McMaster engineering program gets crucial equipment funding

Five McMaster University engineering projects have received a combined $1.9 million in funding for expensive equipment and machines that allow state-of-the-art research that includes how to make electric car batteries more efficient and cheaper.

One of the projects researches how to best fuse materials together, such as fusing biological material like bone to metal in bone implants in the aging.

The funding, from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), was announced Tuesday by federal Science Minister Kirsty Duncan, and is part of $52 million awarded across 51 universities in Canada.

McMaster’s vice-president of research Rob Baker said the CFI funding, awarded three times a year, “is critical to carrying out quality research because it pays for high ticket items that are difficult to get from normal operating grants.

“Here, this program is used for buying actual equipment,” Baker said.

“It allows us to do the research we want that needs expensive equipment (and) when we get these things, it helps us attract top students, faculty and researchers. It really helps us attract top quality people … so it really is a fundamental thing.”

The funding is from the CFI’s John Evans Leaders Fund, which has a direct historical connection to McMaster University. Evans was Mac’s founding dean of health sciences and the CFI’s first board chair.