Foundation hands out more than $500,000 for salaries

By Sabrina Doyle – Telegraph Journal | link to original article

University students will not only get experience working in research laboratories this year, they'll get paid for it, thanks to funding from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.

The not-for-profit foundation announced Monday that $550,000 will go toward 58 student research assistant positions across the province. The fund has been doling out money since 2003, and benefits from a partnership with the provincial Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.

Calvin Milbury, the foundation's president and CEO, said the government likes it because it creates a well-trained group of future researchers for the province, while simultaneously fostering current innovation.

“It meets both of our objectives,” he said, and the fact that students are getting paid makes it a “win-win-win situation.”

The fund targets research that has the most potential for commercial uses and bringing in money for New Brunswick.

Research by Dr. Marc Surette of the Université de Moncton focuses on a small plant with big potential. B. arvensis grows to about knee-height, produces a light purple flower, and basically looks like a weed, Surette said. But the U de M professor and his partners discovered that this wild plant, which had never been used for agriculture, has seeds containing lots of omega 3 fatty acids.

“The worldwide fish stocks are decreasing, but the demand is increasing. There's gonna be a problem,” Surette said.

He hopes this plant could be the solution. The seeds could have enough omega 3 fatty acids to rival the amount found in fish, minus the mercury or PCPs, he said. Food companies wanting to inject healthy omega 3s into their product will theoretically be able to buy and use this.

The $20,000 that Saurette's project is to receive from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation will go toward paying two PhD students. They will work in the lab, testing the effect the seed's oils have on the immune system in comparison to oils from other omega 3 sources.

Manpower is the largest money drain in research, Surette said, so “any time you get funding that helps your project along, its wonderful.”

He calls this fund a particular “double whammy” because it helps students.

Surette can also use the money as leverage for securing federal contributions, which often require researchers to have other, additional sources of funding. His project is halfway through its five-year term and, so far, Surette said he's very pleased with the results.