Applicant

Co-Applicants

Project Title

Research Manitoba Funding

Guozhen Zhu

Mostafa Fayek

Renewing Manitoba’s Material Advantage: Accelerating Multidisciplinary Research at the Manitoba Institute for Materials

$6,000,000

Abstract:

The Manitoba Institute for Materials (MIM), together with its partner facilities, serves as Manitoba’s leading shared resource for materials research and technology development, supporting over 1,000 researchers, industries, and government organizations. The requested infrastructure will significantly strengthen Manitoba’s research capacity and economic competitiveness by expanding MIM’s ability to analyze both natural and engineered materials, from macroscopic scale down to the nanoscale. It will also enable researchers to study dynamic processes under real-world conditions such as temperature and load. These capabilities are critical for translating Manitoba’s natural resource strengths into higher-value products, jobs, technologies, and sustainable practices. The requested infrastructure will continuously support three key areas: exploring and extracting critical minerals needed for clean energy, modern technology, and national security; developing new materials for advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and environmental solutions; and finding safer and more effective ways to manage mining, nuclear, and plastic waste. The outcomes will strengthen Manitoba’s position in critical minerals supply chains, boost the competitiveness of Manitoba industries, support food security, and promote long-term environmental sustainability across the province.

Wouter Deconinck

Zisis Papandreou

Enabling High Intensity Collisions and High Granularity Detectors for the Electron-Ion Collider

$2,066,759

Abstract:

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a particle collider to be built in the US with researchers at the University of Manitoba (UM) leading our nation’s participation. Polarized electrons will collide with polarized protons/ions to answer questions about the origin of mass and spin of protons. As the lead institution in the EIC Canada Collaboration, UM will provide key infrastructure: Superconducting Radiofrequency (SRF) cavities for the accelerator that will boost the collisions intensity, and the End-of-Sector Boxes for the Barrel Imaging Calorimeter (BIC) that will amplify signals by subatomic particles.

Manitoba’s leadership leverages Canada’s demonstrated expertise in key technologies. Large-area photosensors developed by our project partners are now commercially available for subatomic, medical, nuclear imaging of plants, and nuclear safety applications. SRF technology reduces the size of medical accelerators for cancer therapy, and isotope production and calorimetry technologies are fundamental for medical imaging.

This project with high-impact discovery potential will provide critical training for scientists and engineers in Manitoba that could lead to compact medical accelerators or accelerator-driven power production systems. It will also firmly establish Manitoba as a leader in calorimetry and sensor applications.

Samar Safi-Harb

Jess McIver
Daryl Haggard
Tyrone Woods

Canadian GRAIN – leading the next frontier in astrophysics

$334,665

Abstract:

The hunt for our cosmic origins has driven curiosity for centuries. Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy, pioneered by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), tackles this question by opening a new window on the extreme universe. After decades of innovative technology development for GW detectors, LIGO detected in 2015 gravitational waves from merging black holes, confirming Einstein’s century-old prediction. This discovery, for which the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded, marks a triumph in technology and the persistence and ingenuity of the scientific community. Subsequently, the kilonova GW170817, witnessed in 2017 by both GW and light, heralded the “multi-messenger” astronomy era. The Canadian GRavitational wave Astrophysics Infrastructure Network (GRAIN) is a Canada-wide project that will position Canada and Manitoba to lead the next era of discovery by funding critical infrastructure and software for detectors on the ground (LIGO) and in space (LISA). The University of Manitoba will provide leadership in mission-critical software for the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, including distributed-computing and a low-latency testing environment for rapid event identification and sharing. GRAIN will elevate Manitoba’s profile internationally, while training and supporting high-skilled jobs in software, data science, and cybersecurity.

Gerald Gwinner

Kirk Madison
Stephan Malbrunot

RadMol : A Radioactive Molecule Lab

$500,000

Abstract:

Our understanding of nature’s fundamental forces remains incomplete, most notably in explaining why the universe contains more matter than antimatter. To address this mystery, we will establish the world’s first laboratory dedicated to precision experiments with radioactive molecules, all to be located at TRIUMF, Canada’s Particle Accelerator Centre. By studying molecules containing rare, pear-shaped radioactive nuclei, we aim to uncover new forces that break the arrow of time, a mechanism known as time-reversal violation (TV) and widely believed to underlie the matter–antimatter asymmetry of the universe.
TRIUMF – and the Manitoba-led research program based there – offers unique capabilities to produce and study such radioactive molecules. Using TV searches as our anchor activity, we will open the door to new applications in nuclear medicine and quantum sensing. Through their involvement at TRIUMF, Manitoba researchers have already a world-leading expertise in precision experiments with trapped radioactive atoms. This new initiative will enable Manitoba to stay at the global frontier of applying nuclear physics to address fundamental questions about the universe, while delivering exceptional training opportunities for Manitoba-based students at the intersection of (medical) radioisotopes, quantum science, and fundamental physics.