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Instead of hearing from Matina this month, I am writing to you to share updates from the College of Natural and Applied Sciences research portfolio.

For those who I haven’t yet had the chance to meet, my name is Jon Veinot and I am the CNAS associate dean (STEM research). In addition to this role, I am also a professor in the Department of Chemistry. My research interests focus on the development of nanomaterials and their applications, such as medical imaging, batteries, display technologies, solar cells, sensors and more. I am passionate about mobilizing fundamental and applied research to maximize its impact and about creating rewarding, engaging experiences for our research community.

Some of you may ask, “What is the role of the CNAS office of research?”

The college mandate is to increase impact by: 1) serving as integrators; 2) increasing interdisciplinary education and research programming across faculty boundaries; and 3) finding economies of scale in delivery of core academic and administrative services. As part of that mandate I work alongside Goetz Dapp, director of the office of research, to foster a supportive and engaging research culture across the college while holding true to the .

We aim to make it easier for researchers in our college to be successful in securing research funding, promote ongoing research, outcomes and expertise, and engage locally with other colleges and stand-alone faculties, as well as external organizations. In doing all of this we support large interdisciplinary proposals and programs. Our team is small, but by working closely with the faculty research teams, the researcher partner network, as well as the VPR and VPIE offices, we are improving our outcomes. Below, I have highlighted a few of our recent initiatives and offer a glimpse into what we hope to achieve in the coming year.

Tri-agency funding

Maximising our successes in tri-agency funding competitions is essential. Not only does this funding support our individual research programs, our collective success in these applications directly impacts the university’s CFI envelope, Canada Research Chair allocation, and the Research Support Fund which supports core facilities and the newly established . Tri-agency applications are intricate and constantly evolving, and researchers in our college have told us they need support. The college office of research has established a Grant Registry where researchers from across CNAS can indicate their intention to apply for an NSERC Discovery Grant in the upcoming competition. (If you haven’t signed up yet, .) Applicants make selections from a list of supports (e.g., editing, workshops, internal peer-review) that they believe would be most valuable to them throughout their grant preparation process.

Working with the faculty research teams and research partner network, the college office of research uses this information to strategically target communications and support opportunities. This new system, designed to make communications about and accessing grant supports more straightforward, is being rolled out in time for the 2026 NSERC Discovery competition year and researcher engagement has been very encouraging with 165 participants so far. We will update everyone on its impact after assessing the outcomes of the upcoming competition.

Grant review

We know that protecting time for creative ideation is foundational to research success. In close consultation with the CNAS faculties and other interested parties from across our research community, we are assembling a grant review team so that we can take on the administrative work of grant preparation. This team of specialists will be highly trained on administrative requirements of standard funding calls and will have the expertise to adapt to unique “one-off” opportunities. This team will review all funding applications for completeness and provide researchers with personalized administrative feedback, gaining an understanding of the diverse research programs across our college. The team will be nimble, responsive and contribute to shortening application processing times. These changes will be rolled out in August in time for the fall grant application season.

Interdisciplinary research

Connecting researchers from across campus to support cross- and inter-disciplinary research has also been a big part of our efforts over the past year. This is illustrated by the recent NFRF-T LOI submission process that saw our team help connect experts from the different colleges. We also played an important role in promoting and connecting researchers for large initiatives like the recently established Centre for Hydrogen Innovation, Workforce Development and Outreach as well as other emerging opportunities. We look forward to continuing our support of these types of important initiatives.

One of the most rewarding aspects of working in the college office of research is learning about, and showcasing the exciting work you do. Over the past year we have promoted CNAS research expertise while fostering established and emerging relationships with local, national and multinational corporations. Engaging with key international academic partners also gave us important opportunities to explore collaborations related to Horizon Europe and other collaborative funding opportunities. As part of these activities we have co-hosted U of A campus visits, visited partner sites, and attended international conventions and conferences including and the . A highlight of this past year was when the CNAS research team led the U of A delegation to — the world’s leading industrial trade fair — where our research was featured during discussion panels, B2B meetings and at our booth in the Canada pavilion.

Over the past nine months I have thoroughly enjoyed broadening my knowledge and learning about what many of you study. l hope to learn even more about the ongoing research in our college this coming year. I am also excited to share that in the coming academic year we will be hosting our first CNAS Research Days event, establishing a new college-wide platform for event communication, expanding the supportive and collegial culture for securing research funding, and continuing to leverage the college structure to build research capacity and success.