Expanding Scholarly, Research & Creative (SRC) Activity

In the 2022–23 fiscal year, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) received $91 million in overall research funding. TMU attracts and fosters local, national and international strategic partnerships and collaborations to support cross-disciplinary scholarly, research and creative (SRC) activities that address complex real-world challenges.

Tri-Agency Funding

Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF)

The Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) is a Tri-Agency initiative to help competitively selected Canadian postsecondary institutions turn their key strengths into world-leading capabilities that create long-term economic advantages for Canada.

TMU was awarded $98.6 million over seven years through the CFREF program to lead Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides. This innovative new interdisciplinary research program will investigate the challenges and opportunities of migrant integration, building upon TMU’s strength and leadership in immigration and technology.

TMU’s Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration, Anna Triandafyllidou, will lead this research program as Scientific Director. The research will lead to new insights and usable knowledge in four thematic streams: Immigrant Health and Well-Being, Employment and Lifelong Learning, Place and Infrastructure, and Citizenship and Participation.

Canada Research Chairs Program

Seth Dworkin (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), the renewed Tier 2 CRC in Sustainable Energy Modelling and Simulation, develops and applies machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to further his research in predicting fossil and alternative fuels emissions.

Dae Kun Hwang (Chemical Engineering), the renewed Tier 2 CRC in Microarchitecture for Advanced Polymeric Materials, continues his design and development research on innovative biomedical platforms and devices that support diagnostics and treatment.  

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Robert Botelho (Chemistry and Biology) received a large Project Grant for his work on the molecular processes governing how macrophages engulf and entrap microbes, which is critical in infection resolution, adaptive immunity, tissue physiology and integrity, and cancer prevention. 

Sarah Dermody (Psychology), along with Alyssa Counsell (Psychology), Trevor Hart (Psychology) and Erin Ziegler (Nursing), received a Catalyst grant to study how the unique psychological stressors placed on members of LGBTQIA+ communities in Canada affect their alcohol and tobacco use as they age. 

Miranda Kirby (Physics), along with partners at St. Michael’s and Sick Kids Hospitals, received a large Project Grant to adapt MRI technology so it can be used to image airways. They will also apply deep learning methods to analyze those images to better assess and monitor cystic fibrosis. 

Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Bala Venkatesh and Mohammadreza Arani (Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering) received an Alliance grant to work with Hydro One on developing systems to better predict and forecast the output of distributed energy resources. 

Elsayed Elbeshbishy (Civil Engineering) received an Alliance Missions grant to coordinate experts, industries and municipalities in tackling the accurate and reliable measurement of greenhouse gases in municipal wastewater systems. 

Rasha Keshef (Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering) received an Alliance International Catalyst grant for her work developing ways to detect multilingual shilling attacks on e-commerce recommendation systems, which involve the injection of malicious profiles and forged data. 

Stephanie Melles (Chemistry and Biology) received a Discovery Grant to address fundamental questions about species persistence in urban areas toward enhancing biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning in urban watersheds. 

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Naimul Khan (Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering), with co-PIs Natalie Alvarez (School of Performance) and Richard Lachman (Media), received an Exploration grant to develop a virtual reality system for de-escalation training for Canada’s first responders.

Monica Ruiz-Casares (Child and Youth Care) and a multi-institutional team of collaborators received an Insight grant to study trends in non-adult supervision of children across low- and middle-income countries, with a particular focus on Laos and Ghana. 

Miranda Campbell (Creative Industries) and Cheryl Thompson (Performance) received a partnership development grant to investigate patterns of exclusion for Black and racialized individuals in the music industries and to identify and propose community support solutions.

Claus Rinner (Geography and Environmental Studies), leading a multi-institutional team of researchers, received a New Frontiers in Research Special Call grant to assess the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare for future pandemics and global emergencies.

Municipal, Provincial & Other Federal Funding

Non-Tri-Council Federal Funding

Deborah Fels (Information Technology Management) received funding from eBOUND Canada to create guides for alt-text best practices and train publishing industry members on converting existing works to be accessible.

Shelagh McCartney (School of Urban and Regional Planning), working with Nishnawbe Aski Nation Corporate Services, received funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to create community-led, specialized affordable housing models for First Nation members. 

Provincial Funding

Early Researcher Awards

The Ministry of Colleges and Universities bestows Early Researcher Awards on emerging scholars who build student research teams around a particular project. This program advances the training and retention of Ontario’s research talent and enhances the province’s research capacity and reputation.

Sridhar Krishnan (Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering) received support from the Department of National Defence to further develop digital interventions to understand and mitigate factors underlying distress and resilience in reaction to complex moral stressors experienced by healthcare workers at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic.

April Khademi (Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering) received support from the Alzheimer Society of Canada to use image analysis and machine learning to extract and investigate neuroimaging biomarkers from magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain toward providing treatment targets and a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of dementia. 

Bhagwant Persaud (Civil Engineering) received support from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to document tools supporting decision-making regarding the safe accommodation of vulnerable road users at freeway interchanges, focusing on cyclists.

Municipal Funding

Robert Clapperton (Professional Communications) received support from the City of Brampton to analyze the innovation, economic and placemaking strategy of Brampton’s cultural space offering compared to other Canadian municipal jurisdictions to guide future investment planning.

TMU’s research collaborations with industry, not-for-profit and community partners facilitate innovative solutions to real-world problems, benefiting Canadians through improved health care, social equity, culture, science, technology and economics.

Industry & Other Non-Government Funding

Cheri Bradish (School of Business Management) worked with The Carnegie Initiative, a charity that works to ensure hockey is inclusive, to assess the available equity programs and activities in Canadian hockey and their success levels. 

Joon Chung (Aerospace) received funding from Masterpiece Studio to develop AI-enabled immersive training scenarios for the marine and aerospace industries.

Mandana Vahabi (Nursing) received support from Hologic Inc. to explore how racialized immigrant women’s values and beliefs affect their willingness to test for cervical cancer and from the Shopper’s Foundation for Women’s Health to promote cervical cancer screening through HPV self-sampling among marginalized and underprivileged women in Toronto. 

Morteza Zihayat (Information Technology Management) received funding from IBM to design and develop machine learning methods that effectively predict the future demand an application will place on a device’s resources to improve its performance and prevent system crashes.