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CFI advances Canada’s capacity to meet challenges and build prosperity through research

Annual public meeting highlights advancements in research infrastructure funding

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is helping Canada build on its successes in research with a new emphasis on funding models that respond to the country’s changing needs and allow for collaboration with the private sector and internationally. 

President and CEO Sylvain Charbonneau outlined the way forward for research infrastructure funding in Canada at the CFI’s annual public meeting last Thursday, December 4, 2025. 

Earlier this year the CFI submitted a plan for implementing the decision-making framework and funding model that will support Major Research Facilities in Canada. 

The plan represents a significant evolution in how research infrastructure has been funded in Canada to date. It responds to the need for long-term commitments to sustain a portfolio of facilities of national importance: 

  • Canadian Light Source (CLS), a synchrotron at the University of Saskatchewan
  • CCGS Amundsen, an Arctic research icebreaker hosted by the Université Laval
  • Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), a research centre at the University of Saskatchewan
  • Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), an ocean monitoring platform at Dalhousie University
  • Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a network of mobile, cabled and community-based ocean observatories at the University of Victoria
  • SNOLAB, an underground clean lab in Sudbury, Ont., managed by a partnership of universities. 

Charbonneau also mentioned that, this week, the CFI Board of Directors approved research infrastructure projects recommended for funding through the 2025 Innovation Fund competition. For the first time, this competition included a funding stream for supporting core facilities. 

Core facilities are hubs for collaboration across disciplines, which makes them powerful centres for research excellence and highly valuable training grounds. They can also provide a single research and development point of contact for small businesses that need help through the critical phases of development, prototyping and testing that ultimately lead to commercialization.  

This new funding stream is in line with the CFI’s renewed focus on engaging the private sector and increasing research collaborations. 

“All of [our work] is happening in the context of a government that clearly embraces research and innovation as the bedrock of economic growth and the realization of our shared national priorities,” Charbonneau said.

The annual public meeting also included an overview of the CFI’s financial reports and activities for fiscal year 2024–25 presented by Chair of the CFI Board of Directors Nancy Déziel and the public release of the CFI’s annual report.