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Research Facilities Navigator celebrates 800 facilities

The CFI’s directory of research labs continues to connect business, government and academia with resources to help them innovate and succeed

OTTAWA, ONT. ­– Since its launch in 2013, the Research Facilities Navigator has helped connect hundreds of innovators with the research expertise, services and state-of-the-art facilities they need to solve their R&D challenges. Covering traditional, emerging and advanced sectors of Canada’s economy, the Navigator now features over 800 facilities based in universities, colleges, hospitals, non-profits and federal government departments and agencies from coast to coast to coast.

Whether using the Navigator as a go-to resource for finding research partners, or to find the equipment and expertise they need to validate a new product or process, businesses are finding what they need to succeed through this valuable online directory.

One recent addition to the Navigator is INÉDI, the Centre of expertise and research in industrial design at Cégep régional de Lanaudière. Their experts support businesses by helping develop, optimize and validate innovative products in adapted sport and other sectors of application.

IMPART Biobank, a facility within Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine, also recently joined the Navigator. It is the only cardiovascular biobank in Atlantic Canada with expertise in inflammatory and metabolic disease. Research experts here have collaborated with a number of private-sector partners, including Pfizer Canada, Cloud DX and Medtronic Canada.

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“The Navigator has helped initiate important connections between the private sector, government and academia,” says Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the organization that created and maintains the Navigator directory. “The more our directory grows, the more we are able to offer a greater range of expertise and equipment to explore to meet specific needs.”

Quick facts

  • On November 27, 2013, the Canada Foundation for Innovation launched the Research Facilities Navigator, an online directory of research facilities that open their doors to collaborations with industry, academia and government;
     
  • Over the past year, Navigator’s research facility profiles received close to 5,000 views on average each month;
     
  • From coast to coast to coast, the Navigator features today 803 research facilities working in 28 sectors of application, including aerospace, ocean industries, environmental technologies, advanced manufacturing and life sciences;
     
  • Since 2017, more than 1,700 inquiries have been made to research facilities through the Navigator — from business users looking for help developing new, innovative products to users in academia searching for the equipment they need to make advances in research.

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Follow the Navigator on Twitter (@InnovationNAV) for news and information about the researchers and facilities featured in the directory. Follow the CFI on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.