Four UVic research teams have received funding from NSERC Alliance, MITACS and private-sector partners. Their projects incorporate applied research that expands knowledge that has environmental and safety benefits with training of highly qualified personnel, from undergraduate students to post-doctoral fellows. The projects have implications for oceans, roads, buildings and businesses throughout Canada and around the world.
Julia Baum: "Blue Carbon Canada 2: Assessing the Drawdown Capacity, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Value of Canada's Blue Carbon Ecosystems to Prioritize New Protected Areas and Restoration"
$2,003925 over three years
Along Canada's coastlines, the longest in the world, salt marshes, eelgrass meadows and kelp forests sequester and store carbon from the atmosphere and ocean, enhance biodiversity, food security, water quality and shoreline protection. But Canada has yet to account for these blue carbon ecosystems in its greenhouse gas inventories or to incorporate their value into protected area design.
Julia Baum and co-investigators at the University of British Columbia, McGill University and St. Francis Xavier University will use this funding to: 1) resolve uncertainty about greenhouse gas emissions, carbon storage and sequestration rates of Canada's salt marshes; 2) assess their biodiversity, ecosystem services and economic value; and 3) use decision-science tools to produce the first national prioritization of nature-based solutions for Canada's blue carbon ecosystems.
"This transdisciplinary research project will train ten early-career scholars in data synthesis, decision-science, science communication and effective research collaboration, skills that are in high demand for ocean and climate science careers," says Baum. "We're looking forward to advancing this work with our project partners at World Wildlife Fund-Canada, Oceans North, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada, BC Parks, Nature Trust BC, Hakai Institute, Kelp Rescue Initiative and Ecology Action Centre."
Makhsud Saidaminov: "Printable flexible solar modules"
$600,000 over four years
Makhsud Saidaminov, four PhD students and industry partner Solaires Enterprises Inc. aim to develop cost-effective, stable and flexible perovskite solar modules. They'll achieve this by replacing glass with plastic substrates, using green solvents to fabricate constituent thin films, developing low-cost transport layers and electrodes, and advanced laser-assisted fabrication.
"Achieving international stability standards and power conversion efficiencies is important to unlocking the full potential of perovskite solar cells," says Saidaminov. "Without scalable module fabrication, the technology will remain confined to the lab. Continued reliance on toxic solvents poses significant environmental and health risks if deployed at scale. Using costly materials limits the use of solar energy to wealthy communities. Also, flexible modules will be ideal for next-generation solar applications."
Cheng Lin: "Long-Term Evaluations of Geosynthetics-Reinforced Roads in Cold Regions"
$159,375 over two years
Cheng Lin's team will be the first to evaluate road surfaces that were reinforced five or six years ago with innovative geosynthetic materials. The goal of using the novel polymeric alloy geocells is to mitigate road damage from repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
"The results from this project," Lin says, "will deepen our understanding of the efficacy of geosynthetic reinforcement in cold-region roads, and advance design and construction practices."
Ultimately, the decrease in road damage means fewer repairs, safer driving conditions, environmental benefits and cost savings.
The Mitacs Accelerate component of the funding provides critical training for a post-doctoral fellow who will bridge Lin's lab with private-sector Stratum Logics.
Cheng Lin: "Life Cycle Assessment of Wicking Geosynthetic Composite for Road Applications"
$191,250 over three years
Water accumulation in road bases and subgrade is a leading cause of pavement distress in Canada and internationally. Wicking geosynthetic composites (WGCs) actively remove excess water while also reinforcing the road structure.
Cheng Lin's three-year project with Titan Environmental Containment will engage two undergraduates and a PhD student to develop publicly available, verified Environmental Project Declarations for the composites, and then integrate them into a life-cycle assessment framework specifically for WGC-reinforced roads.
"The Canadian road-building sector will benefit from designs that optimize both performance and environmental footprint," says Lin. "A novel component of this project is our use of artificial intelligence to automate the data collection process. This will enhance the reliability and efficiency of developing the Environmental Product Declarations while reducing traditional manual effort."
Min Sun: "Bird-beak SHS X-connections near an open chord end"
$129,000 over two years
This research aims to generate much-needed technical know-how for the design of bird-beak hollow structural section connections. Current North American and international standards assume sufficient chord continuity on both sides of connections ("regular connections"), an assumption that rarely holds for end-of-truss or frame connections ("end connections"). End connections exhibit significantly different structural behaviours from regular connections, yet research on stress concentration and fatigue remains limited, creating risks of premature failure in bridges and offshore structures, costly repairs, and broader societal impacts. This research will fill this knowledge gap and produce new design recommendations ready for industry adoption.
Min Sun: "Evaluation of steel frames with hybrid seismic systems based on life cycle analysis"
$209,750 over two years
This research aims to develop a life-cycle-based framework for designing steel frames equipped with hybrid seismic systems. While current provisions prioritize collapse prevention, they often neglect the cumulative impacts of residual drift, repair costs, and long-term functionality which are gaps that hinder the adoption of high-performance systems in seismically active regions of Canada. This study addresses these limitations by integrating drift-sensitive fragility, repair cost, and downtime models into a probabilistic performance-based framework. The resulting design recommendations aim to maximize structural resilience, minimize life-cycle costs and emissions, and facilitate rapid post-earthquake recovery.
