The UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has signed a letter of understanding with Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).
This agreement makes it possible for the two organisations to work together to find new ways to improve each respective nation’s infrastructure for supporting research.
Exploring new opportunities
Through this partnership, the CFI and STFC will share information on their online infrastructure portals — the CFI’s Research Facilities Navigator and the UKRI Research and Innovation Infrastructure Portal.
The partners will also explore new opportunities for international collaboration between their researchers and research institutions. They will also pursue joint funding of research infrastructure and support for access to these infrastructures in the UK and Canada, and in other countries where the two partners have shared interests.
Professor Mark Thomson, Chief Executive of STFC, said:
This agreement will enable enhanced cooperation and collaboration with our colleagues in Canada, with whom we already enjoy strong relationships.
By strengthening our partnerships in research infrastructure and major national and international facilities, I believe researchers in both nations will see real benefits – providing further opportunities for the brightest and most curious scientific minds from the UK and Canada to work together.
Fostering research and innovation
The five-year partnership will foster international research and innovation by giving researchers and institutions from both countries more opportunities to collaborate. It will also strengthen the close relationship between the research communities in Canada and the UK.
CFI President and CEO, Roseann O’Reilly Runte, says:
This agreement brings us together to make research infrastructure in both countries better known and available to academic and industrial researchers around the world. It will enable us to create synergies, spark innovation and economic development.