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. 

Illustration of five people sitting and standing around a globe surrounded by bushes and plants.

Responding to a growing appetite for solutions to food insecurity

From genomics to economics, researchers in Canada are finding ways to address a crisis that is made worse by climate change and political unrest
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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
All articles
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?”
All podcasts
A laptop sitting on a desk shows four people in a virtual meeting.
video
Traditional Knowledge as a powerful driver in research
Artist and curator, Tania Willard, of the Secwépemc Nation and Chantelle Richmond, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg researcher in Indigenous health and the environment, in conversation with the Right Honourable Paul Martin
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Young man falling on a large purple mattress, wearing a helmet and protective pads, while researchers in the back of the falling laboratory monitor the impact of his fall on a computer.
video
British Columbia
How to prevent falls
Researchers at Simon Fraser University are analyzing how people fall with the aim of preventing injuries
An conceptual image of a finger touching a free-floating screen, with action icons streaming out the back.
article
Québec
It’s clear as glass
By integrating microscopic ducts into the glass that screens are made of, researchers have developed an amazing interface
A tiny baby's dark eyes and nose peak out from the blanket she's swaddled in, her little fingers grip the edge.
article
Québec
Combating premature births
Births before 37 weeks are linked to early intrauterine inflammation. Researchers have developed a molecule that inhibits this.
A graphic of a blue gear containing the male symbol and a pink gear containing the female symbol.
article
Québec
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
Québec
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