Feds announce $28.6M for Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

SNOLAB, Sudbury's underground neutrino laboratory and research facility, will receive $28.6 million from the federal government to strengthen its operations which means employing 96 staff to study neutrinos and dark matter for three more years.

The funding comes through the Foundation for Innovation's Major Science Initiative fund. According to the foundation's website, the MSI fund aims to secure and strengthen national research facilities.

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"This award will enable SNOLAB to maintain and develop its world-leading ability to host world-class experiments in deep underground science," said Ken Peach, Chair of the SNOLAB Board of Directors, "and I look forward to many exciting results over the next five years."

SNOLAB specializesin the research of neutrino and dark matter physics, and hosted the work of Arthur McDonald, who won theNobel Prize for physics in 2015 for his work on the mass of neutrinos.

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The funding will provide some extra stability for thework that goes on at SNOLAB, said director Nigel Smith.

"Coupled with support from the Province of Ontario and in-kind support from Vale, our mining hosts, the $28.6M award from CFI will secure the next three years of operational support for SNOLAB," Smith said in a press release.

"These funds will be used to employ the 96 staff at SNOLAB and support the operations and maintenance of our world-leading facilities, allowing Canadian researchers and their international partners to undertake world-class research into astroparticle physics, nuclear and particle physics, astronomy, genomics and mining innovation."