‘Life-saving’ pandemic research gets funding boost: UOttawa, McMaster

The University of Ottawa and McMaster University have received multi-million funding for the Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub.

Building on lessons from COVID-19, the two universities, in partnership with The Ottawa Hospital, co-lead the research hub to prepare for the next pandemic. The hub is one of five across the country at the centre of Canada’s pandemic preparedness. 

The federal government awarded $115 million to the UOttawa and McMaster hub to develop and manufacture “life-saving” vaccines, gene therapies and cell therapies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic showed us all why pandemic readiness is so important,” Matthew Miller, scientific co-lead of the hub and executive director of McMaster’s Global Nexus, said in a press release.

The funding will help Canada prevent and respond to future infectious disease threats, he said.

The funding comes from the Canada Biomedical Research Fund and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund, which aims to fund pandemic preparedness across Canada.