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Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous U of G research projects continued during the past 18 months thanks to federal funding support and a cross-campus team of University of Guelph experts.
Almost 1,000 researchers and 425 research projects have received support from the Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund (CRCEF), created to mitigate COVID-19 impacts on research initiatives and to protect research investments during the pandemic.
U of G received almost $6.5 million to pay wages and incremental costs for essential research-related activities during the pandemic.
This temporary fund, announced in May 2020 as part of the federal government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, was rolled out in several stages. Each stage required a variety of administrative tasks to be performed, including interpretation; equity, diversity and inclusion considerations; communications; data collection; implementation; and reporting.
Those tasks fell to a working group established by U of G that met almost 20 times between July and December 2020. The group developed a strategy and devised a plan to implement CRCEF data collection, internal communications and decision-making.
Group members included chairs, associate deans and directors from all seven colleges on campus and was led by Karina McInnis, associate vice-president, research.
“This dedicated group of employees from across the University have made this program a success for U of G,” says McInnis. “Everyone worked really hard to ensure we integrated equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in our communications, data gathering and distribution of this much-needed funding from the federal government.”
Other working group members included:
- Jill Rogers, managing director, research operations, Office of Research Services
- Amanda Sawlor, director, Research Financial Services
- Joseph Pazzano, training, education and inclusion Officer, Diversity and Human Rights
- Lauren Grant, research manager, Ontario Veterinary College
- Rebecca Hallett, associate dean (research and graduate studies), Ontario Agricultural College
- Tina Goebel, associate director, finance and operations, Ontario Agricultural College
- Laurie Halfpenny-Mitchell, director, OMAFRA-U of G Agreement and Research Programs
This work was also supported partly by the Government of Canada’s Research Support Fund.
For more information, see: Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund.