We have big ambitions at Western. I'm a relatively new VPR. I'm struck by the research strengths that already exist and the opportunities that exist to build on those through partnership, innovation and tech transfer.
One example of a priority is one that I mentioned in my comments, which was the nuclear hub. I like that example because it's built on discovery research in things like medical isotopes and nuclear energy, but it also involves key partnerships, both within the province and beyond, with different types of organizations. It capitalizes on a couple of federal programs that actually require matching contributions and leveraging.
One would be the NSERC alliance program. We have a number of successful NSERC alliance grants that have just come in through the nuclear hub for which there is an industry partner who wants to engage with one of our researchers. The federal funding requires a combination of federal and external funding, and those tend to build into bigger and bigger industry contracts.
The Mitacs program would be another example. There's a requirement that, in order for a student to engage with an industry partner, some money comes from Mitacs. There's also money from the industry partner. Those lead to fantastic job opportunities and larger-scale industry partnerships. We have a number of those examples right now in the nuclear hub.