Peter Braid, an MP for Kitchener-Waterloo, announced funding yesterday to the tune of $30 million for the development of an advanced research computing platform. This platform will enable Canadian researchers to gain a deeper understanding of how the scientific, social, health and economic worlds connect.
The national platform comprises four hubs and will be housed at four institutions: Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, the University of Toronto, and the University of Waterloo. The platform will be managed by Compute Canada, an independent organization that provides advanced researching computing (ARC), storage, and software solutions. It will be available to researchers at all Canadian universities regardless of location or discipline.
“Canadian researchers tackling some of the world’s most complex challenges, such as understanding how our brains work and how to build sustainable energy sources, need to rely on increasingly vast sets of information and massive computing power,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor, University of Waterloo. “I am proud that the University of Waterloo is home to some of these world-class resources that will help researchers across Canada drive innovation and discovery forward.”
The Government of Canada’s investment, made through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI’s) Cyberinfrastructure Initiative, is meant to incite a new wave of discoveries. “For almost 20 years, the CFI has equipped researchers with the advanced facilities that enabled them to gain a deeper understanding of our world,” said Gilles Patry, president and CEO of CFI. “By investing in state-of-the-art computational and data storage facilities, the CFI is providing the nation’s researchers with the resources they need to continue pushing these boundaries of knowledge.”