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. 

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The power to transform

Our Innovation Fund provides the foundation for world-class, impactful research that is made in Canada
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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
All articles
Kelsey Leonard posing for a photo in front of a stone wall covered in vines.
podcast
Ontario
Should bodies of water have the same legal status as people?
Researcher Kelsey Leonard, member of the Shinnecock Nation and founder of the Wampum Lab at the University of Waterloo, delves into ocean, water and climate justice.
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

A graphic of a blue gear containing the male symbol and a pink gear containing the female symbol.
article
Quebec
For sex equality
Until now, experiments to understand chronic pain used mostly male mice. To scientists’ surprise, however, females react differently. Our way of understanding pain circuitry is changing...
Lightning arcs between two skyscrapers in a nighttime city scape
article
Quebec
Taming lightning
A physicist has mastered one of nature’s most impressive forces in his laboratory, setting the stage for multiple applications
Tour guide and taxi driver, Bill Baker, poses in front of the synchrotron beamlines inside the Canadian Light Source
video
Saskatchewan
Research builds my local community
Saskatoon cab drivers introduce visitors to their city’s pride and joy: the Canadian Light Source
Andrew Pelling, wearing a microphone, points to a slice of apple in a petri dish.
article
Ontario
Growing body parts from plants
Inspired by movies like Little Shop of Horrors and The Matrix, Andrew Pelling’s University of Ottawa lab is all about taking the most audacious ideas and turning them into reality
A vector graphic of opened head symbol with researchers and research infrastructure inside over the CFI logo on red background.
podcast
The CFI's origin story
This is the origin story of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, an organization dedicated to the future, that was born at a time when the country was heavily burdened by its past
Illustration of three men and a woman in grey suits carrying a giant watering can. From left to right: the woman is helping tilt the watering can by its neck, one man is supporting it from its base, and the other two men, one sitting on top of the other’s shoulders, is holding the handle. Water droplets pour out of the nozzle, falling onto the CFI’s circular red logo growing out of the soil. To the left of the logo, a fourth man is crouching on one knee in the dirt, holding a gardening spade
podcast
Episode four: An idea becomes reality
The fourth episode in a podcast series that traces the Canada Foundation for Innovation's unlikely origin story
Illustration of a giant grey head with an open skull cap, revealing his brain. A portion of the brain in the shape of a puzzle piece is missing. Two men in grey suits stand on top of the head. The man to the left is scratching his head, while the man on the right is carrying the CFI’s red circular logo above his head. Beneath them, a woman in a grey suit is holding up the brain’s missing puzzle piece
podcast
Episode three: The idea of CFI is born
The third episode in a podcast series that traces the Canada Foundation for Innovation's unlikely origin story
Illustration of a man in a grey suit aboard a little boat made out of newspaper. He is at sea and is looking through a nautical telescope. To the right of the boat, there is a large green dollar sign, mostly submerged under water. The top part of the dollar sign sticking out of the water has two palm trees growing on it.
podcast
Episode two: An unexpected opportunity
The second episode in a podcast series that traces the Canada Foundation for Innovation's unlikely origin story
Illustration of a man in a grey suit sitting on a unicycle with a dollar sign on it. He is balancing on a tightrope and looking down at the shark fins darting out of the water below. The sharks are waiting for him to fall.
podcast
Episode one: Fiscal Armageddon
The first episode in a podcast series that traces the Canada Foundation for Innovation's unlikely origin story
Graduate student Ewald Cheung plays the violin in McGill University music hall.
video
Quebec
Research builds my music community
Quebec music hub explores how musicians in large ensembles interact with each other, and also with their audience
A group of citizens posing for a photo in front of a city landscape.
video
Alberta
Research builds our urban community
The University of Calgary teams up with its home city to improve wastewater treatment methods
Samantha Knapp holding two children.
video
Ontario
Research builds my children’s community
Finding the genetic cause of her daughters’ illness was the key Samantha Knapp needed to tap into a community of parents going through the same thing