The CFI and UK Science and Technology Facilities Council sign Letter of Understanding
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has signed a Letter of Understanding with the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The agreement allows the two organizations — which share a mandate to invest in infrastructure necessary to support excellent research — to cooperate in areas of mutual interest.
Through this partnership, the CFI and STFC will share information on their respective online infrastructure portals — the CFI’s Research Facilities Navigator and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Infrastructure Portal. The signatories will also explore opportunities for international collaboration between their researchers and research institutions. In addition, they will pursue joint funding of research infrastructure and support for access to these infrastructures in the UK and Canada, and in other countries where the two countries have shared interests.
“This agreement brings us together to make research infrastructure in both countries better known and available to academic and industrial researchers around the world,” says CFI President and CEO, Roseann O’Reilly Runte. “It will enable us to create synergies, spark innovation and economic development.”
The five-year partnership will foster international research and innovation by giving researchers and institutions from both countries more opportunities to collaborate. It will also strengthen the close relationship between the research communities in Canada and the UK.
“This agreement will enable enhanced cooperation and collaboration with our colleagues in Canada, with whom we already enjoy strong relationships,” says STFC Executive Director, Mark Thomson. “By strengthening our partnerships in research infrastructure and major national and international facilities, I believe researchers in both nations will see real benefits – providing further opportunities for the brightest and most curious scientific minds from the UK and Canada to work together.”
The letter is a separate agreement under the terms of the Canada Research Coordinating Committee and UKRI letter.