Congratulations to the Internal Research Grant Fund (IRGF) winners! IRGF is designed to support eligible faculty in developing their research programs through pilot projects, large-scale applications, and other projects qualified for internal research funds. See program guidelines and submission requirements for more information on how you can qualify.
For reporting and impact assessment purposes, final reports submitted by principal investigators on completed projects will now be posted on this page. They outline what the project outcomes were and how the Principal Investigator used their funds.
Winter 2025 Award Recipients
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew McLarnon | Better Together? Exploring Combinations of Leadership Styles Using a Person-Centered Approach | $7,000 |
| Leanna Ireland | Exploring the intersectional complexities when using social media to identify perpetrators of gender-based violence | $7,000 |
| Cheryl Techentin | The perception of sarcastic cues in persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder | $7,000 |
| Mauricio Latapi | CSR and Sustainability Reporting in the Maritime Sector: an analysis of Chinese shipping companies operating in European waters | $7,000 |
| Kevin Hayes | Hydraulic oil infiltration into the drinking water of commercial aircraft: An assessment of chemical contamination | $7,000 |
| Margaret Stewart | Critical mineral endowment in volcanogenic massive sulphide systems | $7,000 |
| Uthpala Senarathne Tennakoon | Mindful ICT Use: Design and Validation of a Framework for Future Research | $7,000 |
| Said Baadel | Leveraging ML to Transform Febrile Disease Diagnosis in Resource-Limited and Vulnerable African Countries | $7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Carol Armstrong | Stripes in the cerebellum: exploring a new model | $7,000 |
|
Breda Eubank Jared Fletcher (Co-Investigator) |
Development of a high-fidelity computerized decision support system for a provincial shoulder clinical care pathway (MAP SHOULDER) | $7,000 |
|
Peter Choate Christina Tortorelli (Co-Investigator) |
The narrative experiences of mothers impacted by birth alerts: An exploratory study |
$7,000 |
|
Sandra Goldsworthy Nabil Rombough (Co-Investigator) Sylwia Ciezar Andersen (Co-Investigator) Patricia Prince (Co-Investigator) |
The impact of pet therapy on anxiety reduction among undergraduate and graduate nursing students |
$7,000 |
|
Heather MacLean Roberta Catena (Co-Investigator) |
Exploring Cross Cultural Undergraduate Nursing Students Understanding of Team Communication and Patient Safety in Virtual Simulation | $7,000 |
| Roberta Lexier | Encampments on Campus: Pro-Palestinian Occupations at Canadian Universities | $7,000 |
|
Michele Wellsby Cass Foursha-Stevenson (Co-Investigator) |
Auditory Versus Articulatory Word Learning | $7,000 |
| Lauren Dwyer | Shaping Agency: The Effect of User Communication Styles on Autonomy and Decision Support in Intelligent Conversation Agent Interactions | $7,000 |
| Gabriel Jarry-Bolduc | Implementing derivative-free optimization techniques in the open-source programming language called Python | $7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Trevor King | The cardiorespiratory response to exercise in wildfire smoke | $7,000 |
| Dylan Webb | Towards Sustainable Organometallics: Synthesis of Complexes Bearing Cannabinoid Derived Ligands | $7,000 |
| Elisabeth Richardson | Comparative genomics of lipid droplet-associated genes across eukaryotic diversity | $7,000 |
| Yasaman Amannejad | Studying Performance of Split and Federated Distributed Machine Learning Models | $7,000 |
| Jennifer Scott | Environmental change and early hominins in rift-valley lakes of the Baringo Basin, Kenya | $7,000 |
| Robin Owen | Phorid fly parasitism of bumble bees (Bombus spp.) in southern Alberta | $7,000 |
| Tatiana Rogasevskaia | The role of the novel NCKX5 protein in skin pigmentation |
$7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giuliana Harvey | Understanding the Meaning of Psychological Harm Experienced by Undergraduate Nursing Students in Simulation | $7,000 | Final Report |
| Khosro Salmani | Canada Privacy Label for IoT Devices: Designing Transparency for Digital Trust | $7,000 | |
| Jared Fletcher | The efficiency of performing mechanical joint work in vivo | $7,000 | |
| Antoine Eche | The Circulation of Knowledge in the Eighteenth Century: An Examination of the Role of French Translations of Travel Books | $7,000 | Final Report |
| Maxime Lamoureux-St-Hilaire | The Dolores Slow Archaeology Project | $7,000 | Final Report |
| Muhannad Ayyash | From 'Indigeneity' to 'Arrivants': Palestinian-Canadian Solidarities Towards Indigenous Political Activism in Canada | $7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeella Acedo | Characterization of a Novel Antimicrobial from Streptococcus Mitis | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Nick Strzalkowski | The Impact of Hypoxia on Standing Balance Following Visual and Vestibular Perturbations | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Paul Johnston | Finding Fault - Implications of Fault-Controlled Eruptive Muds on Animal Communities of the Burgess Shale | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Eric Chalmers | Building a Brain-Inspired Artificial Intelligence to Model Human Learning and Disorders | $10,000 | |
| Benjamin Daniels | Paleogeographic Reconstruction of Southern Alberta During the Early Cretaceous Epoch: Implications for Subsurface Reservoir Characterization | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Rebecca Gilmour | Preparing a Large Roman Period Skeletal Collection from Austria for Curation at Mount Royal University | $5,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Janet Miller | Listening to Lived Experience - Stories of Identity from those Living with Chronic Pain | $5,000 |
| Charlotte Curtis | Curating and Tagging a Database of Digital Sewing Patterns |
$5,000 |
| Mohamed El-Hussein | Barriers and Facilitators to Collaborative Care that Midwives Encounter in the Provision of Care for High-Risk Pregnancies and Childbirth in Alberta | $10,000 |
| Robert Catena | Speaking Up for Success: A Pilot Project using Simulation Based Education to Support Healthcare Teams with Communication Skills to Facilitate Patient Safety | $7,346 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Karen Ho | Strategies to Facilitate a Meaningful Reflection on Post-Secondary Students in a Community Service Learning Water Project | $5,000 |
| Maria Teresa Grillo Arbulu | Imaginary Communities: Textual Representations of Community and Nation in Colonial and Contemporary Peru. |
$3,000 |
| Jeff Pollock | Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geological Stroage by Mineral Carbonation | $5,000 |
| Jared Flecther | Relative Muscle Fascicle Length and the Energy Cost of Cyclic Contractions | $5,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Khosro Salmani | A Lesson for the Future: Will You Let Me Violate Your Privacy to Save Your Life? | $5,000 |
| Michelle Veitch | The Drake Hotel, Art Spaces and Urban Cultures |
$5,000 |
| Faith-Michael Uzoka | Development of an E-Health System for Improving Health Care Access in Developing Countries | $5,000 |
| Jonathan Mee | Identifying Barriers to Research Diversity in the Faculty of Science and Technology, Mount Royal University | $5,000 |
| Sarah Orton | Intergenerational Trauma in FASD: What is the Evidence for the Role of Epigenetics? | $7,500 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Cass Foursha-Stevenson | Lexical Acquisition in a Second Language: Strategy Effectivity | $5,000 |
| Jennifer Scott | A New Climate Archive with Organic-Rich Deep-Lake Deposits in West-Central Alberta ~75–72 Million Years Ago |
$5,000 |
| Jeella Acedo | Characterization of the Putative Antimicrobial Peptide, VigA | $5,000 |
| Melanie Peacock | Behind the Badge: Exploring Unionized Officers’ Competency Development. | $10,000 |
| Brent Oliver | HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: Exploring the Experiences of Gay, Bisexual, and other Men who have Sex with Men with Treatment as Prevention. | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Ines Sametband | Overcoming Cultural Blindness in Family Therapy: Exploring Opportunities for Relational Wellness | $5,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Catherine Carter-Snell | Understanding Stress, Coping and Resiliency in Nursing Students and New Graduates | $10,000 |
| Aliyah Dosani | Psychometric Analysis of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Pregnancy Related Anxiety Scale, and Perceived Stress Scale in a Sample of Pakistani Women – A Pilot Study | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Tim Haney | The Ethics, Practice, Activism, and Resilience Potential of Permaculture | $5,000 |
| Jared Fletcher | Quantifying Skeletal Muscle Fatigue in Collegiate Athletes | $5,000 |
| Naomi Grant | Savouring and Music: The Impact of Perceived Temporal Scarcity | $5,000 |
| Natalie Badenduck | The Definition, Utilization and Perception of Design Concept in Interior Design Education and Practice | $5,000 |
| David Clemis | The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected and Anatomised: Intoxication and Addiction in Early Modern England | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Trevor Day | The Sherpa Spleen Study: The effects of superimposed exercise and high altitude ascent on splenic contraction and increases in oxygen-carrying capacity in native highlanders | $10,000 |
| Roberta Lexier | Disrupting the Disciplines: Confronting Colonial Complicity | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Mark Ayyash | Violence, Sovereignty, and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict | $5,000 |
| Patricia M. Derbyshire | Kunaitupii Curriculum Project: Trauma Wisdom 'Inside & Out' - Indigo Program | $5,000 |
| Ashok Krishnamurthy | Spatial Tracking of the Current Ebola Outbreak in Congo | $5,000 |
| Jonathan Mee | Susceptibility of Spined and Unspined Book Stickleback (Culaea Inconstans) to Fish Predation | $5,000 |
| Tracy Powell | Understanding the Experiences of Bereaved Family Members in the Context of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Katharine McGowan | Bringing Voice Back to the Land: Exploring the Possibilities for a Treaty 7 Learning Experience | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Yasaman Amannejad | Predicting Execution Time of Big Data Analytic Applications | $5,000 |
| Carol Armstrong | The Effect of Vitamins on Calcium Expression in Cerebellar Neurons | $5,000 |
| Anupam Das | Was There a Transformation in Economic Ideology Between 1970 and 2000? A Social Network Analysis | $5,000 |
| Ran Ju | The Status of Social Media Research in Public Relations: A Content Analysis of Scholarly Journal Articles from 2006-2018 | $5,000 |
| Alain Morin | Translation, Administration, and Validation of Two New Inner Speech Measures in Spanish and Basque | $5,000 |
| Scott Murray | Holocaust Survivor Testimony in the Digital Age | $5,000 |
| Irene Shankar | Post-Secondary Institutions' Policies on Sexualized Violence: Investigating (under) Utilization of Expert Knowledge and Research | $5,000 |
| Deepali Upadhyaya | Essential Elements of an Indigenous Informed Curriculum for Baccalaureate Midwifery Education in Alberta | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Samanti Kulatilake | Ancient Peruvian DNA: Let the Mummies Speak | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Randy Connolly | Investigating the Link Between Flourishing and Engagement with Digital Citizenship Activities | $5,000 |
| Mohammed El Hazzouri | Why Us?! Ethnic Minority Members' Reactions to Public Health Advertising Featuring Their Own Ethnic Group | $5,000 |
| Sally Haney | Filling the Local News Gap: Phase 2 - A Study Examining the Potential for Canadian Collegiate Journalism Publications to Serve Local News Needs | $8,000 |
| David Ohreen | Peer-Influence on Business Ethics Education | $4,500 |
| Dwayne Sheehan | Using Aerial Videography to Assess Outdoor Park Physical Activity | $5,000 |
| Kimberly Williams | Booze, Broads & Brothels, Phase 2: A Digital History Archive of People, Places, and Spaces of Calgary's Sex Industry | $5,00 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Sutherland | The EMI Music Canada Collection and the Canadian Music Industry | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan Ackroyd | Synthesis and Characterization of Sunscreen-Containing Spherical Polymers for Potential Use as Wash-On Sunscreens | $5,000 |
| Jim Brenan | Jim Brenan Tentet Recording Project: The Intersection Between Thad Jones and Doobie Powell | $5,000 |
| Brett McCollum | Longevity of Confidence, Skill, and Professional Identity from Disciplinary Communication Practice | $5,000 |
| Archie McLean | Indigenous Airwaves: Surveying the Reach and Relevance of Indigenous Language Broadcasting in Canada | $4,000 |
| Heather Ray | Mind Power: A Mindful-Based Health Promotion Program for University Students | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Lynn Lafave | Predictive Validity of CHEERS to Assess the Physical Activity Environment in Child Care | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Harris Rubin | Emotions in the Workplace | |
| Michael Hawley | Sikhs in Calgary: Migration History and Narrative | |
| Sean Holman | At the Mountains of Revolution: Progressive Conservative MP Gerald Baldwin's Unfinished Campaign for Freedom of Information in Canada (1971-1983) | $5,000 |
| Kenna Olsen | Emerging Medievalisms: Method, Media, Manuscript | $5,000 |
| Dwayne Sheehan | Physiological and Neuromuscular Responses at Critical Skating Intensity on Slide Board and Correlation with Speed Skating Performance on Ice | $5,000 |
| Cliff Werier | Preparing Much Ado About Nothing for the Internet Shakespeare Editions |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name |
|---|---|
| Dorothy Hill | Field Test of a Geospatial Mobile Application for Collecting Nest Box Monitoring Data in Citizen Science Projects |
| Mary-Lee Mulholland | Martial Ats, Gender and Performance |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Genevieve Currie | Children Living with a Rare Disease: The Parent's Perspective | $4,900 |
| Anupam Das | Dynamics of Remittances and Exchange Rates in Bangladesh: Is there a 'Paradox of Gift'? | $5,000 |
| Malinda Desjarlais | An Investigation of the Relation between Social-based Technology Use and Social Competence | |
| Carmen Nielsen | Studying the Trans-imperial Politics of Fashion, 1873-1894 | $5,000 |
| Peter Ryan | Media Visibility, Policy Silence? Trudeau's PMO Shift from Speeches to Statements | $4,800 |
| Jennifer Scott | Continued Hot-Spring Input to the Green River Lake Margin During Active Mountain Building at North Barrel Springs, Wyoming | $5,000 |
| Cheryl Techentin | Does Space Matter? Simultaneous Processing of Verbal and Emotional Information in a Normal-Hearing and Deaf Sample | $5,000 |
| Michelle Veitch | Skwachàys Lodge and Residence: A Case Study of an Urban Art Hotel in Vancouver |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Christy Tomkins-Lane | Personalized Physical Activity Recommendations for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis using a Pebble Smart-Watch: App Development and Pilot | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| John Chik | Examining the Effects of Osmotic Crowding on Pre-Steady State Enzyme Kinetics | $5,000 |
| Julie Cormack | MPP Lithic Analysis and Student Training | |
| Trevor Day | Development of Portable Measurements of Adaptation to High Altitude in Humans | $5,000 |
| Sonya Jakubec | Green Generations: A Participatory Community Garden Development and Horticulture Therapy Intervention Project for Intergenerational Community Engagement | |
| Lynne Lafave | Reliability of CHEERS Tool for Internet Use | $5,000 |
| Jessie Loyer | Michel First Nation Oral History | $5,000 |
| Francine May | Text Matching Software and the Student Experience | |
| Brett McCollum | Interinstitutional Disciplinary Language Development | |
| Milena Radzikowska | Materializing Text Analytical Experiences | |
| Dwayne Sheehan | A Correlation Study of the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy and the Revised Test of Gross Motor Development | $5,000 |
| Uthpala Tennakoon | Tracing the Return on Investment of Life-Friendly Work Practices: A Multi-Level Analysis | |
| Faith-Michael Uzoka | Development and Evaluation of a Soft-Computing System for the Differential Diagnosis of Tropical Confusable Diseases Using the Fuzzy Cognitive Map Technique | |
| Norm Vaughan | Blended Learning: Design to Evaluation - International Case Studies of Evidence-Based Practice | $5,000 |
| Kimberly Williams | Booze & Brothels? Rethinking the People, Places, and Politics of Calgary's Sex Industry | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Mark Lafave | Educating Competent Professionals - Validation of the Mini-CEX for AT | $10,000 |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name |
|---|---|
| Adrienne Benediktson | An Examination of Dendritic Spine Morphology and Density in a Mouse Model of MS |
| Yasmin Dean | Beyond the Tourist's Gaze |
| Cass Foursha-Stevenson | Bilingual Lexical Development |
| Liam Haggarty | Declarations of Dependence: A History of Indigenous Income Assistance in Canada and the United States, 1950-1980 |
| Jarett Henderson | Colonial Queers: Same-Sex Sex, Intimacy, and Colonial Rule in Early Canada |
| Scott Hughes | Playful pedagogy: Teachers' Definitions and Perceptions of Play in Grades 1 and 2 in Public Alberta Schools |
| Emily Hutchison | Policing the Streets of Late Medieval Paris: Promoting Peace or Violence? |
| Paul Johnston | New Fossil Invertebrates from the Clearwater Formation, Northeastern Alberta |
| David Ohreen | Effectiveness of Business Education |
| Jenni Scott | Hydrothermal Fluids and Oil Shale Deposits Through Earth History |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name |
|---|---|
| Peter Choate | Assessing Aboriginal Parents in the Child Protection System: Understanding the Elements of Aboriginal Parenting |
| Julie Cormack | MPP Lithic Analysis and Student Training |
| Anupam Das | Role of ICT Diffustion on Economic Growth in Developing Countries |
| Trevor Day | Development of Portable Measurements of Human Physiology at High Altitude - Nepal 2015 |
| Kirk Niergarth | Canadians in the Soviet Union, 1919-1939 |