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Centres and institutes

UM facilities used by mining companies, battery researchers and food scientists

$15 million investment will keep research at the cutting-edge.

Estimated Read Time:
1 minute
MSc student “Sathma” Movini Rathnayake Appuhamilage (left) and Dr. Fatema Panahi, Post Doctoral Researcher (right).
MSc student “Sathma” Movini Rathnayake Appuhamilage (left) and Dr. Fatema Panahi, Post Doctoral Researcher (right).
Estimated Read Time:
1 minute

Before a mineral becomes a battery, an alloy becomes an airplane part or a polymer becomes packaging, somebody has to understand those materials inside and out.

That work happens at the Manitoba Institute for Materials (MIM) and Manitoba Isotope Research Facility (MIRF).

MIM and MIRF are shared research facilities at the University of Manitoba that brings together researchers from across disciplines. They house the specialized instruments researchers and companies need to study and test materials at every scale. More than 350 researchers and students use them each year, along with more than 25 companies and organizations.

MIM and MIRF have now received $15 million in renewal funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Research Manitoba. The money will replace and upgrade aging equipment, some of it more than 25 years old and no longer repairable.

 

The work coming out of MIM and MIRF has a track record of reaching industry. 

Mostafa Fayek is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and Director of the MIRF. He developed techniques for locating lithium deposits that were first tested in western China and have since been picked up by Manitoba mining companies including Grid Metals, New Age Metals and Snow Lake Lithium.

Christian Kuss, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, has invented a battery binder that replaces toxic compounds with water in the production process. The technology has led to two patents and is being explored for commercial applications.
 

Man at computer.
Microbeam Lab manager, Dr. Panseok Yang.

Winnipeg startup Precision ADM, co-founded by UM alum Martin Petrak, relies on MIM's equipment for additive manufacturing research. The facility also works alongside the National Research Council's new Additive Manufacturing hub in Winnipeg.

Those are just a few examples. MIM's and MIRF’s tools are used to study plant-based food textures, biodegradable replacements for petroleum-based plastics and the safe long-term storage of nuclear waste.

Without the renewal, MIM and MIRF risked losing capabilities that researchers and industry depend on. With it, the facilities are positioned to support more than $11 billion in commercial activity across Manitoba's mineral exploration, aerospace, battery, vehicle manufacturing and food processing sectors, and to train the next generation of skilled workers where Manitoba needs them most.

Learn about the other successful CFI – Innovation Fund and Research Manitoba projects at UM.

A man in the lab.
Stable Isotope Laboratory Technician, Adam Snyder

Research at the University of Manitoba is partially supported by funding from the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.

By

UM Today Staff