The Ontario government has given McMaster University a $1.2-million grant to advance Canadian-made personal protective equipment.

The money is going to the school’s new Centre of Excellence in Protective Equipment and Materials, which has a testing and manufacturing facility.

The centre was created in March amid concerns about a possible PPE shortage for Ontario’s healthcare and frontline workers.

“From the earliest days of the pandemic, Ontario’s innovation and manufacturing might was unleashed to develop and produce the PPE, the ventilators and the other essential equipment we would need to face the challenge of COVID-19,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

“With this investment into research and testing at two of our leading universities, we are reinforcing our province’s reputation as the gold standard for medical equipment across Canada and around the world.”

A similar grant was given to the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health.