Grants and Contributions

This project explores how the polar vortex—the large, swirling wind pattern in the Arctic—affects winter clouds and their interactions with tiny airborne particles called aerosols. Focusing on the area around Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, we will combine computer simulations with data collected from aircraft, satellites, and computer simulations of weather and concomitant weather records. The goal is to better understand how interactions, coupling and changes in the polar vortex influence cloud formation, storm patterns, and the movement of aerosols in the Arctic. And vice versa. Since these clouds play a crucial role in trapping heat during the long polar night, learning more about them will help improve climate predictions for the Arctic and beyond. The project will also test how different amounts of aerosols affect clouds, providing new insights into how Arctic weather and climate may change in the future.

The Inclusive Space Pathways Program is a comprehensive, cohort-based initiative designed to equip equity-deserving post-secondary students, especially women, with the skills, knowledge, and networks necessary for successful careers in the Canadian space sector. The program will consist of a six-week summer school, complemented by an ambassador network to broaden its impact. To accomplish this, it integrates three interconnected components that collectively address technical capacity building, professional career confidence and readiness, and multidimensional inclusivity. The three components of this program include Applied Knowledge and Techniques for Space, in which students will learn to design a space sensor system and subsequently be trained on manufacturing sensor components using specified printers and suitable materials; Diverse perspectives workshop series, which will instruct participants on unconscious bias, allyship, self-protection in disputes, and safeguarding against discrimination; and Capstone projects to provide a platform for students to apply their technical and professional skills, in which teams of six students will apply technical and collaboration skills to a range of space projects involving sensors and will pitch their solutions to a panel acting as funding evaluators or aerospace investors. After the summer school, with their consent, this project will track student trajectories to explore retention rates and long-term impacts.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

Canada’s annual assessed contribution to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Basic Activities for the calendar year 2026.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

With this A0 we will continue our development of whole-learner supports to support participation in research activities by Indigenous undergraduate and graduate learners by implementing new whole-learner-support oriented programming and activities that we have sandboxed over the past couple of years. This will occur principally in the context of summer research internships in Space Science funded in part through NSERC's USRA program. We are confident that this will lead to improving retention and graduation success of undergraduate STEM learners, and improving recruitment into STEM postgraduate programs and careers relevant to the Space sector. This is the key to achieving our long-term objective.
In the context of this proposal, "whole-learner support" refers to supporting and satisfying the 4 spheres of Indigenous education: Intellectual (the mind), physical (the body), emotional (the heart), and spiritual (the spirit). We enter into this research with the understanding that academic and career success demands balance, and missing support in one or more of these spheres may limit the ability of learners to thrive academically and may therefore limit potential career opportunities in the Space sector.
This project recognizes explicitly the unique challenges facing many Indigenous STEM learners, including inter-generational trauma in education, isolation (both geographically from distant community, and due to local under-representation), sometimes limited access to academic opportunities.
In 2024 and 2025 we initiated a pilot program using one-time training funds from the Royal Military College (RMC) to recruit a team of 3 Indigenous undergraduate STEM learners at Queen's to assist part-time with a variety of research projects in various STEM fields. This led to the recruitment of one of these learners as a full-time summer Astronomy and astrophysics research assistant, with funds provided by NSERC's USRA program and supplemented by granting council funds. It is the successes and lessons learned from this recent experience that inspires our application.
We note that Queen’s University already has a number of infrastructures that aid in supporting the whole learner for undergraduates, and to some extent for graduate students as well. A key aim of this project is integrate these existing supports into an enhanced and and focused 4-sphere program for undergraduate and graduate learners in space science, astronomy, and astrophysics. This will involve activities designed to bring together Indigenous learners within our circle in order to build relationships and local community. These activities will be carried out principally in the context of intensive summer research training experiences.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

The objective of this AO is to support Canadian students to participate in national and international space conferences and training events that will offer them the opportunity to learn about and be involved in the latest developments in space science and technology, to develop their professional network, and in some cases, present their research results at the national and international level.

This project will improve how mineral dust aerosol (MDA) is represented in models in the Arctic region. MDA’s are ice nucleating particles critical to the glaciation of warm and mixed-phase clouds, and cold cloud formation. Cloud phase (liquid vs. ice) strongly impacts how visible and infrared radiation from the Sun and Earth, respectively, transfers in the atmosphere, which in turn strongly impacts the climate effects of clouds (warming vs. cooling). The objectives of this
project are to improve the emission of MDA in the Arctic region in a chemistry-transport model (GEOS-Chem) and a climate model (CanAM). The climate impact of the changes will be evaluated in terms of the direct radiative effect, and model outputs will be compared to PONEX/EarthCARE observations and other model simulations in the Arctic region, at the high spatial resolution required for this complex region.