8.0 Communications

To effectively communicate our activities and successes to a wide audience and to support the outreach efforts of the research community, we seek to collaborate with institutions to inform government decision- makers and the public of the research enabled by CFI-funded infrastructure, and the successes they have achieved.

8.1 Acknowledging CFI support

To better promote the impact of the research enabled by our funding contributions, we expect that institutions, communications staff and project leaders acknowledge CFI support in all public communications activities and products, including institutional and scholarly publications, presentations, facility and lab openings, media relations (press releases and articles) and social media.

The CFI should be tagged in appropriate social media posts on Twitter (@InnovationCA), Facebook (@innovationincanada) and LinkedIn. The CFI’s corporate name (Canada Foundation for Innovation) and/or official logo are appropriate identifiers for acknowledging contributions. Our logo can be downloaded in a variety of colours and formats. Consult our brand guidelines for more information.

We also ask that institutions affix CFI-branded stickers to individual pieces of lab equipment. Complete the order form to receive your stickers.

For a summary of additional responsibilities institutions have for communicating about federally funded research, refer to the Government of Canada’s Public Communications Policy of the federal research funding organizations.

Email our communications team at cficommunicationfci [at] innovation.ca (cficommunicationfci[at]innovation[dot]ca) to determine other ways to highlight our support.

8.2 CFI and Government of Canada joint funding announcements

We may call upon institutions to host our joint public funding announcements with the Government of Canada. Funding announcements provide institutions, their researchers and partners — along with government representatives, the media and the CFI — an opportunity to highlight the research conducted in their communities. We strive to give as much advance notice as possible of upcoming announcements to institutions receiving new funding, and we encourage those institutions to issue their own news releases and/or communications material concurrently with the CFI’s national release.

8.3 CFI communications and social media

We encourage institutions to send us story ideas or multimedia materials that help communicate the value and impact of the research enabled by CFI funding. In turn, researchers and communications teams should be prepared to connect with CFI staff should we choose to highlight a research project or lab in our communications products. We seek necessary permissions and approvals for the content we create.

Our content is often available for institutions to repurpose in their own communications, including in their research magazines or newsletters or on their website. Email us at cficommunicationfci [at] innovation.ca (cficommunicationfci[at]innovation[dot]ca) if you would like to repurpose a story about research at your institution.

The CFI is committed to providing its communications and services to the public in both English and French. Occasionally, we curate content from institutions on our website. If this content is not available in both official languages, we will translate it.