Sudbury's SNOLAB, which made worldwide headlines in 2015 after Arthur McDonald won the Nobel Prize in physics for research done at the lab, will receive $28.8 million in operational funding over the next five years from the Ontario government.
Minister of Research, Innovation and Science Reza Moridi toured the two-kilometre-deep underground neutrino and dark matter physics laboratory at Creighton Mine on July 19 and then headed to Science North for the funding announcement.
“Today, investments in research and innovation is not just giving some tools for some scientists to play with in their labs, it has an economic component to it,” he said.
Moridi said for every dollar invested in the facility, there's $8 in economic activity created in the province.
It's important to support such fundamental science because it leads to the invention of new technologies, he said.
Just as research into lasers led to CDs and modern telecommunications, figuring out how the tiny particles called neutrinos work could lead to ways to communicate over very long distances, Moridi said.
“Our government is proud to continue its support for SNOLAB,” he said. “This centre has a worldwide reputation for research excellence.”
Queen's University is the lead educational institution for SNOLAB, and John Fisher, vice-principal of research at the university, was on hand to thank Moridi for the funding.
“By supporting transformative research, this is of value not only to the province of Ontario, but also to Canada and the globe,” he said.
“It will ensure that researchers at SNOLAB continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and allow Canadian scientists to maintain their preeminence in the highly competitive field of particle astrophysics.
“In fact, this support is crucial to the long-term competitiveness of Ontario and Canada's research universities.”
