CIFAR Research Programs

CIFAR identifies areas of inquiry where it believes that significant new knowledge -- perhaps even revolutionary ideas -- can be created by bringing together the world's best thinkers to focus over a period of five years on a well-defined "Big Question".  Currently, CIFAR funds twelve different research Programs: Cosmology and Gravity; Earth System Evolution; Experience-Based Brain and Biological Development (EBBD); Genetic Networks; Institutions, Organizations and Growth (IOG); Integrated Microbial Biodiversity (IMB); Neural Computation and Adaptive Perception (NCAP); Nanoelectronics; Quantum Information Processing (QIP); Quantum Materials; Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being (SIIWB); and Successful Societies.

All CIFAR programs are made up of researchers from a variety of interrelated disciplines.  They meet two or three times per year, for two to four days at a time.  Each Program is led by a Program Director (or two co-Directors), who is recognized internationally as a major contributor to the field, and who leads and oversees the intellectual direction of a program.  Each Program also has an Advisory Committee, which is an international group of four to six senior, established researchers who provide feedback and advice to the Director(s) on the current direction of that area of inquiry, and on the overall research agenda of the program. CIFAR makes a five-year commitment to each program, with renewal contingent on the outcome of a peer review by international experts.

By facilitating and nurturing collaboration among the best researchers, and by providing this group with leadership and the advice of experts, CIFAR creates an arena for exploration and discovery, one that is not duplicated anywhere else in Canada or the world.

CIFAR's overall research effort is informed by advice from a scientific advisory body, the Research Council, composed mainly of eminent Canadian senior academics representing a wide range of fields of study.  Its members contribute wisdom and experience with respect to the Canadian and international research environment, and help to oversee CIFAR’s research programs and other related activities.