New Government Funding Renews NBIF’s Research Technicians Initiative

FREDERICTON, (NB) The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) today announced that it has received new government funding via the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (PETL) to renew its Research Technicians Initiative.

The $335,000 in funding from PETL plus $140,000 more from NBIF will allow some of the province’s top applied researchers to hire the research technicians and associates that they need to undertake new research projects.

“This new funding will expand the province’s capacity to do applied research,” says the Foundation’s President Calvin Milbury “this kind of financial support allows researchers to focus on the critical aspects of their research work, and open them up for more.” Milbury says that the Initiative expects to create up to eight new positions.

The new funding was provided under PETL’s Post-Secondary Education Action Plan as part of its Graduate Studies and Research priority.

“Research is an enterprise that depends mostly on people,” says PETL Minister Donald Arseneault “our partnership with NBIF has allowed the government to contribute to the hiring and development of 43 of these highly-skilled individuals, keeping some of the province’s most talented graduates here.”

Since 2003, the Foundation has awarded $3 million under the Research Technician Initiative, unlocking $ 16 million more from the hiring institutions, national granting councils and industry.

Applications by researchers at qualified New Brunswick research institutions are to be submitted to NBIF by June 15th, 2010.  Funding will be awarded and recipients announced in September 2010.

For more information on the Research Technicians Program competition, visit www.nbif.ca/eng/research/rti