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Grants awarded under the FAST 2021 Announcement of Opportunity

Funding for space research and development, with a focus on training the next generation of experts

Through its Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) funding initiative, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) supports the development of space science and technology and enables students and young researchers to gain hands-on experience in space-like missions. Grants are issued to Canadian post-secondary institutions following a competitive process.

The main objectives of the FAST Announcement of Opportunity (AO) were to:

As of , the CSA has awarded 21 grants under the FAST AO representing $3.71 million to Canadian post-secondary institutions to advance space science and technology while training the next generation of space experts. A description of the supported projects and their respective funding amounts are presented below under three funding categories:

  1. Category A – End-to-end space-like mission projects
  2. Category B – Space-related research projects – 2 to 3 years
  3. Category C – Space-related research projects – up to 1 year

Category A – End-to-end space-like mission projects

The institutions listed below were awarded grants of up to $300,000 for end-to-end space-like mission projects that include technology development, use of the technology during a flight or a field deployment, and data collection and analysis. These projects are expected to last up to three years.

Table 1
Institution Grant value Project Principal investigator
University of Waterloo,
Ontario
$300,000 High-Frame-Rate Ultrasound Monitoring of Cerebral Blood Flow in Astronauts Dr. Alfred Yu
McGill University,
Quebec
$299,937 Development of fundamentals of propulsion technology based on in-situ manufactured metal fuels Dr. Jeffrey Bergthorson
University of New Brunswick,
New Brunswick
$299,912 Ion-Neutral Coupling Experiment Dr. Jeffery Langille
McGill University,
Quebec
$300,000 Developing new technologies to access and investigate a unique Mars and icy moon analogue Dr. Lyle Whyte
Queen's University,
Ontario
$299,182 Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment Dr. Laura Fissel
University of Alberta,
Alberta
$271,744 Design of Satellite Propellant Tank – Self-guided fluid configuration for efficient fuel management Dr. Prashant Waghmare
York University,
Ontario
$299,120 Preparing for Mars Ice Mapper Mission with Airborne SAR Modeling and Ground Truth Dr. Isaac Smith
University of Alberta,
Alberta
$277,805 Simulated Microgravity in Understanding Knee Osteoarthritis Dr. Adetola Adesida
Université du Québec à Montréal,
Quebec
$294,630 AirBands – Wireless Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) cuffs and TeleHab – online exercise prescription and monitoring app Dr. Alain Comtois

Category B – Space-related research projects – 2 to 3 years

The institutions listed below were awarded grants of up to $100,000 for small space-related research projects. These projects are expected to last two to three years.

Table 2
Institution Grant value Project Principal investigator
University of Alberta,
Alberta
$99,715 Advanced Curation Methods of Astromaterials: Applications to Future Comet Nucleus and Mars Sample Return Missions Dr. Christopher Herd
Western University,
Ontario
$100,000 Canadian Participation in the Rover-Aerial Vehicle Exploration Network (RAVEN) Dr. Catherine Neish
University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatchewan
$100,000 OSIRIS-3: CubeSat payload design and demonstration Dr. Adam Bourassa
University of Manitoba,
Manitoba
$97,130 Deployable SAR Antenna with Multiple Phase Centres for Monitoring Arctic Snow and Sea Ice Dr. Dustin Isleifson
Concordia University,
Quebec
$99,990 Expedition Cognition: a solid foundation for adaptive automation Dr. Emily Coffey
McGill University,
Quebec
$97,625 Cosmology with the MIST radio experiment from the McGill Arctic Research Station space analogue site Dr. Hsin Cynthia Chiang
University of Ottawa,
Ontario
$100,000 Probing for life in icy Lake Untersee, Antarctica: an analogue for the habitable subsurface world on Enceladus Dr. Denis Lacelle
University of Lethbridge,
Alberta
$100,000 Cryogenic post-dispersed polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer Dr. David Naylor
Queen's University,
Ontario
$98,500 First flight of HELIX and detector development for future payloads Dr. Nahee Park
Western University,
Ontario
$100,000 Science and Technology Preparation for Exoplanet Detection with the Proposed POET Mission Dr. Stanimir Metchev

Category C – Space-related research projects – up to 1 year

The institutions listed below were awarded grants of up to $40,000 for space-related research projects. These projects are expected to last one year.

Table 3
Institution Grant value Project Principal investigator
Concordia University,
Quebec
$39,600 Reduced gravity flights to study granular scaling laws for lunar rovers Dr. Krzysztof Skonieczny
Cégep de Sherbrooke,
Quebec
$39,958 Miniaturization of the HABLAN system, which performs multi-spectral and multi-angular remote sensing of nocturnal artificial light Dr. Martin Aubé

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