The Ontario Government has given 10 Early Researcher Awards to McMaster University. The awards, totaling $1.4-million, are given to recently appointed researchers to help them build their teams of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and research associates. Each award is matched with $50,000 from the University.

The announcement was made this morning at McMaster University by Ted McMeekin, MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, Patrick Deane, president of McMaster, and Mo Elbestawi, the University's vice-president, Research & International Affairs.

“Today's announcement represents an investment in researchers and projects that will be attracting the talents of more than 100 additional undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students to 21 research teams,” said Deane. “The infrastructure funding also provides for the high performance equipment, specialized instruments and materials for lab renovations needed to advance the discoveries that will impact the health and well-being of millions of Canadians and advance technologies that will benefit the economy.”

Ontario is providing more than $11-million to support 80 emerging researchers and their teams at 16 institutions across Ontario through the Early Researcher Awards program.

McMaster University's 10 ERA awards are almost double the provincial average. Six of the recipients are from the Faculty of Engineering; three from the Faculty of Health Sciences, and one from the Faculty of Science.

In addition, to the ERA awards, the Government of Ontario also announced its Ontario Research Funding-Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI) awards. The investment of $18-million will support 104 projects and more than 1,300 researchers at 14 institutions in 11 cities across the province. McMaster University was awarded $2,322,346 in ORF-RI funding for 11 projects.