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Healthy People and Populations
Description
Enhancing the health and wellness of people in Canada across all life stages.
Objectives
- Promote physical and mental health and wellness, including addressing the social, economic and environmental determinants of health
- Prevent and treat disease, whether chronic, rare or infectious, including emerging public health threats and future pandemics
- Advance OneHealth approaches, recognizing links between human, animal and environmental health
- Support Canada’s readiness for health emergencies
- Strengthen health care and primary care
- Address the profound systemic inequities and disparities impacting the health and wellness of women, Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized peoples, newcomers, faith-based communities, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQI+ peoples and other marginalized communities
Areas of focus
- Aging population (e.g., chronic conditions, dementia, health-care systems, safe long-term care)
- Antimicrobial resistance (e.g., OneHealth, microbiology, genetics)
- Autism
- Brain health (e.g., Alzheimer’s, dementia)
- Cancer prevention (e.g., firefighters)
- Indigenous health
- Mental health and wellness
- Post-traumatic stress injuries
- Precision medicine (e.g., treatment, prevention, diagnostics, imaging and analytics, rare diseases)
- Primary care (e.g., delivery models, access, outcome improvements, digital health and health data, health workforce)
- Substance use
- Public and population health
- Regenerative medicine (e.g., stem cells, tissue engineering, cell therapy)
- Suicide prevention
- Vaccinology and therapeutics (e.g., vaccine development, CAR-T cell research)
Cross-cutting disciplines and applications
- Enabling technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence [AI], blockchain, genomics, quantum)
- Social sciences and humanities, including ethics, law, policy and education
- Societal impacts (e.g., Northern and arctic, rural and Indigenous communities, youth, underrepresented communities, sustainable communities, security)
Innovative and Resilient Communities
Description
Creating vibrant communities that are affordable, inclusive, healthy, clean and secure.
Objectives
- Reduce economic and societal inequality, including through addressing systemic barriers to economic and social inclusion
- Improve and strengthen public institutions and public trust
- Create clean and safe environments
- Support inclusive and safe societies
- Support diverse forms of creativity and cultural expression to foster innovation and creative industries
- Improve housing supply, access, affordability and sustainability
- Develop social acceptability of large transformational projects
Areas of focus
- Advancing equality (e.g., social, economic, health)
- Data (e.g., data privacy, security, collection, analysis, skills, literacy, communication, governance, use)
- Disaster preparedness and recovery (e.g., emergency management)
- Governance and public institutions (e.g., democracy, security, public trust, mis- and dis-information, law)
- Healthy communities (e.g., social dimensions of aging; economic, social and environmental determinants of health; vulnerable populations)
- Housing security (e.g., innovative housing solutions and construction practices, addressing homelessness)
- Inclusive growth (e.g., immigration and settlement, business-sector innovation, productivity, social innovation, skills, youth labour market transition, digital economy, marginalization/inclusion, research barriers, interprovincial and international trade)
- Inclusive societies (e.g., reconciliation, systemic barriers, official languages, Indigenous languages, cross-cultural understandings, social cohesion, transportation, affordable housing)
- Resilient infrastructure (e.g., public transit, energy efficient and climate resilient infrastructure, rural and northern infrastructure, supply chains)
- Northern and arctic (e.g., climate resilience, social sustainability, security)
- Technological solutions to address community opportunities and challenges (e.g., smart cities)
- Technology and society (e.g., security, AI safety, bioscience, surveillance, impact of technology on relationships and human systems, protecting youth from online harm and cyberbullying, social media literacy, transportation, broadband)
Cross-cutting disciplines and applications
- Enabling technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain, genomics, quantum)
- Social sciences and humanities, including ethics, law, policy and education
- Societal impacts (e.g., Northern and arctic, rural and Indigenous communities, youth, underrepresented communities, sustainable communities, security)
Sustainable Food Systems
Description
Maximizing Canada’s agri-food potential to support economic growth and secure, equitable access to food.
Objectives
- Protect food sources through clean innovations in agri- and aqua-culture that enhance biosecurity, support biodiversity and improve water and waste management
- Enhance food quality, safety, stability and shelf life
- Develop and apply innovative technologies to improve agricultural processes and products and reduce carbon emissions
Areas of focus
- Agri- and aqua-culture (e.g., regenerative agriculture, genomics-enabled agriculture, innovations in fisheries management)
- Agriculture and irrigation technology (e.g., smart/precision agriculture, plant biotechnology, nanobiotechnology)
- Bioeconomy (e.g., bioprinting, digital integration, water utilizations)
- Climate change research (e.g., sustainable practices, climate impact)
- Food sovereignty (e.g., Northern and Indigenous communities)
- Indigenous-led agriculture (e.g., Indigenous plants, products and knowledge)
- Livestock health and sustainability (e.g., livestock vaccine research)
- Plant and soil health
- Proteins and alternative food sources
- Safety and security of food supply chain (e.g., technology enabled solutions)
Cross-cutting disciplines and applications
- Enabling technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain, genomics, quantum)
- Social sciences and humanities, including ethics, law, policy and education
- Societal impacts (e.g., Northern and arctic, rural and Indigenous communities, youth, underrepresented communities, sustainable communities, security)
Clean, Sustainable and Prosperous Canada
Description
Fighting climate change, promoting a resilient ecosystem and protecting Canada’s environment while harnessing the potential of our natural resources to advance net-zero and adaptation goals to support a resilient, sustainable economy and high quality of life.
Objectives
- Evaluate climate change risks and opportunities across natural resource sectors, advance climate science for better predictions and mitigation, and measure the impacts of transitioning to green economies
- Advance multidisciplinary science for climate resilience, preserve and protect natural environments, and integrate diverse knowledge systems for effective climate adaptation and progress towards net-zero
- Develop and advance sustainable approaches to resource extraction and processing, energy diversification, and acceleration of green technologies to maximize economic value and minimize adverse environmental impacts
- Foster and accelerate the transition to low-carbon buildings, transport and infrastructure, and address challenges in difficult-to-decarbonize sectors of the Canadian economy, such as aerospace
Areas of focus
- Alternative energy technologies (e.g., carbon dioxide conversion, industrial-scale hydrogen production, high-performing clean battery technology, small modular reactors, wind and solar power, geothermal and waste heat)
- Circular economy (e.g., waste treatment, management and value creation, greening manufacturing, sustainable materials)
- Clean transportation (e.g., electrification, green aviation, clean fuels and materials)
- Climate monitoring and modelling (e.g., measurement, climate monitoring, modelling and prediction, sensing technologies)
- Climate resilience (e.g., mitigation, adaptation and resilience; human impacts; climate policy; natural climate solutions)
- Conservation and restoration ecology (e.g., biodiversity, genetic diversity, OneHealth, pollution, microplastics)
- Construction sector (e.g., low carbon and net-zero materials, efficient appliances and systems, innovative housing, efficient building envelopes)
- Critical minerals and battery technologies
- Energy and energy security (e.g., sustainable oil and natural gas technologies and processes)
- Forestry (e.g., forest ecology, fire science, sustainable forest management)
- Green chemistry (e.g., carbon capture materials, reagents, green catalysts)
- Modern mining (e.g., sustainable mining technologies and processes)
- Net-zero and clean technologies (e.g., novel technology development, greenhouse gas abatement, carbon capture, utilization and storage)
- Northern and Arctic (e.g., polar science, geospatial monitoring, Indigenous resilience and adaptation, Indigenous knowledge, blue economy)
- Reducing energy consumption for data centres
- Water (e.g., oceans science and technologies; blue economy; freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems)
Cross-cutting disciplines and applications
- Enabling technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain, genomics, quantum)
- Social sciences and humanities, including ethics, law, policy and education
- Societal impacts (e.g., Northern and arctic, rural and Indigenous communities, youth, underrepresented communities, sustainable communities, security)
Technologically Advanced Canada
Description
Advancing transformative and enabling technologies that will support a technologically advanced economy and society.
Objectives
- Develop enabling and digital technologies and leverage disruption to support innovation
- Transform manufacturing processes and practices to enhance productivity
- Advance knowledge on public acceptance and adoption of new technologies
- Accelerate transition to a more digitally enabled society
Areas of focus
- AI (e.g., safety, machine and deep learning; human emotions / language applications, including both official languages and Indigenous languages; surveillance; computer vision)
- Big data technologies and analytics (e.g., Internet of Things, blockchain, predictive and cognitive analytics)
- Biomanufacturing (e.g., bioproducts, process optimization)
- Blue economy (e.g., coastal resilience, pollution management, autonomous systems, future-ready technology, energy systems)
- Climate science (e.g., autonomous monitoring systems, modelling for environmental prediction, agriculture practices, natural resource management)
- Critical minerals (e.g., mineral processing, energy storage)
- Cybersecurity (e.g., confidential computing technology, privacy, cryptography, cybercrime)
- Genomics and applied science (e.g., climate smart agriculture, precision health and medicine, sustainable food systems, environmental solutions, assessment and monitoring, AI tools)
- Materials and processing technologies (e.g., new and advanced materials; chemical manufacturing; metal, non-metal, composite material and photonics manufacturing; self-driving labs; nanotechnology; battery technologies)
- Micro-electronics and semiconductors design and manufacturing
- Next generation communication technology (e.g., 6G, Internet of Things)
- Photonics (e.g., computing, sensing and imaging; health care; manufacturing; communications)
- Quantum technologies (e.g., quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum communications)
- Small modular reactors and nuclear fusion
- Smart and digital manufacturing (e.g., robotics, embedded sensors, 3D printing)
- Space economy (e.g., technology, security, privatization)
Cross-cutting disciplines and applications
- Enabling technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain, genomics, quantum)
- Social sciences and humanities, including ethics, law, policy and education
- Societal impacts (e.g., Northern and arctic, rural and Indigenous communities, youth, underrepresented communities, sustainable communities, security)