Moridi Announces 5 years of Provincial Funding

July 19, 2017 — Facility Updates

(Sudbury, ON) SNOLAB staff and scientists were honoured to welcome Minister of Research, Innovation and Science Reza Moridi to the underground laboratory earlier today. Minister Moridi was able to interact with SNOLAB students and scientists and see first-hand how Canada is a world leader in innovation.  

At a follow-up event at Science North, Minister Moridi announced a Provincial Investment of $28.8 Million over the next five years. This investment, along with the in-kind support from Vale, represents a direct investment into Sudbury, creating jobs and economic impact for the community.  

“SNOLAB is a world-renowned underground laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics, and our government is proud to continue supporting this important research. Through investments in facilities like SNOLAB, Ontario is paving the way for future discoveries that can add to our understanding of the universe, as well as strengthening our province’s competitive edge.” says Reza Moridi, Minister of Research, Innovation and Science. 

These funds will be used to employ the 96 staff at SNOLAB and support the operations and maintenance of our world-leading facilities, allowing Canadian researchers and their international partners to undertake world-class research in astroparticle physics, nuclear and particle physics, astronomy, genomics and mining innovation. The SNOLAB community currently has almost 500 faculty, scientists and technical support persons from 70 institutions all over the world.   

“SNOLAB is really delighted to be the recipient of continued operational funding from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science” said Dr. Nigel Smith, Executive Director of SNOLAB. “Coupled with support from the federal government and in-kind support from Vale, our mining hosts, the $28.8M award from MRIS will allow continued operations at SNOLAB over the next five years. This will allow us to attract and support world-leading experiments and researchers to Northern Ontario.” 

Since inception of the MSI (Major Science Initiatives) program, the Province of Ontario has invested almost $46 million in SNOLAB. The funding announced today will sustain scientific excellence at SNOLAB and ensure the facility maintains its role as a leader in the global deep underground research community.  

“The provincial support for operations is crucial to Ontario’s leadership in high impact fundamental research, the long-term competitiveness of Canada’s research facilities and affiliated universities such as Queen’s,” says John Fisher, Interim Vice-Principal (Research). “The work happening at SNOLAB has, and will continue to have, a real and substantial impact on how we detect and understand the fundamental components of our universe, with a remarkable potential for wide spread impact.” 

Minister Moridi also had the chance to interact with a group of students from École Secondaire Catholique Père-René-de-Galinée from Cambridge, Ontario, who were working with SNOLAB scientists on an experiment they developed that won them an international competition.   

About SNOLAB
SNOLAB is an underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in the Vale Creighton Mine located near Sudbury Ontario Canada, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities constructed for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment. The facility is operated by the SNOLAB Institute whose member institutions are Carleton University, Laurentian University, Queen’s University, University of Alberta and Université de Montréal.  
For more information on SNOLAB visit the website at www.snolab.ca  

For more information:
Samantha Kuula
Communications Officer
SNOLAB
(705) 692-7000 x2222
Samantha.Kuula@snolab.ca