UBC Applied Science research projects awarded nearly $2.25M by federal New Frontiers in Research Fund

Research projects led or co-led by UBC Applied Science faculty members have received nearly $2.25 million under the Exploration stream of the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).

The Exploration stream aims to promote innovation in Canada by supporting research that “defies current paradigms, bridges disciplines, or tackles fundamental problems from new perspectives.”

APSC-affiliated research projects account for nine of the 20 projects led by UBC researchers that were awarded funding under the 2019 NFRF Exploration competition, which provided a total of $46.3 million in funding to support 186 research projects across Canada.

The APSC-affiliated projects are:

Developing a Peer Mentorship Program to Foster Health and Social Equity for Indigenous Peoples in Criminal Justice Contexts ($248,034)

Nominated Principal Investigator: Helen Brown (Nursing)
Co-Principal Investigator: Patricia Barkaskas (Peter A. Allard School of Law)


Go Green: Opening the new era of green photosynthetic living nanofabric for sustainable future (​$250,000)

Nominated Principal Investigator: Jae-Hyeok Lee (Botany)
Co-Principal Investigator: Frank Ko (Materials Engineering)


Materials à la carte: Accelerating materials discovery with large scale ab-initio simulations and machine learning (​$250,000) 

Nominated Principal Investigator: Mauricio Ponga de la Torre (Mechanical Engineering)
Co-Principal Investigator: Jasmin Jelovica (Mechanical Engineering)


Develop a Sim-to-Real Transfer Learning AI architecture for reliable prediction and optimization of advanced manufacturing processes in the presence of limited data (​$250,000)

Nominated Principal Investigator: Abbas Sadeghzadeh Milani (School of Engineering, UBCO)


CO₂ Recycling for Carbon-Neutral Solar Fuels ($250,000)

Nominated Principal Investigator: Alexander Uhl (School of Engineering, UBCO)
Co-Principal Investigator: Curtis Berlinguette (Chemical and Biological Engineering)


Transforming city governments in response to disruptive change: meeting the challenges of colonization, inequity, and climate change ($247,738)​

Nominated Principal Investigator: Robert VanWynsberghe (Educational Studies)
Co-Principal Investigator: Margaret Low (School of Community and Regional Planning)


Fuelling the methanol economy using biohybrid catalysts ($250,000) 

Nominated Principal Investigator: Vikramaditya Yadav (Chemical and Biological Engineering)
Co-Principal Investigator: J. Thomas Beatty (Microbiology & Immunology)


Cannabis cultivation in Canada: Assessing the air, health, and equity impacts of a growing and uncharted industry ​($250,000) 

Nominated Principal Investigator: Naomi Zimmerman (Mechanical Engineering)
Co-Principal Investigator: Amanda Giang (IRES/Mechanical Engineering)


Microbial community responses to marine microplastics along natural and anthropogenic gradients ($250,000)

Nominated Principal Investigator: Steven Hallam (Microbiology & Immunology)
Co-Principal Investigator: Ryan Ziels (Civil Engineering)