Research stories

Our investments support research that benefits Canadians

In CFI-funded labs and facilities across the country, researchers in all stages of their careers are making discoveries, supporting a robust innovation ecosystem and helping solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. 

An outdoor scene at dusk with a stone pavilion and several tipis arranged in a circle with bleachers.

Wildlife ecology done “in a good way”

Researcher Jesse Popp works alongside Indigenous communities to understand their most pressing questions about biodiversity and the plants and animals on the Land
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An outdoor scene at dusk with a stone pavilion and several tipis arranged in a circle with bleachers.
article
Ontario

Wildlife ecology done “in a good way”

Researcher Jesse Popp works alongside Indigenous communities to understand their most pressing questions about biodiversity and the plants and animals on the Land
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podcast
Nova Scotia

Jan Rainey is untangling the mysteries of spider silks

The Dalhousie University researcher is looking to create synthetic versions of spider's silk that have the potential to help heal damaged nerves and damaged hearts
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video

Transforming research instincts into a successful business (March webinar)

Part of our Future You webinar series. This webinar features a new generation of researchers who share their challenges and successes as they made the move from researcher to entrepreneur. Watch the video to gain insights and receive valuable tips on how to start your own business.
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An illustration composed of coloured bars that look like genetic screening radiating from a nucleus of curved covered lines.
article
Quebec

Genetic sleuthing

A state-of-the-art laboratory is leveraging modern and ancient DNA analysis in tandem with genealogical data to fully understand an evolving population
Weathered cottages perch on the edge of a ragged shoreline in Prince Edward Island that was badly eroded by Hurricane Fiona.
article
Prince Edward Island

Coastal scourge

Compounded by a changing climate, severe erosion is scouring Prince Edward Island’s coastline. Researchers are designing an elaborate coastal hazard monitoring and modelling system to help protect the island’s shores from being further flushed out to sea.
A hockey team in orange jerseys poses on the arena ice.
article
Quebec

Unsettling the Canadian hockey story

Collecting the stories of hockey players, builders and fans from Lac Seul First Nation to reveal a different narrative about Indigenous hockey
A stylized line drawing of a woman's torso with one breast highlighted by a coloured circle.
article
Manitoba

Ushering in a new era of breast cancer screening

The discovery of tumour biomarkers paves the way for earlier disease detection through a simple blood test
A young researcher wearing a hardhat sits in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, typing on a laptop.
article
Nova Scotia

Meet Canada’s greenhouse gas detectives

With a few creative hacks, the Flux Lab has transformed a lab bench gas analyzer into a mobile tool they’re using to measure emissions from pipeline leaks, landfills and melting permafrost in the field
Pallet of natural fabrics dyed with food waste.
article
Quebec

Advocating for ethical fashion

What are your daily needs? To breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat produce grown in healthy soil. Covering our bodies to protect ourselves is also not a luxury, but the clothing industry diminishes the quality of the first three vital ingredients.
A pixelated graphic of the map of North America.
article
Saskatchewan

Understanding the importance of where we live

Historians are merging Indigenous research methods with digital historical data to rethink how we view the places we live and how those change over time
An illustration showing mouths, eyes, hands and ears clipped from newsprint with red splotches, exes and the word fake overlain.
article
Ontario

Taking aim at online hate and fake news

Dangerous disinformation campaigns on social media are on the rise. So are targeted personal attacks. The Digital Society Lab is using AI-powered countermeasures to push back.
Two people sit in front of a curved video wall displaying illuminated renderings of satellites orbiting earth.
article
British Columbia

Transforming dry data into Instagrammable art

Researchers are blending science, art and augmented reality to bring data to life, make complex information more evocative — and create plenty of buzz
A man in a red jacket holds the remote control as a drone takes off from a rubble-strewn site.
article
Newfoundland and Labrador

Archaeology’s high-tech race to save North Atlantic heritage

Climate change is threatening millennia of history in Newfoundland and Labrador. New LiDAR-equipped drones and other technology is helping archaeologists triage the sites at greatest risk and document crucial heritage before it disappears.
Guillaume St-Onge is wearing a striped red sweater and sunglasses, posing in front of the Pingualuit crater in Quebec, full of clear blue water.
podcast
Quebec

Science (sea) star

Ocean science research is at a pivotal moment according to Guillaume St-Onge, Director of the Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski at Université du Québec à Rimouski
Several hands hold up an illustrated ball of houses against a cloudy sky.
article
New Brunswick

Tackling the many dimensions of New Brunswick’s housing crisis

How one social science lab — with a few well-placed couches — is bringing stakeholders together to address the intersecting issues of housing affordability, mental health and food security