Canada Foundation for Innovation
The ambitions of Canadian researchers encompass every social, environmental, medical and economic sector. Whether they advance healthcare, develop solutions to business challenges or create clean technologies, their work provides a wide range of benefits to Canada. State-of-the art research infrastructure enables them to realize their ambitions, allows talented researchers and their students to open up new avenues of inquiry, forge partnerships and think creatively to find concrete solutions to the problems we face as a nation – and as a planet. The labs and facilities across the country are gathering places where brilliant ideas converge, strengthening our economy and building vibrant communities.

Carleton University’s Black
Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub
The Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH) is led by Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business and Dream Legacy Foundation. We facilitate national community-led intersectional research through our national network of regional hubs to foster sustainable research, on-going convening of community engagements, and research capacity building within the Black community. Advancing this research in uncertain economic times will unlock economic value for Canada and Black entrepreneurs.

Our key mandates are to conduct data collection, perform quantitative and qualitative research to gain a broad understanding of the people and enterprises of Black entrepreneurs in Canada, and create a network mapping of the Black entrepreneurial ecosystem in Canada.

The results will provide insights and a detailed digital map of Black business ecosystems across the country to help identify critical gaps where Black entrepreneurs are facing the greatest challenges. This research will be available to stakeholders within the Black community, Canadian policymakers, and others.

Supporting Business Growth Through Collaborative Innovation
The Ontario Collaborative Innovation Platform (OCIP), launched by eCampusOntario, supports research partnership between companies and Ontario’s public postsecondary institutions (PSIs). OCIP is a matchmaking service, connecting companies to PSIs to form collaborative innovation partnerships. We know that companies that do R&D are more likely to survive and grow, hire more people, export more goods and services, and have a bigger economic impact in their communities. We also know that companies need help navigating the R&D landscape. OCIP helps Ontario businesses find R&D support, workforce training and IP support with Ontario’s 56 colleges, universities and Indigenous Institutes. It is one way we are filling a gap in the innovation pipeline.

When experiencing a mental health crisis, individuals rely on emergency services such as 9-1-1 dispatchers, paramedic services, police services and hospital emergency department services. It is increasingly understood that emergency response to mental health calls may have substantial, potentially life and death consequences.

Humber College ITAL and TAIBU Community Health Centre & Middlesex-London Paramedic Service are collaborating on “Developing a best practice model for mental health crisis care: A community-engaged approach” social innovation research project. This will bring together community-based service and emergency care providers to develop a model for responding to mental health crisis care and supporting all members of the community requiring emergency mental health support. Particular attention is also given to those of lower socioeconomic status, Black and Indigenous communities, People of Colour, and LGBT2SQ+ and immigrant communities. The project aims to co-develop workshops and training for practitioners working in these fields.

Researchers:

Located in Hamilton, Ontario, McMaster University is one of Canada’s most research-intensive universities and the nation’s preeminent nuclear research institution. McMaster has maintained active research and educational programs in nuclear science and engineering for nearly 65 years and is home to a unique suite of world-class nuclear research facilities – anchored by the McMaster Nuclear Reactor – that enable discoveries in medicine, clean energy, nuclear safety, advanced materials and environmental science.

McMaster is a global leader in medical isotope research, development, and production, providing personalized cancer treatments for more than 70,000 patients every year. And we’re a key resource for Canada’s nuclear energy sector. Our experts perform testing and analysis on nuclear power plant components to ensure their safe continued use and are studying next-generation clean energy technologies, like Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Our research and training are advancing the country’s clean energy needs and will play a critical role in achieving Net Zero.

Ontario Tech University was the build partner for Project Arrow, Canada’s pioneering full-build, zero-emission concept vehicle revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 6, 2023, in Las Vegas.

The Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) of Canada launched Project Arrow in 2019, with funding from the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada. The vehicle was built in partnership with Canada’s automotive supply sector at Ontario Tech University by faculty researchers, technical staff, and students, utilizing its world class core research facilities including ACE, A team of faculty researchers, led by Dr. Ahmad Barari, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, worked with students and the ACE engineering team to create significant efficiencies in smart advanced manufacturing using emerging technologies such a digitalization in design, manufacturing, and inspection, multi-physics simulations, and additive manufacturing.

Project Arrow showcased Ontario Tech’s unique experiential learning opportunities for students to make a once-in-their-life-time contribution to Canada’s technology future.

A community partnership between RRC Polytech’s Technology Access Centre for Aerospace and Manufacturing (TACAM) and Cascade Manufacturing, a local agricultural irrigation production company, reinvented the wheel. You’ll soon be able to purchase a low-maintenance, all-steel bolted wheel for agricultural irrigation systems later this year. After working on a prototype bolted wheel since 2018, Cascade reached out to TACAM to collaborate on a redesign. With in-house expertise on 3D modelling and finite element analysis to identify and address high mechanical stress areas and potential points of failure, TACAM was able to provide recommendations for workability and cost reductions. Cascade is beginning to market the redesigned wheel and expects to have 150 made and sold in 2023. As Manitoba’s largest institute for applied learning and research, RRC Polytech finds innovative solutions to real-world challenges alongside industry, while also providing students with the applied knowledge to succeed in their future careers.

Sheridan’s Screen Industries Research and Training (SIRT) Centre is at the forefront of the next frontier of the human-digital experience – lifelike virtual humans called Dynamic Digital Humans (DDH) that are changing the way content is created and how people engage and interact across all media platforms. SIRT is an integral part of Generator at Sheridan, which fosters collaboration to drive innovation and impact in industry and communities. In 2022, SIRT helped create a patented standardized, efficient workflow to enable the creation of more realistic and less resource-intensive digital characters. The Centre also contributed to the development of a new department for industry partner Cream Productions, which helped bring them into the interaction market. Building on this accomplishment, SIRT will continue to enhance DDH innovation and enable the adoption of digital humans into people’s daily lives.

Scientists at The Royal are using Artificial Intelligence to bring precision diagnosis and personalized treatments to mental health care.

Neuroscientist Georg Northoff is using Artificial Neural Networks in combination with brain imaging to analyse the neuronal activity that defines how our brains interact with the world around us. Examining the deeper layers of the brain in this non-invasive way takes us beyond understanding what changes occur during mental illness to understanding why and how those changes are taking place. This opens to the door for highly effective personalized treatments – not just medication but non-drug treatments like music therapy - based on a patient’s neural activity.

Zachary Kaminsky, DIFD-Mach-Gaensslen Chair in Suicide Prevention Research, is employing Artificial Intelligence to identify people who are at heightened risk for suicide and enable life-saving intervention. He has developed the Suicide Artificial Intelligence Prediction Heuristic (SAIPH), an algorithm that can assess an individual’s risk based on publicly available data in Twitter posts.

Effectively detecting brain tumours with blood samples and AI
An innovative cancer screening practice, developed by Toronto Metropolitan University researchers Dr. Bo Tan and Dr. Krishnan Venkatakrishnan along with research partners at St. Michael’s Hospital at iBEST, can detect brain cancer earlier and more easily through a blood sample instead of surgery. In a practice called liquid biopsy diagnosis, researchers use a highly sensitive nanosensor and machine learning to detect cancer biomarkers in blood samples as small as five microlitres. Recently published research found this innovation can detect brain tumours with 100 per cent accuracy and tumour location with 96 per cent accuracy.

Liquid biopsy could play an important role in managing patient care while relieving pressure on health-care systems. The practice can effectively detect cancer before conventional screening practices like MRIs and tissue biopsy, leading to more early-stage diagnoses. The researchers are currently testing for tumour content accuracy for common cancers like breast, lung and colon at stages I and II.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened our focus on both individual and collective health, and on the need for a robust, effective Canadian health-care system. The University of Ottawa’s excellence in academic and clinical research is recognized around the world. High-tech innovations currently present tremendous opportunities to advance precision medicine and smart health. uOttawa is seizing these opportunities through its new Advanced Medical Research Centre (AMRC), which will transform health and patient care, develop new treatments and therapies for devastating diseases, and advance new health technologies. In the fall of 2025, uOttawa will open this new, 350,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art research centre. The goal is to nurture a diverse health research and life sciences ecosystem, where collaboration drives innovation, develops talent, and accelerates the discovery and commercialization of transformative “made in Canada” solutions that improve and save lives.

Despite increased awareness about the prevalence of mental health concerns, many racial, ethnic and gender-diverse groups remain at risk for poor mental health outcomes. Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell, Faculty of Health, is working to change that through a revolutionary new research and training initiative, DIVERT, or the Digital, Inclusive, Virtual and Equitable Research Training in Mental Health platform. Pillai Riddell and a leadership team of eight principal investigators from six Canadian institutions have received $5.45 million over six years to create the platform.

DIVERT’s ultimate aim is to lead to a mental health system that better serves all Canadians. DIVERT will synergize expertise across Canada to create a more diverse pool of mental health practitioners and more digital and virtual mental health interventions that are grounded in inclusive and equitable knowledges. The platform will embed cultural affirmation into the mental health system by starting at the beginning of the pipeline: academic training programs that involve mental health.