McGill University and Université de Montréal have announced gifts totaling C$26 million ($19.4 million) from the Trottier Family Foundation in support of projects to establish Montreal as a global hub for space research.

Half of the C$16 million ($11.9 million) gift to McGill will enable the university to complete an annex to the McGill Space Institute—founded in 2015 with support from the Trottier Foundation—while the other half will fund graduate and postdoctoral fellowships and support existing programs and research projects. Université de Montréal’s Institute for Research on Exoplanets will receive C$10 million ($7.4 million) to bolster its efforts to research and discover life outside the solar system. In recognition of the gifts, both institutes will be named after the family.

“We are very grateful to McGill alumnus Lorne Trottier and the Trottier Family Foundation, whose tremendous contributions to McGill and to its Faculties of Science and Engineering over many years have helped further our understanding of our world and our universe,” said McGill University interim principal and vice-chancellor Christopher Manfredi. “This most recent gift, spread out among two of our city’s great universities, will cement Montreal’s place as a leading hub of space research within Canada and the world.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/mik38)