“ AESN …has allowed us to begin building multi-disciplinary collaborations across the region that have a common focus and goal. …there is genuine interest to move forward to establish some long term research activities. As one example, AESN provides the backbone to a $2.4 million CIHR Centre for Research Development infrastructure grant involving many Atlantic academic institutional and governmental partners . With these funds in place, two subsequent major grants have already been submitted and more are in the development phase. We have also been able to support graduate students to pursue their thesis research"

“I am extremely grateful to Environment Canada for their foresight and innovation establishing the Atlantic Environmental Sciences Network It has allowed collaborations to happen that would never have happened without this leadership. At the recent meeting in March 2005, I was very impressed with the significant progress of all the AESN working groups and the millions of dollars of funding received to multiple recipients.”

Dr. Judith Guernsey, Associate Professor, Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University

*Subsequently funded at $2.4 million; established 6 Atlantic nodes.

TESTIMONIALS: UNIVERSITY

"The Atlantic Environmental Sciences Network (AESN) has been an extremely important tool and facilitation network for our laboratory … led to two successful awards ($226,248 for three years; $198,300. for three years) from the CFCAS awarded to members of the Environmental Sciences Research Centre (EESL) in July 2002.

These grants coupled to ESRC members’ NSERC Discovery grants and continuous support from AESN have allowed ESRC to secure a $3,000,000 award from AIF (ACOA) beginning in April 1^st, 2004 until March 30^th 2009,  for the creation of a “Climate and Biogeochemistry Research Centre” named ESRC. The center with a budget of near $5,000,000 will serve as the core for the creation of a permanent center for research in environmental sciences in Atlantic Canada.

 This continuous funding has allowed for the retention of two faculty members at St. FX and the hiring of three PostDoctoral Fellows. Two of these PDFs hold now faculty positions at our institution. In addition we have recruited three Ph.D. students ( through Dalhousie and UQAM) . Two of the Ph.D. students are supported by NSERC (One PGS-B and one Canada Graduate Scholarship in addition to CFS supplements). Our laboratory hosts eight (6) MSc. S tudents, two senior technical and support staff positions, and four technicians.

In January 2005, Dr. Lisa Kellman, director of ESRC, was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Sciences. The $500,000 award and accompanying $120,000 from CFI are a recognition of her efforts on behalf of Environmental Sciences and of the contributions from our group.

This summer our laboratory will house 20 researchers, including two visiting professors. All these activities would not have been possible without AESN support.”

Dr. Hugo Beltrami  Professor, Department of Earth Sciences Saint Francis Xavier University

"AESN provides a valuable forum where industry, researchers, federal and provincial governments can collaborate on setting priorities for research on environmental issues using a science based approach."

Don Jardine Director of Pollution Prevention PEI Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry

Charlie Riggs, President, Newfoundland and Labrador Environmental Industries

“It has been identified in studies carried out by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency that research and development partnerships involving industry and research institutionsare the most successful in terms of developing new technology and in building capacity that leads to economic development. It has also been identified in the same studies, and in recent work carried by the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, that the volume of these type of projects in Atlantic Canada is very low relative to the rest of the country. While the volume of industry/university collaborative projects is low, Atlantic Canada has both a highly skilled and capable environment industry and excellent research facilities with renowned researchers working on environmental projects. Industry is very interested in mechanisms and processes that will improve communication with research institutions and facilitate research and development partnerships with Atlantic universities and the research community. Our involvement in the Atlantic Environment Science Network is beginning to lead to an increase in these partnerships and to enhanced economic development in the region. Projects in the environmental science area also have great potential to improve protection of the environment in Atlantic Canada and drive progressive environmental policy that will result in a further increase in technology development. The technologies developed in collaboration with research institutions not only improve our local environment but also result in new exports of Canadian technology and new revenue in our economy.”

“As a community group, Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) has received real and tangible benefits from its involvement in the AESN.  CARP has established strong connections with social scientists, and environmental economists together with numerous other researchers in the biophysical fields.  Through these rich cross linkages, long lasting working relationships will result.  The success of the CURA proposal will have widespread benefits for community groups across the region and country, in the effective management of water resources.  The project will result in significant boost to CARP’s efforts to bring the necessary partners and expertise to bear on moving ahead with the sustainable management of the Annapolis Watershed.” 

Andy Sharpe, Science Coordinator, Clean Annapolis River Project ACAP