The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a Canadian-based global research organization that brings together teams of top researchers from around the world to address important and complex questions. It was founded in 1982 and is supported by individuals, foundations and corporations, as well as funding from the
Government of Canada and the provinces of
Alberta and
Quebec.
Operations
CIFAR staff supports more than 400 researchers from 21 countries and more than 140 institutions.[1] Approximately half of the researchers are based in Canada and half are located abroad. The President and CEO is directly responsible to the
Chair and the
Board of Directors, who are responsible for funding allocation and approval of research programs. In November 2022,
Stephen Toope became president and CEO.[2] William L. Young is the chair of CIFAR's Board of Directors.[3] CIFAR receives funding from a blend of governments, partnerships (research organizations and universities), private sector (corporations, foundations and individuals) and investment income. CIFAR's annual budget in 2018 was $30M.[4] In 2017, CIFAR was asked by the Government of Canada to develop and lead the
Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy.[5]
Research programs
As of 2023, CIFAR supports research in 15 major multidisciplinary areas:[6]
Molecular Architecture of Life (established 2014, closing 2020)
Process
CIFAR (pronounced "see-far") works with researchers around the world to identify major new areas of scholarship with potential for transformative knowledge. The organization assembles diverse groups of scholars in its programs, many of whom are established leaders in their fields, and others who are promising early-career researchers.
The CIFAR research model relies on deep collaboration at regular program meetings. These meetings bring together researchers from different countries, institutions, disciplines and levels of experience, who might not otherwise meet.
By building long-term, interdisciplinary, global communities, CIFAR provides researchers with an environment of trust that inspires risk-taking and new directions of inquiry.
Each research program also develops a
knowledge mobilization strategy that includes roundtables, panel discussions, and workshops to bring researchers together with experts outside academia in order to enrich research and stimulate social, economic and technical innovations.
Periodically, CIFAR will refresh its portfolio by initiating a Global Call for Ideas and inviting the global research community to submit proposals for new programs that address complex, fundamental questions of importance to the world.[7] After a rigorous process involving workshops, interviews and consultations with expert panels, new programs are selected. Programs are run on five-year renewal cycles.
History
CIFAR was founded in 1982. The original idea for an institute for advanced studies came from John Leyerle, a professor of
English and dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the
University of Toronto who began rallying support for the concept in 1978.[8] The centre would serve to "foster basic, conceptual research of high quality at an advanced level across the full spectrum of knowledge in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and life sciences."[9]Fraser Mustard, a medical doctor and researcher in early childhood development, was appointed as founding president of CIFAR in January 1982. The first 25 years of its history is covered in the book A Generation of Excellence by Craig Brown.[10]
CIFAR fellows published several papers in 1994, including "Why are some people healthy and others not",[11] that argued policies driven by population health could address
health disparities. They named 10 determinants of health, listing socio-economic status as the most influential. The government adopted the term population health and renamed a branch of the
Public Health Agency of Canada "Population and Public Health."[12]
In 2004,
Geoffrey Hinton began leading CIFAR's Neural Computation & Adaptive Perception program. Its members included
Yoshua Bengio and
Yann LeCun, among other neuroscientists, computer scientists, biologists, electrical engineers, physicists, and psychologists. Together, they confirmed Hinton's conviction about the power of neural networks when they created computing systems that mimicked human intelligence. Today, the three are widely acknowledged as the pioneers of
deep learning. In 2019, the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) named Hinton, Bengio and LeCun as recipients of the 2018
ACM A.M. Turing Award for conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep
neural networks a critical component of computing.[13]
In 2017,
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) renewed and enhanced its funding for CIFAR, investing $35 million over five years. The government also announced that CIFAR will administer a $125 million Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy for research and talent.[15] In 2022, CIFAR announced the second phase of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, which includes up to $208 million in federal support to CIFAR over ten years.[16]
^Brown, Craig. A Generation of Excellence. The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, 2007. Published by the University of Toronto Press.
ISBN978-0-8020-9232-8
^Brown, Craig. A Generation of Excellence. The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, 2007. Published by the University of Toronto Press.
ISBN978-0-8020-9232-8
^Kirk, M, Tomm-Bonde, L, Schreiber, R. "Public health reform and health promotion in Canada."
Global Health Promotion, vol. 21, no. 2 15-22 (June, 2014).