1. iCORE Overview Informatics Circle of Research Excellence Created in 1999, funded by Province of Alberta Mandate: increase profile of ICT in Alberta “Lightning rod” model for research funding in strategic niche areas of ICT (bold and nimble) Strategy and recruiting guided by a team of outstanding international scientists 3 grant programs investing in scientists working on fundamental and applied problems in informatics Scholarship programs for recruiting best students iCORE Summit held annually (August) in Banff

2. iCORE Programs CPE (Chair and Professorship Establishment) Attract world-class researchers and support research teams Up to $1M/year for 5 years (renewable) ICE (Industry Chair Establishment) Industry partnership program Minimum $100k/year industry Potential matching from iCORE and NSERC Leverage of 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 Visiting Professor & Recruitment Grants $5k-$100k grants for recruitment activities and capacity building ICT Graduate Student Scholarships Co-managed with Alberta Ingenuity Fund

3. iCORE Financial Overview iCORE’s current base budget is $10.7M per year With AET & Alberta Ingenuity, iCORE, a $6M graduate student scholarship program $3M for ICT $3M for Nanotechnology Fiscal Year Budget

4. iCORE Research Clusters 29 research chairs Established Areas: Networks and Wireless Intelligent Software Systems New Architectures –(e.g., Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing) Emerging Areas: Cyberinfrastructure Systems Biology/Life Sciences Sensor Networks/Integrated Resource Management (IRM)

5. iCORE Chair Portfolio iCORE’s business plan is to achieve and sustain critical mass in both research and industry chairs Currently 17 CPEs 11 Chairs 6 Professors iCORE’s industrial impact by industry chair program Currently 12 active Industry Chairs Sun Microsystems Syncrude/Matrikon Suncor/Matrikon Silicon Graphics Hewlett-Packard Alberta Power Consortium SMART Technologies Calgary Scientific Inc. TELUS General Dynamics Canada IBM Micralyne

6. Research Highlights

8. Dr. Barry Sanders University of Calgary

9. Research Highlights Dr. Michael Brett University of Alberta Nano-scale devices GLancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) Thin films

10. iCORE’s ROI First class research academy –Quality people (iCORE chairs have 90% NSERC success rate, cf. Canadian average of 52%) –32 chairs have been established with enormous generation of HQP –Current surveys show ~56% HQP remains in province –Increase in quality and external assessment e.g., Robert Wolkow “Nobel-level achievements…” e.g., Gane Wong “novel and bold scientific goals…” Investment leverage –Current commitment of ~$93M to 2014 –Leverage of more than 3-to-1 on iCORE investment

11. Summary iCORE currently has 29 research chairs Current investment of about $93M to 2014, leveraged more than 3-to-1 Currently involves over 1000 research personnel (faculty, technical, graduate students) Broadening informatics base, with increasing emphasis on cyberinfrastructure, sensor networks/integrated resource management, systems/life sciences High impact in Alberta, in Canada, and globally