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. 

Low buildings and homes along a flat shoreline with water in the foreground.

Biskaabiiyang: Rebuilding power and authority for sovereign Indigenous Nations

Research into traditional forms of Indigenous governance will explore the resurgence of roles held by Indigenous youth, women, Two Spirit and trans folx
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A row of zebra finches with bright orange beaks perch in a tight huddle along a long branch.
article
Québec
Why (and how) the songbird sings
Listening to what finches can teach us about our own neurobiology and how we acquire language
All articles
A person wearing a coat in an empty field, posing for a photo.
podcast
Québec
Getting fired up about the Arctic
Alexandre Langlois is passionate about all aspects of his job. As a researcher in Northern Canada, he studies the fastest-warming place on the planet and the problems that arise as the climate changes.
All podcasts
Image of various cellphones on a wooden table displaying photos of researchers.
video
A promising future, now: 25 years of investing in ideas that change our world
The Canada Foundation for Innovation has supported cutting-edge research in Canada for 25 years. In these videos, researchers reflect on how CFI funding has advanced their work and how future generations will benefit. They tell passionate stories of curiosity, commitment and innovation.
All videos

All stories
podcast
Québec
How using sound to treat disease is music to one researcher’s ears
Simone Dalla Bella of Montréal’s International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research asks “How can music help us in our daily tasks? And how can it slow down the deleterious effects of diseases such as Parkinson’s?”
A yellowish haze creates a silhouette of a person on a bike carrying a heavy load.
article
Ontario
Can a bicycle be a tool for creating gender equality?
Researchers at York University use visual and digital media to explore the connection between physical activity and unequal power relations.
Graphic of a person sitting curled up next to a backpack.
article
British Columbia
Life on the edge
An experiential research project at Simon Fraser University explores the psychology behind our perceptions of poverty
Illustration of arid land where one person holds a shovel and another holds a watering can. Above this scene, a large hand holds a seedling.
article
Ontario
Power, policies and sustainability in the global food system
Today’s industrial approach to agriculture leaves the world dangerously dependent on a few crops and a few companies. Jennifer Clapp wants to change that.
Illustration of a group of people dressed in lab coats gesturing toward a cubic cross section of soil layers with plants growing out of it.
article
Saskatchewan
Climate resilient crops that can do more with less
How researchers are tackling the roots of food insecurity — in a very literal way
Illustration of two people gesturing toward a corn plant with overlaying diagrams including a molecule.
article
Ontario
Blueprints for boosting plant immunity
How sophisticated genomics could help address food insecurity by giving crops an edge in the arms race against pathogens
Image of various cellphones on a wooden table displaying photos of researchers.
video
A promising future, now: 25 years of investing in ideas that change our world
The Canada Foundation for Innovation has supported cutting-edge research in Canada for 25 years. In these videos, researchers reflect on how CFI funding has advanced their work and how future generations will benefit. They tell passionate stories of curiosity, commitment and innovation.
McMaster University researcher Leyla Soleymani poses for a photo.
podcast
Ontario
Rapid diagnostics: Nano discoveries and mega results
McMaster researcher Leyla Soleymani looks to the tiny world of nanotech to make some very big discoveries
A panorama of a snowy, treeless landscape taken from on top of a snow machine with a meteorological tower and its guy-wires visible.
article
Northwest Territories
Can wind power the North?
Researchers at Aurora College’s Research Institute are using portable LiDAR scanners to help find the answer
A white swirl of air inside a large enclosure.
article
Ontario
Summoning the storm, at the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Research Facility
By simulating intense winds and weather, a research facility at Western University tests how buildings will hold up under catastrophic conditions
Two people, one standing, one seated in a grassy area with pieces of research equipment around them.
article
Saskatchewan,Ontario
Mounting an early warning system for Canada’s looming water crisis, through the Global Water Futures Observatories
A network of observation systems across the country’s freshwater basins provides urgently needed data to help ward off the devastating impacts of floods, droughts and other water crises plaguing Canada
A person in a lab coat looks closely at an apparatus that is part of a black and grey machine in a lab.
article
Alberta,Québec,Ontario,British Columbia
Tweaking biology for health and biotech solutions, at GlycoNet Integrated Services
A pan-Canadian network of over 170 researchers brings together the country’s expertise in the field of glycomics to create solutions in medicine and other bio-based industries