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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 2026 Award Recipients
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Jeella Acedo | Mode of Action Studies on the Antimicrobial Peptide, Miticin | $7,000 |
| Ashok Krishnamurthy | CougarStats: Free Statistical Software Supporting Equity at MRU and Beyond | $7,000 |
| Genevieve Currie | The Support Needs of Family Members of Children with Prader Willi Syndrome and Approaches Used to Meet Their Needs: A Scoping Review | $7,000 |
| Carolyn Willekes | The Influence of Equestrian Sport on Cultural Structures in Ancient Greece | $7,000 |
| Leda Stawnychko | Evaluating the Impact of the MRULeads Pilot Program on Faculty Leadership Development | $7,000 |
| Sarah Shah | Toward Robust and Inclusive Multi-Dimensional Evaluation of AI Performance | $7,000 |
| Karen Ho | Learning Through Storytelling: A Mixed-Methods Study of Student Engagement | $7,000 |
| Eunah Kim | The impact of relational AI use on consumers' acceptance of AI-driven marketing messages | $7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Bloch-Hansen |
Experimental Evaluation of Algorithms for the Thief Orienteering Problem |
$7,000 |
| Natalie Badenuck | Design Concepts: An Examination of Creativity, Criticality and Innovation in the Practice of Interior Architecture and Design | $7,000 |
| Gio Dolcecore Celeste Pang (co-investigator) |
TransAthletics: Examining Community and Institutional Impacts of Anti-Transgender Ideologies on Sport in Alberta |
$7,000 |
| Rob Currie-Wood |
From the Grassroots to the Centre: Tracing the Pipeline of Policy Promises in Canadian Political Parties |
$7,000 |
| Maxime Lamoureux-St-Hilaire |
Towards responsible community engagement: transitioning from Phase 1 to 2 of the Dolores Slow Archaeology Program |
$7,000 |
| Richard Hayman |
Including Undergraduate Students as Partners in an Evidence Synthesis of Social Media |
$7,000 |
| Fiona Robinson |
Creative trade-offs in entrepreneurial practice: AI-driven tools vs. human designers |
$7,000 |
| Fatemeh Enayatollahi |
ML-Based Congestion Prediction in Air Cargo Operation Using Multimodal Operational Data |
$7,000 |
| Abdoljalil Addeh |
Sensor-Free Machine Learning for Physiological Correction of Brain Functional Imaging: A Lifespan Pilot Study |
$7,000 |
| Aresh Dadlani |
Beyond Bits: How AI Can Make Wireless Communication More Intelligent and Timely |
$7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew McLarnon | Better Together? Exploring Combinations of Leadership Styles Using a Person-Centred Approach | $7,000 | |
|
Leanna Ireland Scharie Tavcer (Co-Investigator) |
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 Ran Ju (Co-Investigator) |
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 | Final Report |
|
Said Baadel Faith Michael-Uzoka (Co-Investigator) |
Leveraging ML to Transform Febrile Disease Diagnosis in Resource-Limited and Vulnerable African Countries | $7,000 |
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Final Report |
|
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 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 | Final Report |
|
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 | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trevor King | The cardiorespiratory response to exercise in wildfire smoke | $7,000 | Final Report |
| Dylan Webb | Towards Sustainable Organometallics: Synthesis of Complexes Bearing Cannabinoid Derived Ligands | $7,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| Jennifer Scott | Environmental change and early hominins in rift-valley lakes of the Baringo Basin, Kenya | $7,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| 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 |
| Naomi Grant | Basking in Reflected Tragedy in Everyday Life |
$5,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janet Miller | Listening to Lived Experience - Stories of Identity from those Living with Chronic Pain | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Ho | Strategies to Facilitate a Meaningful Reflection on Post-Secondary Students in a Community Service Learning Water Project | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Maria Teresa Grillo Arbulu | Imaginary Communities: Textual Representations of Community and Nation in Colonial and Contemporary Peru. |
$3,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Khosro Salmani | A Lesson for the Future: Will You Let Me Violate Your Privacy to Save Your Life? | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Michelle Veitch | The Drake Hotel, Art Spaces and Urban Cultures |
$5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| Sarah Orton | Intergenerational Trauma in FASD: What is the Evidence for the Role of Epigenetics? | $7,500 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cass Foursha-Stevenson | Lexical Acquisition in a Second Language: Strategy Effectivity | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Jennifer Scott | A New Climate Archive with Organic-Rich Deep-Lake Deposits in West-Central Alberta ~75–72 Million Years Ago |
$5,000 | Final Report |
| Jeella Acedo | Characterization of the Putative Antimicrobial Peptide, VigA | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ines Sametband | Overcoming Cultural Blindness in Family Therapy: Exploring Opportunities for Relational Wellness | $5,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catherine Carter-Snell | Understanding Stress, Coping and Resiliency in Nursing Students and New Graduates | $10,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Haney | The Ethics, Practice, Activism, and Resilience Potential of Permaculture | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Jared Fletcher | Quantifying Skeletal Muscle Fatigue in Collegiate Athletes | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Naomi Grant | Savouring and Music: The Impact of Perceived Temporal Scarcity | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Natalie Badenduck | The Definition, Utilization and Perception of Design Concept in Interior Design Education and Practice | $5,000 | Final Report |
| David Clemis | The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected and Anatomised: Intoxication and Addiction in Early Modern England | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muhannad Ayyash | Violence, Sovereignty, and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| Jonathan Mee | Susceptibility of Spined and Unspined Book Stickleback (Culaea Inconstans) to Fish Predation | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Tracy Powell | Understanding the Experiences of Bereaved Family Members in the Context of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) | $5,000 | Final Report |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katharine McGowan | Bringing Voice Back to the Land: Exploring the Possibilities for a Treaty 7 Learning Experience | $10,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yasaman Amannejad | Predicting Execution Time of Big Data Analytic Applications | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Carol Armstrong | The Effect of Vitamins on Calcium Expression in Cerebellar Neurons | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Anupam Das | Was There a Transformation in Economic Ideology Between 1970 and 2000? A Social Network Analysis | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Ran Ju | The Status of Social Media Research in Public Relations: A Content Analysis of Scholarly Journal Articles from 2006-2018 | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| Irene Shankar | Post-Secondary Institutions' Policies on Sexualized Violence: Investigating (under) Utilization of Expert Knowledge and Research | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Deepali Upadhyaya | Essential Elements of an Indigenous Informed Curriculum for Baccalaureate Midwifery Education in Alberta | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samanti Kulatilake | Ancient Peruvian DNA: Let the Mummies Speak | $10,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Randy Connolly | Investigating the Link Between Flourishing and Engagement with Digital Citizenship Activities | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Mohammed El Hazzouri | Why Us?! Ethnic Minority Members' Reactions to Public Health Advertising Featuring Their Own Ethnic Group | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| David Ohreen | Peer-Influence on Business Ethics Education | $4,500 | Final Report |
| Dwayne Sheehan | Using Aerial Videography to Assess Outdoor Park Physical Activity | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Kimberly Williams | Booze, Broads & Brothels, Phase 2: A Digital History Archive of People, Places, and Spaces of Calgary's Sex Industry | $5,000 | Final Report |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Sutherland | The EMI Music Canada Collection and the Canadian Music Industry | $10,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nathan Ackroyd | Synthesis and Characterization of Sunscreen-Containing Spherical Polymers for Potential Use as Wash-On Sunscreens | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Jim Brenan | Jim Brenan Tentet Recording Project: The Intersection Between Thad Jones and Doobie Powell | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Brett McCollum | Longevity of Confidence, Skill, and Professional Identity from Disciplinary Communication Practice | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Archie McLean | Indigenous Airwaves: Surveying the Reach and Relevance of Indigenous Language Broadcasting in Canada | $4,000 | Final Report |
| Heather Ray | Mind Power: A Mindful-Based Health Promotion Program for University Students | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lynn Lafave | Predictive Validity of CHEERS to Assess the Physical Activity Environment in Child Care | $10,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harris Rubin | Emotions in the Workplace | $3,500 | Final Report |
| Michael Hawley | Sikhs in Calgary: Migration History and Narrative | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | Final Report |
| Kenna Olsen | Emerging Medievalisms: Method, Media, Manuscript | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Dwayne Sheehan | Physiological and Neuromuscular Responses at Critical Skating Intensity on Slide Board and Correlation with Speed Skating Performance on Ice | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Cliff Werier | Preparing Much Ado About Nothing for the Internet Shakespeare Editions | $5,000 |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dorothy Hill | Field Test of a Geospatial Mobile Application for Collecting Nest Box Monitoring Data in Citizen Science Projects | $7,400 | Final Report |
| Mary-Lee Mulholland | Martial Arts, Gender and Performance | $10,000 | Final Report |
Standard Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genevieve Currie | Children Living with a Rare Disease: The Parent's Perspective | $4,900 | Final Report |
| Anupam Das | Dynamics of Remittances and Exchange Rates in Bangladesh: Is there a 'Paradox of Gift'? | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Malinda Desjarlais | An Investigation of the Relation between Social-based Technology Use and Social Competence | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Carmen Nielson | Studying the Trans-imperial Politics of Fashion, 1873-1894 | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Peter Ryan | Media Visibility, Policy Silence? Trudeau's PMO Shift from Speeches to Statements | $4,800 | Final Report |
| Jennifer Scott | Continued Hot-Spring Input to the Green River Lake Margin During Active Mountain Building at North Barrel Springs, Wyoming | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Cheryl Techentin | Does Space Matter? Simultaneous Processing of Verbal and Emotional Information in a Normal-Hearing and Deaf Sample | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Michelle Veitch | Skwachàys Lodge and Residence: A Case Study of an Urban Art Hotel in Vancouver | $5,000 | Final Report |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Chik | Examining the Effects of Osmotic Crowding on Pre-Steady State Enzyme Kinetics | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Julie Cormack | MPP Lithic Analysis and Student Training | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | $10,000 | |
| Lynne Lafave | Reliability of CHEERS Tool for Internet Use | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Jessie Loyer | Michel First Nation Oral History | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Francine May | Text Matching Software and the Student Experience | $1,300 | |
| Brett McCollum | Interinstitutional Disciplinary Language Development | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Milena Radzikowska | Materializing Text Analytical Experiences | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Dwayne Sheehan | A Correlation Study of the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy and the Revised Test of Gross Motor Development | $5,000 | Final Report |
| Uthpala Tennakoon | Tracing the Return on Investment of Life-Friendly Work Practices: A Multi-Level Analysis | $5,000 | Final Report |
| 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 | $5,000 | |
| 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 | Final Report |
Team Grants
| Applicant Name | Project Name | Award | Final Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Lafave | Educating Competent Professionals - Validation of the Mini-CEX for AT | $10,000 | Final Report |
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 |