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Collection

Innovation: A desire to make things better

A collection of stories to illustrate the breadth of ways in which innovation changes our world

Western University

Université Laval

University of Calgary

University of Saskatchewan

McGill University

University of Waterloo

University of Alberta

Concordia University

Queen's University

University of New Brunswick

Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

The University of British Columbia

University of Victoria

Université de Montréal

Laurentian University

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Simon Fraser University

The University of British Columbia Okanagan

McMaster University

Acadia University

Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology

University of Prince Edward Island

University of Toronto

University of Guelph

Dalhousie University

Mount Saint Vincent University

Mount St. Vincent University

Ontario

Quebec

Alberta

Saskatchewan

New Brunswick

British Columbia

Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia

Prince Edward Island

A red and white text over a grey background.

Innovation can perhaps be defined; but how it touches our lives can hardly be confined. In the broadest sense, innovation is the desire to make things better. This innately human drive changes our world and transforms us in ways we sometimes are not even aware — from our health, our economy and our planet, to how we understand our past and how we envision our future.

In this knowledge era, innovation is integral to nation building and there is almost no limit to what research can teach us. This audacious vision is what inspired the Canada Foundation for Innovation in 1997, and this collection of stories recalls the resolute spirit of our origins.

Two decades ago, the CFI was itself an experiment — a way to encourage researchers to reach higher, think bigger, and a moment in time when political and research leaders came together to create a turning point in Canadian research by building world-class facilities and stocking them with state-of-the-art equipment. The results have been transformative. In this collection, we present just a handful of the thousands of research projects supported by the CFI since its inception, and aim to illustrate the breadth of ways in which innovation changes our world.