A new $10-million project, shared by The University of Western Ontario and McMaster University to reserve Ontario artifacts and create digitized images, will get underway after the provincial government promised $4 million towards its completion.
With Western’s portion of the funding (approximately $7 million), an 11,000-square-foot facility will be attached to the current Western-based Ontario Museum of Archeology off Wonderland Road.
Neal Ferris
The 11,000-square-foot facility, believed to be the first of its kind, will be attached to the current Western-based Ontario Museum or Archeology.
About 8,000 square feet of the new structure will be for storage, with the rest for classes and digital labs.
Construction will begin in the spring or summer of 2010.
While the storage space will preserve objects collected in southern Ontario, often gathered before highway and housing projects are built, the project takes archeology a major step farther.
With about 30 researchers participating in this project, Western’s Lawson Chair in Canadian Archeology, Neal Ferris, says objects and collections will be converted into digital data which can be accessed online by researchers worldwide.
“We are bringing archeology into the 21st century,” says Ferris, who is cross-appointed to the Ontario Museum of Archeology. “This will be able to put you right into the past by looking at objects in a way you otherwise can’t do. You can see it and play with it around the world.”
Archaeologists and area First Nations will be partners in the research.
Including the archeology building, the Ontario Research Foundation announced Dec. 4 it would provide $19 million to a dozen Western research projects.
The funding – 40 per cent of the projects’ cost – has been matched by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. Western will provide the remaining 20 per cent.
Ferris is one of about 250 researchers at Western who will be supported to varying degrees by the funding.
“This will allow us to do valued-added research at a scale we otherwise couldn’t have done,” says Ferris, noting most artificats are simply stored in warehouses and are not truly accessible.
“It will allow us to collaborate about the past and be able to use this information to learn more and more about our history.”
The work will ensure archaeological collections (field records, artifacts and plant/animal remains) amassed over the years from southern Ontario are collected and consolidated at repositories at Western and McMaster University.
President Amit Chakma says all the projects being funded will provide for infrastructure and allow London and Western to continue its leadership in the area of research.
“This (archeology) is a first-of-its-kind project; a centre where digitally recorded artifacts will not only help us preserve our history, but help us and the world understand our history.”
Other ORF-supported projects (and lead researchers) include:
• Centre for the Study of Biomaterials and Tissue Regeneration – Douglas Hamilton
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The Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) Dome – Horia Hangan
• Improving Testing to Diagnose Genetically Inherited Disease/Disorders and Cancer – Joan Knoll
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Molecular and Behavioural Genetics Laboratory – Amanda J. Moehring
• Nanobeam Materials Analyser for Probing Planetary Evolution and Resources (NanoMAPPER) – Desmond Moser
• Image-Guided Minimally Invasive Intervention and Simulation – Terry Peters
• A Laboratory for Investigating the Role of Fetal Programming In Metabolic Syndrome – Timothy Regnault
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Chromosomal and Point Mutation Discovery and Interpretation in the Post-Genome Sequencing Era: Tools for Bioinformatic And Genomic Analysis – Peter Rogan
• Using Advanced Light Sources to Better Understand Nanostructures – T.K. Sham
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Translational Imaging Centre for Cardiovascular Outcome Research (TRICORE) – Samuel Siu
• Facility For Stable Isotope Analysis (Facsia) Of Modern And Ancient Biogeochemical Cycles In The Global Environment – Elizabeth A. Webb and Neil Banerjee