Organization: McGill Univ

Dr Marc Fortin

Dr Marc Fortin has been appointed VP research partnerships at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), replacing Dr Bettina Hamelin who left the position in June to become president and CEO of Ontario Genomics. Fortin comes to NSERC from the Department of National Defence, where he held the dual roles of ADM S&T…

McGill to open retail innovation lab with $25-million donation

Aldo Bensadoun, founder of global shoe retailing chain Aldo Group, has donated $25 million to McGill Univ to establish a digital retail innovation lab.  The Bensadoun School of Retail Management will offer multidisciplinary education to students from the undergraduate to PhD levels while providing a test environment for new ideas, technologies and products. Slated to…

CDRD, MNI and Merck join forces to develop new therapeutics

Two research institutes and a multinational pharmaceutical firm are partnering to launch NeuroCDRD, a novel drug development platform that aims to accelerate the development of therapeutics for debilitating neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) will contribute its translational expertise while the Montreal Neurological…

Microsoft Ventures invests in Montreal AI expertise

Microsoft Venture‘s new start-up fund has made its first investment in Element AI, a Montreal-based artificial intelligence start-up affiliated with researchers at McGill Univ, Univ of Montreal and Univ of Toronto. Founded by Dr Yoshua Bengio and serial entrepreneurs Jean-François Gagné and Nicolas Chapados, Element AI will use the undisclosed Microsoft investment to achieve scale…

INQ announces three research chairs

The Institut nordique to Québec (INQ) has announced funding for three research chairs to pursue research ranging from renewable energy production and wildlife preservation to food security and sustainable development in the north. INQ also announced the appointment of Dr Louis Fortier — scientific director of ArcticNet —as its director of science and innovation responsible…

CQDM, Germany partner on novel technologies project

CQDM is partnering with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy to develop validated tools and chemical probes for the study of protein trafficking and misfolding. Each partner will contribute $500,000 to the initiative, led by McGill Univ‘s Dr David Thomas and Dr Bert Klebl from the Dotrmund-based Lead Discovery Centre. The project…

TACCAT Network renamed Technology Access Canada

The TACCAT Network which connects 25 college technology access centres across Canada has changed its name to Tech-Access Canada (TAC). The re- branded organization serves the research and innovation needs of specific regional economic clusters representing nine technology sectors: advanced manufacturing, agriculture, construction technology, digital media and graphic communications, environmental technology/biotechnology, food technology, healthcare technology…

Six neuroscience teams awarded $8.5 million

CQDM (a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research), Brain Canada and the Ontario Brain Institute have awarded nearly $8.5 million — augmented by $1.5 million in in-kind contributions — to six multi-provincial research teams. The investment will see 33 researchers from academia partnering with smaller companies to develop tools, technologies and platforms that accelerate…