Western researchers have been awarded a total of $3.4 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to help meet Canada’s urgent challenges. The funded projects address areas in need of innovative solutions, including health care for an aging population, next-generation communication systems and environmental sustainability amid climate change.
The investment comes through the CFI’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), which will fuel 14 projects at Western. Among them is an initiative led by geography and environment professor Geneviève Metson, who will create two interconnected labs: a conventional lab for chemical analysis and a living lab on campus. Both labs will work together to reduce the ecological risk of an otherwise beneficial environmental initiative – urban agriculture.
While urban gardens feed communities, build social cohesion and recycle organic material, they might also inadvertently contaminate waterways. Metson is working to mitigate the risk by understanding how nutrients move from soil to waterways, and how that process is affected by the climate.
“The project looks at cities, nutrient cycling and climate change all in one dynamic way,” she said.
“We want to work with real people on real problems in real settings. It’s a lot messier, but we’re in a climate emergency now, and we need to experiment, monitor and course-correct in real-time, learning as we go to find the solutions we need.” – Geneviève Metson, professor of geography and environment
The living lab will comprise two garden plots adjacent to Western’s existing community gardens. Student groups and faculty associations will farm the plots, making their own decisions about planting and management. Metson’s team will track how essential nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus move through the urban agricultural system, using sophisticated equipment to monitor water and nutrient flows at multiple soil depths.
Geneviève Metson (Danielle Petti/Western Visual Arts)
The research addresses a critical challenge: Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential nutrients for growing food, but when they escape into lakes and rivers in high amounts, they cause algal blooms toxic to human and animal health, especially in the nearby Great Lakes. They can also lead to oxygen-depleted dead zones in waterways worldwide.
“It’s not that nitrogen and phosphorus are pollutants we need to avoid. They’re resources we need to manage judiciously, and that can be difficult in urban gardening where the primary purpose might be social cohesion,” Metson said.
Urban gardeners often use recycled materials like manure or plant compost, which can create unexpected problems despite good intentions, she added.
“The nutrients in those materials can be leached or run off. The nutrient ratios in recycled materials don’t always match what plants need, leading to over-application and increased runoff,” she said. “That makes it more likely they’ll be lost from the system and potentially cause damaging effects downstream.”
Urban agriculture project will include visual arts element
The newly funded project builds on Metson’s earlier research in Sweden, where her team revealed a surprising finding.
“The majority of these nutrient losses are not actually happening when people are in the garden applying fertilizers and nutrients,” she said. “It happens during the winter and in the spring before people start planting, during freeze-thaw events. It’s actually quite a dynamic time.”
Metson’s research will collect data over the next five years, noting effects of the changing climate on agricultural systems. The on-campus location allows researchers to monitor year-round and respond quickly to important weather events, capturing data during storms and temperature swings that are intensifying with climate change.
Professor Geneviève Metson’s team will track how essential nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus move through two garden plots adjacent to Western’s existing community gardens, using sophisticated equipment to monitor water and nutrient flows at multiple soil depths. (L to R) PhD student Natalie Scola and Metson. (Danielle Petti/Western Visual Arts)
“The data will help us create best management practices to limit the losses of essential nutrients.”
Beyond the five-year plan, Metson’s vision is for the work to inform nutrient management practices across various urban green spaces, while training students for future sustainability work. She is particularly excited about broader possibilities for collaboration.
“Once we have this beautiful setup with all this equipment, we might also be able to look at biodiversity, crop responses and the use of biochar, bringing on other faculty members or interest groups to do research with us and find best practices,” she said.
The project is interdisciplinary, an approach Metson considers necessary to tackle environmental crises. With an appreciation for the value of merging art and science, she has hired visual arts PhD student Danielle Petti to document the living lab process. Metson is also seeking artists to create a mural for the site’s fence, with plans for an exhibit of the collaborative work at Cohen Commons in September 2026.
“It’s so important that we do rigorous science – and it also needs to connect with people and place in new ways.”
Other JELF projects at Western
adam bell, Faculty of Music
$133,447
Western accessible instruments lab
People with disabilities often face barriers to making and performing music due to inaccessible instruments and venues. The Western Accessible Instruments Lab (WAIL) will work with musicians facing these barriers to create inclusive instruments, teaching methods and spaces where everyone can learn, play and share music.
Robyn Klein, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
$800,000
Emerging RNA viruses’ impact on brain function
Some viruses like West Nile, Zika and COVID-19 can trigger lasting memory problems by causing inflammation in the brain, even after the virus is gone. This research seeks to uncover how immune responses affect brain function and find new ways to detect and treat these memory-related diseases.
Angela Roberts, Faculty of Health Sciences
$178,085
Advancing innovations in social communication in aging and dementia through technology-based outcomes and interventions
As more people live longer, understanding why some older adults stay mentally sharp while others develop dementia is crucial. This research will develop tools to support communication for people with brain diseases and explore how lifestyle and social factors can protect brain health as we age.
David Seminowicz, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry
$260,549
A pain research suite
About 8 million Canadians live with chronic pain. The mechanism underlying how pain works in the brain is not fully understood, making chronic pain disorders difficult to treat. This project will use advanced testing tools to study pain responses in people and animals, helping researchers find better ways to diagnose and treat pain disorders.
Robert Buchkowski, Faculty of Science
$187,741
Gas flux measurements to animate carbon and nitrogen cycling models
This research explores how animals affect carbon movement in soil and how that changes with climate. By collecting soil gas data and studying interactions between animals, plants and microbes, scientists aim to improve models that help predict and manage ecosystem changes.
Scott Connors, Faculty of Social Science
$42,152
Consumer and Organizational Behaviour (COB) Lab
This project studies how people behave as consumers and workers, with the aim of improving business practices and consumer well-being, while promoting fairness and sustainability. A new lab will use advanced tools to better understand human decision-making in both the marketplace and workplaces.
Emily Day, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry
$142,460
Investigating the impact of cellular stress response pathways on whole-body metabolism
Obesity causes long-term inflammation that may affect how the body uses energy. This research will track metabolism and activity in lab settings to uncover how inflammation contributes to obesity and help develop better treatments and public health strategies.
Christopher Power, Faculty of Engineering
$198,560
Non-invasive geophysical monitoring of geo-environmental processes
Traditional methods for studying underground pollution are expensive and limited. This research uses advanced imaging techniques that are more cost-effective to get a clearer picture of what’s happening below the surface. These tools will help scientists monitor environmental changes and safeguard the natural environment.
HaoTian Shi, Faculty of Engineering
$266,884
A fabrication and characterization platform for AI-driven design of personalized electronic skins
Canada’s aging population faces increasing health-care challenges and costs that could be mitigated with preventive technologies and early diagnostics. This research is using AI-driven design to create skin-like wearable devices called bioelectronics. These sensors support personalized health care by continually monitoring signals like heart rate and sweat to detect disease early in older adults.
Stephanie Bishop, Schulich
$307,799
High resolution mass spectrometer for mapping host-microbe metabolism
This research uses a technique called metabolomics to study how our bodies and microbes interact, helping to find warning signs of disease and new ways to treat infections. By analyzing thousands of samples, the team hopes to improve care for kidney disease patients and develop better drugs and vaccines for illnesses like gonorrhea and tuberculosis.
Evan Bowness, Faculty of Social Science
$64,000
The Fostering Resilience through Audiovisual Media and Engaged Scholarship (FRAMES) Collaboration Space
The FRAMES lab combines video, photography and mapping tools with community collaboration to highlight the voices of people most affected by climate change. By working with global partners, the lab engages communities to create powerful stories that inform policy, support sustainability and promote equity.
Fang Fang, Faculty of Engineering
$235,359
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Empowered Smart Radio Environment for AI-Driven Next Generation Wireless Networks
As billions of devices connect to the internet, this research aims to build smarter, faster and more energy-efficient wireless networks using new technologies and artificial intelligence. These innovations will support things like smart cities and self-driving cars, helping Canada lead in next-generation communication systems.
Morgan Gustison, Faculty of Social Science
$316,160
Small-world systems for AI-enhanced analysis of naturalistic behaviour and underlying brain activity
To better understand how animals behave and how their brains work, researchers are building a high-tech lab that can monitor animals around the clock and analyze behaviours at new levels of complexity. This will help scientists improve the quality of data and process complex datasets to make new discoveries in neuroscience.
