Innovation Anthology #67: Vice President, Research
2007 marks the tenth anniversary of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
CFI is a granting agency that helps universities buy equipment that’s critical for conducting research.
To date, the Canada Foundation for Innovation has supported 5300 projects at 64 universities, leveraging over 11 billion dollars in funding.
But as CFI Vice President Suzanne Corbeil explains, this is an amazing turnaround from ten years ago.
SUZANNE CORBEIL: The 90’s are the dark ages of research, the late 80’s and early 90’s. There was little government funding going into research in Canada. Equipment and facilities had been so degraded that we were working on third class type infrastructure that could no longer compete.
Suzanne Corbeil cites WestGrid as one example where funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation has propelled our research effort into the 21st century. Westgrid is a high performance computing network. Originally serving the west, it has now evolved into seven grids linking researchers across the country.
SUZANNE CORBEIL: Actually there was an interesting article in the economist about a year ago that said when it comes to science, Canada matters. I think that we can be proud to say that we are a player on the international scene.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Lorne Babiuk, PhD,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Canada Foundation for Innovation
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure—state-of-the-art equipment, laboratories, databases, and the buildings necessary to conduct research. The CFI’s mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
Since its creation in 1997, CFI investments in research infrastructure have lead to breakthroughs in areas such as health, natural resources, information and communications technology, energy, and the environment.
La Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation (FCI) est un organisme autonome créé par le gouvernement du Canada pour financer l’infrastructure de recherche—l’équipement de pointe, les laboratoires, les bases de données de même que les bâtiments nécessaires pour mener des travaux de recherche. Le mandat de la FCI est de renforcer la capacité des universités, des collèges et des hôpitaux de recherche, de même que des établissements de recherche à but non lucratif du Canada de mener des projets de recherche et de développement technologique de calibre mondial qui produisent des retombées pour les Canadiens.
Depuis la création de la FCI en 1997, les investissements qu’elle a faits dans l’infrastructure ont mené à des percées dans des domaines tels que la santé, les ressources naturelles, les technologies de l’information et des communications, l’énergie et l’environnement.
Program Date: 2007-09-18