Media releases

• Brock scores high marks on research funding in national report

  Tuesday, January 25, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 25 January 2022 – R0006

  A national company that tracks Canada’s research and development performance has ranked Brock University first place out of 21 universities in its category for corporate research income growth.

  The value of Brock’s research grants and contracts received from corporate sources grew 134.5 per cent from fiscal years 2019 to 2020, says Research Infosource’s latest report, released Tuesday, Jan. 25.

  “Brock is certainly on the right track,” says Ron Freedman, CEO, Research Infosource Inc. “The University has a long history of partnerships with local industry. This year’s result is evidence of that.”

  Brock’s research income totaled more than $15.5 million in 2020, according to the Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities 2021 report.

  Corporate research income, or sponsored research, comes from a variety of sources. Agencies such as Mitacs, FedDev and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Alliance Grants program leverage funding to Brock obtained from the private sector.

  These programs, as well as funding from the Ontario Grape and Wine Research Inc. (OGWRI) and other grants and contracts negotiated between Brock and industry accounted for the rise in sponsored research between 2019 and 2020.

  For Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon, the increase in sponsored research reflects the University “making good on an institutional, shared aspiration.”

  “People come to Brock’s researchers seeking a solution to a specific problem,” he says. “They are looking for support, for partnership, and they find it at Brock. It’s about building bridges and the difference our research makes in our community and beyond.”

  Kenyon says it is important for Brock and other universities to diversify their research funding pool beyond the federal government’s Tri-Agencies: NSERC, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

  The Research Infosource rankings follow Brock’s recent ranking as the best Canadian university for chemical sciences, according to online education platform Erudera. Erudera says it aims to have the largest and most updated database of chemical sciences PhD programs available in Canada, including 64 chemical sciences PhD programs available at 31 schools and universities across the country.

  In the Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities 2021 report, Brock University also scored highly for publication growth.

  In a section of the report called “20-Year University Spotlights,” Brock ranked second place out of 21 universities for international collaboration publication growth, with an 826.9 per cent rise from 2000 to 2019.

  Brock’s total university research publications jumped 308.3 per cent from 2000 to 2019, putting it in third place. Brock ranked fifth for university cross-sector collaboration publication growth, increasing 480 per cent from 2000 to 2019.

  Research Infosource Inc. tracks and ranks research performance in a wide variety of areas in universities, corporations, hospitals and colleges. The research consulting and publishing firm specializes in the areas of policy, research, business intelligence and analysis on science, technology, innovation and the Canadian research and development ecosystem.

  Brock University appears consistently on the yearly Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities List. The firm has placed Brock and other comprehensive universities in the ‘undergraduate’ category based on the proportion of graduate to undergraduate programs.

  In addition to its undergraduate programs, Brock has had graduate programming for more than a decade and offers nearly 50 master’s and doctoral degrees.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Hawk-eyed Niagarans needed to spot crows across the region

  Monday, January 24, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 24 January 2022 – R0005

  Gotta spot ’em all.

  Brock Biological Sciences master’s student Alex Popescu is asking for help from the Niagara community to track crows in the region as part of a new research project.

  To allow the public to note sightings of the birds, he has created a mapping system dubbed Crowkémon Go — a play on the popular Pokémon game that has eagle-eyed players always on alert.

  The project aims to crowdsource the location of the birds, identifying urban and non-urban crow foraging areas during their breeding season between late February and May.

  Ornithophiles can access the map and put a crow icon in locations where either a single crow or a group, known as a murder, has been seen. The goal is to rapidly populate the map so Popescu, who specializes in Ecology and Evolution, can begin studying urbanization-driven changes of social anti-predator behaviour in American crows.

  The map’s description, found under the map’s title, guides users with important information for naming pins before submitting their entry.

  “The experiment will provide insights into behavioural adaptations contributing to the success of crows in urban locations,” said Popescu, who is a member of Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Kiyoko Gotanda’s research group.

  From the crowdsourced data, Popescu will identify experimental sites at a distance from one another to minimize the probability of testing the same crows in their home ranges.

  “I predict that urban crows exhibit more social anti-predator behaviour at lower quantities, densities and quality of food than non-urban crows,” he said.

  The research notes that urbanization is a source of novel stimuli and can cause rapid changes to morphological, physiological and behavioural traits.

  “How crows adapt their social behaviour in urban environments is poorly understood,” said Popescu. “I seek to anticipate how species will respond to the rapid, global increase in urbanization.”

  Synanthropic species like crows have adapted to and benefit from living in close proximity to humans and typically exhibit high levels of behavioural plasticity. The population dynamics of crows are strongly correlated with levels of urbanization and access to anthropogenic resources.

  The apparent success of American crows in urban areas could be attributable to factors such as increased adult survivorship (decreased risk of predation) and access to and preference for anthropogenic food sources (litter, garbage cans and feeders).

  “The abundance and availability of additional food resources in urban areas could affect the trade-off between foraging effectiveness and anti-predator behaviours, such as vigilance,” said Popescu.

  If a crow increases its foraging efforts, it increases its risk of being preyed upon, as it cannot maintain sufficient vigilance, he said.

  Social behaviour, such as foraging in large groups or sentinel behaviour — an individual exhibiting constant vigilance over a foraging group at the cost of not foraging themselves, for example — likely evolved to mitigate the trade-off between foraging and anti-predator behaviour.

  Such behaviours have been observed in many avian and non-avian species, such as meerkats.

  Urbanization can alter the readiness of individuals to participate in social foraging behaviour by lowering the risk of predation and increasing access to anthropogenic food sources.

  “I will quantify the difference in social anti-predator behaviour between urban and non-urban crows by varying the quantity, quality and density of resources in foraging patches,” Popescu said.

  Urban areas can have fewer raptor predators but can also be a source of increased costs, including novel sources of stress, such as noise pollution; mortality, due to factors such as harassment by humans and their pets; and increased competition, including with other synanthropes. This could affect the threshold at which small-group or selfish behaviour is not favourable, provoking a switch in strategies towards social behaviour.

  Faculty of Mathematics and Science Dean Ejaz Ahmed believes the crow-spotting initiative is innovative.

  “Scientists must use data wisely and seek innovative ways to collect that data,” he said. “Alex’s crowdsourcing technique is novel and we look forward to the results from the community.”

  The crow-spotting map is available through Google Maps.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases