Federal, provincial and city funding will support new Winnipeg laboratories and equipment for research on functional foods, nutraceuticals and other health products.
The Winnipeg Partnership Agreement this week granted $800,000 to the Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Health and Medicine (CCARM) at St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre.
“The enhanced facility will enable CCARM to expand its research program in the linkages between diet and health, increase collaboration and attract and retain the highly qualified personnel needed for the growing nutraceutical research sector in Canada,” the WPA partners wrote in a release.
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St. Boniface’s executive director of research, Dr. Grant Pierce, said in the release that the WPA funding is “essential” in completing construction of the final two CCARM labs at the research centre.
“These labs will hold clinical trial research activities and also provide a shared lab where CCARM researchers can collaborate in a more efficient, economical and productive fashion than was previously possible,” he said.
“This allows us to advance our research into nutraceuticals and functional foods in a manner that has not been attempted anywhere else in the world.”
The WPA is a five-year, $75 million funding arrangement intended to strengthen city neighbourhoods, boost economic development and also enable the city’s aboriginal citizens to “fully enjoy Winnipeg’s economic and social opportunities.”
