Image: UFV / Provided / Dr. Jelena Brcic

By Alyssa Conti

SPACE RESEARCH

Space agency awards UFV professor $1.1M grant for astronaut stress research

Nov 1, 2025 | 8:01 AM

CHILLIWACK — A University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) professor is reaching for the stars – and finding out how astronauts experience long-term missions among them while aboard the International Space Station.

The C-STARS (Canadian Space Team Affect and Resilience Study) project, led by Dr. Jelena Brcic and her national research team, has received a $1,145,460 grant from the Canadian Space Agency to investigate how spacewalkers manage stress and find meaning in their work.

“We’ll track both the challenges astronauts face and the positive emotions — such as gratitude, compassion, and awe — that help them thrive,” Brcic said.

Brcic specializes in research involving human adaptability under extreme isolation and stress, previously studying how astronauts work in close confines and how researchers cope with isolation in remote Arctic weather stations.

C-STARS will be measuring astronauts’ daily stressors and self-transcendent emotions such as gratitude and awe over six years, through 2031. Brcic said its results will offer “scalable solutions” for emotional well-being both in and out of this world, including early intervention to prevent burnout, depression and anxiety in remote environments.

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“These findings will also have meaning for people on Earth working in isolated or high-pressure environments, such as extremely remote healthcare workers, wildfire crews, search and rescue teams, and residents of long-term care facilities,” Brcic noted.

Brcic’s team consists of co-investigators, Brock University Dr. Kirsten Robertson, McGill University Dr. Jason Harley, and University of Toronto’s Dr. Jennifer Stellar.

UFV students will have an opportunity to assist with the study.