The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) spent $490 million of $500 million in federal funding over four years to upgrade biocontainment facilities and support research infrastructure in the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.

The $490 million of federal funding announced in the 2021 Budget was disbursed over two national competitions, one in 2022 and the other in 2024, the CFI said.

More than $127 million was invested in the 2022 competition, under the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Fund administered by the CFI, to support upgrades to eight biocontainment facilities across the country.

This competition “was designed to help the country’s institutions prepare for pandemics and other health emergencies,” Mohamad Nasser-Eddine (photo at right), vice-president of programs and planning at the CFI, said in an email to Research Money.

The competition provided funding to build, modernize and expand high-containment laboratory facilities (primarily CL3 labs) and associated large-animal facilities at leading Canadian institutions, “thereby equipping researchers to safely study, detect and counteract dangerous and emerging pathogens, including tuberculosis, multidrug-resistant organisms, and zoonotic viruses that can jump from animals to humans,” he said.

Projects funded from the 2022 competition were:

• Expanding a laboratory at Canada's Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats at McMaster University, where an internationally renowned team of experts in infectious disease and immunological research find new antimicrobials, antivirals, vaccines and diagnostics to combat the world's worst pathogens

• Enlarging the containment level 3 facility at the University of Calgary to be able to visualize what a pathogen is doing inside a cell and to see whether new drugs are working, making it one of a few CL3 facilities in North America with the capability to do so.
• Expanding Western University's Imaging Pathogens for Knowledge Translation containment level 3 facility and establishing a new Pathogen Research Centre to test the effectiveness of new antimicrobial materials and strategies that will reduce or prevent the spread of pathogens through the air or by touch.
• Expanding the capacity of the Toronto High Containment Facility, which is part of the Emerging and Pandemic Infections Consortium at the University of Toronto to make it a world leader in its ability to support innovative interdisciplinary research
• Supporting ongoing research at McGill University on emerging pathogens to develop new lines of investigation and train the next generation of infectious disease researchers.
• Upgrading the capability of the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization to study pathogens that emerge in animal and human populations
• Modernizing one of the containment level 3 labs at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control to focus on SARS-CoV-2, tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant pathogens
• Creating a centre for discovery and translational research at the University of Alberta’s Alberta High Containment Research Infrastructure facility that will develop and test new vaccines and therapeutics to support the immediate and long-term growth needs of Canada's biopharmaceutical sector.

The CFI provided more than $361 million for infrastructure in biomanufacturing and life sciences

The second, 2024 competition allocated $361.5 million million through CFI and was a joint program – the Canada Biomedical Research Fund, administered by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat and the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF), administered by the CFI, and was designed to more broadly support the objectives of the federal government’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy.

The total funding for 19 projects at 14 institutions also included an additional $113 million from the CFI’s Infrastructure Operating Fund, which covers ongoing costs like technicians’ salaries and electricity to maintain and maximize the use of the infrastructure.

“For the funded institutions, these projects represent a significant boost in research capacity, talent development, and infrastructure,” Nasser-Eddine said.

The 2024 competition supported infrastructure at the five research hubs identified through the Canada Biomedical Research Fund and created in 2022. The five hubs are:

• The CBRF PRAIRIE Hub: Protecting Canada by Building on Excellence in Pandemic Preparedness. Led by the University of Alberta. Accelerating the development and commercialization of vaccine, antiviral and diagnostic countermeasures for potential pandemic pathogens.
• Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub: Engineering Immunity for Pandemic Response. Led by the University of British Columbia. Helping develop next-generation immune-based therapeutics that can be manufactured domestically using the latest innovations in biomanufacturing in response to pandemics.
• Eastern Canada Pandemic Preparedness Hub. Led by the Université de Montréal. Increasing the agility, connectivity and growth of the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector to ensure that Canada is prepared for future pandemics and public health crises.
• Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub. Led by the University of Ottawa and McMaster University. Catalyzing research and biomanufacturing innovations to help Canada produce vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics ahead of future pandemics.
• Canadian Hub for Health Intelligence & Innovation in Infectious Diseases. Led by the University of Toronto. Advancing the concept of “personalized and precise medicine” to influence the development of vaccines, therapeutics and other public health interventions.

The multidisciplinary research hubs will accelerate the research and development of next-generation vaccines and therapeutics and diagnostics, while supporting training and development to expand the pipeline of skilled talent.

The hubs will also accelerate the translation of promising research into commercially viable products and processes. 

In addition to improving responses to emerging health threats, CFI said its Biomedical Research Fund investments support the biomedical and biomanufacturing sector as a whole, building public-private sector partnerships and speeding the translation of academic discoveries into scalable commercial applications and products.

CFI-funded infrastructure projects will support:

• Building Canada’s capacity to identify and monitor pathogens through new technologies and improved processes.
• Identifying and address bottlenecks and gaps to ensure the country’s biomanufacturing processes are reliable, scalable and adaptable.
• Strengthening Canada’s collaborative biomanufacturing ecosystem while providing hands-on training across a range of career trajectories and stages
• Developing new vaccines, antibiotics and immune-based therapeutics.
• Improve diagnostic testing, including working with marginalized communities to address diagnostic gaps.
• Policy development to increase public trust in, and access to, safe and effective vaccines and other bioscience innovations.

In March 2025, the five research hubs submitted midterm progress reports covering March 2023 to March 2025 and focusing on activities, partnerships, and inter-hub collaboration, the CFI said. “These reports show hubs have established strong governance, collaborative frameworks and partnerships that position Canada for rapid pandemic response,” Nasser-Eddine said.

“The funded research infrastructure involves multiple funding partners and collaborating institutions. The labs and equipment are complex, often involving construction, major renovations and procurement of specialized equipment,” he noted.

Institutions can only report on results from the funding once the equipment is operational and actively supporting research, he added.

“The CFI builds this reality into its timelines, and as a result is expecting some of the institutions that received funding for the first Biomedical Research Funding competition to start reporting on their outputs and outcomes this spring.”

Starting in April 2026, a midterm review, conducted by a review board of expert reviewers, will assess whether projects have achieved meaningful progress.

Project reporting must demonstrate how activities contribute to hub’s objectives, ensuring coherence within the broader research ecosystem and reinforcing Canada’s biomanufacturing and life sciences capacity.

Criteria the CFI uses to award funding

The CFI’s funding decisions are based on a competitive, rigorous and independent merit-review process, Nasser-Eddine said.

The CFI’s merit-review process is designed to reward research excellence; is rigorous, competitive and independent; is strategic by awarding funding to projects that align with an institution’s research strengths; and is aligned with the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, which promotes using a range of outputs and impact measures, rather than journal publications alone, to assess the overall value of research.

“We engage independent experts in relevant research fields from around the world to contribute to our review process,” Nasser-Eddine said. “The CFI seeks out individuals who bring a range of expertise and experience to the process and convenes reviewers who collectively reflect our values of equity, diversity and inclusion.”

Details on the CFI’s criteria  and how its process works for our regular competitions are available  here.  

For Biomedical Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF) competitions specifically, applicant institutions had to adhere to federal  guidelines for safeguarding science. The CFI’s staff ensured that proposals did not contain sensitive information and members of the expert committee were subject to a security screening depending on the project.   

In the first stage of review, the expert committees assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal against the assessment criteria. Proposals that did not meet the standards of excellence were rejected and did not move to the next stage.  

For the first BRIF competition in 2022, which supported upgrading of Canada’s biocontainment facilities, the six assessment criteria were:  

• Research excellence. The research activities enabled by the biocontainment facility and/or associated animal facility are internationally competitive and aligned with Canada’s priorities. The facility has a demonstrated track record of excellence in research.  
• Research teams. The diverse teams of researchers using the facility have the breadth of expertise to conduct the proposed activities.  
• Enhancement of the capacity to respond to emerging human health threats. The requested infrastructure is needed to enhance Canada’s capacity to respond to pandemics and emerging human health threats. It is appropriate for the proposed activities.  
• Collaborations and partnerships. The requested infrastructure will support enhanced academic collaboration with industry, not-for-profit organizations and public-sector partners.  
• Sustainability. The facility will be optimally used, operated and sustained over its useful life.  
• Anticipated benefits. The team and its partners have a well-defined plan to transfer the results of the research and technology development. Furthermore, the facility will attract and train highly qualified personnel linked to the needs of the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.  

The CFI typically funds up to 40 percent of a project’s research infrastructure costs. Institutions leverage the CFI’s support to attract the remaining 60 percent from partners in the public, provide and non-profit sectors.

Overall aim is to achieve high impact, cross-sector bioscience research

The criteria for the second Biomedical Research Funding Infrastructure competition, announced in 2024, can be found here:

• Relevance: Extent to which the proposal’s objectives and design are aligned with and respond to the strategic objectives and Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy.
• Impact:
  Extent to which the proposal is expected to generate significant benefits for Canada. The proposal bolsters Canada’s key bio-innovation capabilities and the Canadian biomanufacturing and life sciences sector by improving Canada’s pandemic readiness and domestic capacity to produce life-saving vaccines and therapeutics. The impacts and benefits to Canada go beyond academic outcomes and include building capacity to accelerate the translation of promising discoveries into products and services by leveraging cross-sector and multidisciplinary partnerships.
• Coherence: Extent to which the proposal complements other proposals within and across the five multidisciplinary research hubs. In combination with the proposals submitted within and across hubs, the proposal contributes to a coherent, coordinated and effective program of research. The proposal leverages and complements proposals submitted within and across hubs to bolster areas in which Canadian research is cutting-edge, while addressing critical gaps in the biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.

In the second stage of review for each BRIF competition, an international Strategic Review Committee (SRC) was convened to ensure that the research infrastructure investments directly supported the objectives and priorities of the federal government’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy, Nasser-Eddine said.

The members of the SRC were jointly selected by the federal granting agencies and the CFI. This committee reviewed proposals that the expert committees deemed through peer review to meet or exceed a threshold of scientific and technical excellence. The SRC’s role was to:  

• Recommend projects that were in strategic alignment with the objectives of Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy, as well as with other related investments.  
• Assess other anticipated benefits to Canada, including health, economic and social benefits, as well as plans for knowledge mobilization and/or technology transfer and for the training of highly qualified personnel. 
• Recommend the amount of CFI support for each proposal. 

To coordinate the review processes and avoid duplication of review efforts, the CFI collaborated with relevant provincial funding authorities to provide them with expert committee reports, as permitted by the Privacy Act. These authorities were invited to share their views on the alignment of the proposals with provincial priorities for consideration by the SRC. 

The CFI’s board of directors reviewed the recommendations and approved final funding, as it does for all CFI funding programs.  

The CFI-funded research infrastructure at the five research hubs increases the postsecondary institutions’ capacity to achieve high impact, cross-sector bioscience research, Nasser-Eddine said.

“The CFI-funded world-class research infrastructure helps the universities and hospitals work with partners, commercialize solutions and train the new generation of highly qualified personnel,” he added.

“By prioritizing next-generation technologies, such as advanced lipid nanoparticle delivery, RNA vaccine platforms, cell-based therapies, and AI-enabled processes, this funding helps position the postsecondary institutions and research hospitals as global leaders in biomanufacturing and life sciences innovation.”

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