Federal funding supports development of search engine for scientific research

Published on June 17, 2016

$239,000 from Community and College Social Innovation Fund will be used to advance ground-breaking metaBUS project

The Government of Canada is supporting ground-breaking applied research being carried out by NAIT and its partners that has the potential to save researchers years of time.

Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, today announced $239,000 in federal support for NAIT through the Community and College Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF). The grant is supported by an additional $100,000 contribution from The Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business in Calgary.

This funding supports further development of online search engine metaBUS – a new tool used in the location, synthesis and dissemination of scientific research. It’s like Google – for researchers.

Launched June 2, metaBUS was developed over four years by researchers at NAIT, the University of Calgary and Virginia Commonwealth University. This new funding – dispensed over the next three years – will be used to develop a software interface to help make the search engine more accessible to the public and easier to use.

The three founders of metaBUS are: Dr. Krista Uggerslev, NAIT Applied Research Chair in Leadership and Talent; Piers Steel, Distinguished Research Chair in Advanced Business Leadership at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business and Frank Bosco assistant professor in Management from Virginia Commonwealth University. Project collaborators on this new grant at NAIT include Ray Bilodeau (Business Administration - Marketing instructor) and Diane Lee (administration specialist – research).

QUICK FACTS

  • Meta-analysis is the process of summarizing past findings in a given field.
  • Academics can spend years combing through published research journals to do meta-analysis as they conduct research.
  • In an effort to streamline this aspect of research, the metaBUS team has coded nearly a million journal findings into their search engine, in the areas of applied psychology and management.
  • Instead of manually finding, reading and summarizing journal articles, metaBUS users can create summaries of existing research in under a minute.

QUOTES

Dr. Krista Uggerslev, NAIT Applied Research Chair in Leadership and Talent 
“This is an exciting time for this project – we’ve had a huge year. Scientists are looking at metaBUS and seeing the potential it has to offer. We start with verified, scientific evidence, and enable it to be searched to provide accurate, scientific information to address people’s queries. Through this technology, we aim to significantly accelerate the speed of science, enable evidence-based practice, and inform the public understanding of science.”

LEARN MORE

www.metabus.org

About NAIT

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a leading Canadian polytechnic, delivering education in science, technology and the environment; business; health and trades. With nearly 60,000 credit and non-credit students and a 95 per cent employer satisfaction rate, NAIT grads are essential to Alberta’s prosperity. Known for hands-on, technology-based learning, NAIT engages with business and industry in applied research and innovation and provides corporate training around the world. Recognized as one of Alberta’s top employers, NAIT provides outstanding returns on investment for its graduates, partners, the provincial government and the people of Alberta.

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