Outcomes of the MRM Emergency Fund
We are delighted to inform you that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MRM Network has succeeded to reorganize its budget to develop an Emergency Fund to provide immediate support to the MRM investigators and its affiliated core facilities.
Over $100,000 in funds have been distributed among three original programs:
- The MRM emergency laboratory fund
- The MRM support program for affiliated core facilities
- The MRM support program for Canadian Stem Cell Network Grant Applications
The MRM emergency laboratory fund
Knowing that postdoctoral fellows and graduate students are amongst those most affected by the suspension of research activities on campus, the MRM Network launched a call for principal investigators, members of the MRM, in urgent need for operating funds geared towards maintaining students and postdocs whose stipends or fellowship has ended during the crisis.
We were able to provide two MRM Researchers with the equivalent of one-month salary for one of their employees.
The MRM support program for affiliated core facilities
In addition, the MRM Network has decided to help MRM-affiliated core facilities to purchase or develop tools to help remote work for staff and users (e.g. bioinformatics software, web interface…) or to help cover unexpected costs of the coming reopening of the cores (e.g. specific reagents, unaccounted servicing of equipments, etc.).
We were happy to contribute to the project of 11 affiliated core facilities across the entire McGill campus:
- Advanced BioImaging (ABIF) – Life Sciences Complex
- Early Drug Discovery Unit (EDDU) – The Neuro
- Flow Cytometry Innovation Platform – Goodman Cancer Research Centre
- Histology Innovation Platform – Goodman Cancer Research Centre
- Imaging and Molecular Biology Platform (IMBP) – Pharmacology & Therapeutics
- Infection and Inflammation Core – McGill University Research Centre on Complex Traits
- Human Islet Transplant Laboratory – RI-MUHC
- McGill Integrated Core for Animal Modeling (MICAM) – Goodman Cancer Research Centre
- McGill Platform for Cellular Perturbation (MPCP) – Goodman Cancer Research Centre
- Single Cell Imaging and Mass Cytometry Analysis Platform (SCIMAP) – Goodman Cancer Research Centre
- Surface Plasmon Resonance – Mass Spectrometry (SPR-MS) Facility – Pharmacology & Therapeutics
The MRM support program for Canadian Stem cell Network Grant Applications
Lastly, we have partnered with MRM members applying to the Stem Cell Network National Research Competition by providing in-kind support for all six MRM members applying to this program. In addition, for the 4 researchers that have applied to the Innovation Research Program for early-career investigators, we have committed to fund half-studentships of a value of $10,000 for each successful application.