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. 

A graphic of several green coloured buildings against a backdrop of rolling green hills with windmills.

Keeping research infrastructure green

A nod to the efforts that CFI-funded labs are making to reduce their environmental impact
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Three young women pose in an outdoor setting wearing clear plastic safety-style glasses
article
Ontario

Is bad air quality making you sick?

The air you breathe contains thousands of natural and synthetic chemicals. Joseph Okeme is identifying which ones cause chronic diseases.
All articles
Université de Moncton Faculty of Science dean and researcher Céline Surette
podcast
New Brunswick

Meet Acadian researcher Céline Surette, for whom interdisciplinarity is second nature

Céline Surette embodies both the chemistry of living things and interdisciplinarity to serve the real needs and questions of communities. And to achieve this, and ensure that critical thinking triumphs, she'll pull out all the stops.
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.
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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