In 2007, Industry Canada and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), through the International Partnerships Initiative, awarded $1.136 million to Mprime (formerly MITACS) to create a permanent global network of organizations driven by excellence in mathematical sciences research which addresses economic and societal problems of key importance to Canada and the world. Mprime is committed to placing Canada at the international forefront of mathematical R&D activity by establishing partnerships with leading mathematical organizations around the world.
To date, we have connected with the following organizations:
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BioSim Network of Excellence - European Union
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INRIA - Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique - France
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IPAM - Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics - USA
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MASCOS – ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics for Complex Systems - Australia
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Matheon - Mathematics for Key Technologies - Germany
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MCME - Mathematical Centre of the Chinese Ministry of Education - China
In addition, Mprime has developed collaborations with African researchers in Botswana, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Mprime international program focuses on four major research areas:
Mathematics of Biomedicine: Public health issues dominate discourse around the world. In North America, an aging population has spurred research into drug design, diagnostics, and the development of novel medical devices. Areas of investigation include systems biology from genes to whole organisms; the physiological processes behind diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's, and cardiac arrhythmias; and diagnostics such as medical imaging.
Mathematics of Modelling Disease Spread: The onset of SARS, avian flu, and West Nile Virus and the potential for a major outbreak of influenza or some other pandemics calls for the development of new mathematical and statistical epidemiological models as tools for public health agencies. Activities will focus on investigating the latest epidemiological models and training mathematicians and clinicians in their use.
Mathematics of Finance: The financial sector is fundamental to a market economy and mathematics is playing an increasingly important role. Sophisticated financial instruments and strategies are used for evaluating risk, pricing commodities and financial instruments, and managing revenue.
Mathematics of Security: Recent geo-political events have brought issues of security to the forefront of public concern. Threats extend from the individual and state to information and data. Mathematical techniques from graph theory, number theory, machine learning, topology, dynamical systems, and other fields must be employed. These projects will develop tools for applications involving intrusion detection, malicious software, network scale observation and analysis, and detecting rogue agents in a network which will help to protect sensitive data and infrastructure.
Collaboration with our international partners occurs through:
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Focused research periods, where Mprime scientists spend two or more weeks visiting teams at other partner sites, collaborating on identified research problems. Additionally, Mprime research teams similarly host scientists.
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Training of highly-qualified personnel, which sees the planning of graduate training schools, industrial problem solving schools, providing funding for students to travel to conduct research with a partner and graduate internships.
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Networking and events, involving funding for travel, meeting organization and other associated
For more information on the above activities, email science(at)mprime.ca.