opportunity would be missed if a project had to wait to undergo the normal course of a national competition before a decision could be rendered." Seventy-nine projects at 52 universities and research hospitals, colleges, polytechnics and Cégeps across Canada will receive a total of $28 million in research infrastructure support through the fund.  

For more information, please see the announcement of UBC's Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation.