Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

The Sarnia-Lambton area's economic activities have been historically known for being based in agriculture and the chemical industries. Recently there has been significant effort to diversify the local economy by utilizing the Sarnia-Lambton's industry and creating a ""Biohybrid and Chemistry Cluster"". Following the local economic strategy, Lambton College as the only post-secondary institution in the area recognized applied research support in the area of bioindustrial technology and water and wastewater was a necessary component in attracting new companies to the biohybrid and chemistry cluster and supporting their commercialization and development needs. As part of this regional initiative, the College established the ""Bioindustrial Process Research Centre (BPRC)"" and the ""Lambton Water Centre (LWC)"" through NSERC-IE grants to collaborates with industrial partners to conduct applied research focused on bioindustrial processes as well as water and wastewater technologies. The BPRC and LWC currently has more then 20? ongoing projects from across the region and province. However, the initial equipment allocation and acquisition through the BPRC and LWC is not sufficient to meet some of the goals of the current projects and also is a constraint on developing new projects and partnerships. High Performing Liquid chromatography with Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-MS) has been identified as the biggest need for 6 projects at this time. Lambton College does not have this equipment in house. The lack of HPLC-MS has limited research service provided through the? BPRC and LWC to our partners. This proposal aims to fill the infrastructure gap for the BPRC and LWC to meet the needs of on-going and future applied research projects. The Equipment to be purchased with the proposal funding will be located in our Bio Analytical Laboratory and used by both the BPRC and LWC for our many ongoing and under development projects.