IVADO: Collaboration for Innovation in AI

The more artificial intelligence advances, the clearer one fact becomes: the most important breakthroughs rarely happen in isolation. AI is now present in virtually every field of knowledge. Yet its development doesn’t depend solely on advances in computer science or data science. It also relies on contributions from disciplines as diverse as health, engineering, law, economics, and anthropology. AI innovation is therefore, by its very nature, a collective and transdisciplinary project.

The challenges related to AI reliability, adoption, governance, and social impact demand forms of collaboration that go beyond the traditional boundaries of research. The rise of AI also raises fundamental questions for the future of the sciences. Its growing ability to solve complex problems, produce proofs, or assist research is calling into question certain established practices in teaching, evaluation, and knowledge production. As the “Leiden Declaration on AI and Mathematics” points out, these transformations call for collective reflection on the future of scientific research itself.

It is precisely on this conviction that IVADO was founded. An interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral consortium for research, training, and knowledge mobilization, IVADO brings together researchers, organizations, public institutions, and businesses around a shared goal: advancing robust, reasonable, and responsible AI for the benefit of society. More than a network, IVADO acts as a connector between actors who don’t always naturally cross paths, and as a builder of the scientific, human, and institutional capacities needed for the responsible development of AI. By strengthening its capacities, the consortium does more than support research: it contributes directly to the emergence of discoveries and the advancement of knowledge. This approach rests on a simple observation: no single discipline, sector, or actor can, on its own, meet the scientific, technological, and societal challenges associated with AI.

Over the years, IVADO has helped build a research and innovation ecosystem grounded in collaboration among academia, industry, and government. Today, this ecosystem brings together more than 180 members and partners, along with more than 30 academic partners at the forefront of AI and digital transformation research in Quebec, Canada, and internationally. This community shares a deeply multidisciplinary vision of innovation and pursues common goals: advancing research ethically and responsibly, fostering the exchange of knowledge, developing standards and best practices, and supporting the adoption of robust, reasonable, and responsible approaches.

This ambition takes shape through IVADO’s research, training, transfer, and knowledge mobilization activities, which help circulate expertise among scientific communities, organizations, and decision-makers.

Scientific collaboration, however, is not limited to producing new knowledge. It also means building communities capable of circulating, enriching, and putting that knowledge into practice. The roughly 4,000 people involved in IVADO’s ethics and equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives illustrate the importance of these spaces for dialogue and co-construction.

From research to action: collaborations that create value

One of the first challenges is strengthening the dialogue between research and public policy. It is in this spirit that IVADO and the University of Ottawa’s AI + Society Initiative launched the “Global Policy Briefs,” a series of documents designed to help decision-makers address the major contemporary challenges of AI. This effort to bring scientific expertise closer to public action is also reflected in IVADO’s collaborations with various government partners, including, in Quebec, the Ministère de la Cybersécurité et du Numérique and the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur. It was also evident at the second edition of the international seminar “Shaping the Future of AI Regulation,” which brought together experts from Canada, the United Kingdom, and France in Quebec to discuss governance approaches capable of supporting innovation while protecting fundamental rights, democratic values, and public trust.

Collaboration is also a powerful lever for innovation. The support provided to the Quebec-Alberta company Baüne, as part of the Canadian Space Agency’s “New Frontiers in Health” initiative, illustrates this well. By connecting expertise from academia, industry, and the public sector, Baüne secured $2 million in funding to develop an intelligent medical module designed to support the autonomy of astronauts on mission. The impact of this project, however, extends well beyond the space sector: the technologies developed could also help improve access to care in remote, northern, and Indigenous communities across Canada.

This same logic guides other initiatives aimed at fostering the responsible adoption of AI in strategic sectors. Through the envisAGE program run by MEDTEQ+ and AGE-Well, where IVADO serves as the Canadian hub for AI innovation, the company Sentiom was able to launch the $5-million Mance-IA project to improve the safety and quality of services in seniors’ residences. In healthcare, the partnership between IVADO and CIFAR is working to accelerate the responsible integration of AI into Canada’s healthcare systems. The development of an open, interoperable platform — already deployed in several hospitals — supports more reliable diagnostics, a better understanding of the limitations of the models used, and greater collaboration among researchers, clinicians, and healthcare institutions.

Building bridges also means bringing scientific ecosystems closer together across the country. IVADO takes part in several structuring partnerships with Canadian centres of excellence. Collaborations established with the University of Toronto’s Acceleration Consortium, York University’s Connected Minds, and Concordia University’s Volt-Age bring together complementary expertise in scientific discovery, human-technology interaction, responsible AI, and energy transition. IVADO also maintains close ties with the three foundational institutes of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy — Mila, Vector, and Amii — notably through training activities, thematic schools, and research collaborations. A developing partnership with the Perimeter Institute is exploring how AI can accelerate scientific discovery in mathematics, theoretical physics, and the study of complex systems. These initiatives demonstrate the potential of networking Canada’s scientific strengths around shared ambitions.

Finally, collaboration must also allow innovation to reach every sector and community. Through PARTENAR-IA, IVADO works closely with Quebec’s sectoral industrial research groups to integrate AI expertise into co-construction projects bringing together businesses, sector partners, and university teams throughout the province. This approach fosters the responsible adoption of AI across a range of industries, while ensuring a reach that extends beyond major urban centres.

AI and reconciliation: community-rooted approaches

In the same spirit, IVADO supports the establishment of the AIAI Lab, which will provide technical and methodological support for AI projects carried out with and for Indigenous communities. By creating spaces for collaboration between AI experts, knowledge keepers, language guardians, and Indigenous researchers, this initiative helps develop approaches that are more inclusive and better culturally grounded. This work continues through the “Mamo/Mamu” initiative, led by IVADO together with Printemps numérique and developed in co-creation with young Indigenous leaders. By exploring the possibilities offered by AI, these young people are invited to reflect on the uses they want to see emerge in their communities and on how this technology can support their priorities and aspirations.

These initiatives take different forms, but they all rest on the same conviction: the scientific, economic, and social challenges of AI cannot be met in isolation. They require lasting collaboration among researchers, governments, businesses, and communities. It is by multiplying these connections across disciplines, sectors, and regions that Canada will be able to fully harness the potential of AI, while ensuring that as it becomes more robust, reasonable, and responsible, it increasingly serves society.

Raising ambitions for the next decade

The initiatives presented here demonstrate the considerable potential of the collaborations now developing among universities, governments, businesses, and communities. They also invite us to reflect on the next step. Canada, as outlined in the new federal strategy “AI for All,” unveiled on June 4, 2026, could do more to support and unify AI training efforts underway across the country, while developing a more ambitious strategy to support AI entrepreneurship — accelerating the shift from research to innovation, and then to AI adoption across all organizations.

In the same spirit, some ambitions explored in recent years deserve to be revisited. This is notably the case for the AI/AI CAN initiative, which had been submitted to the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s “Major Science Initiatives” program. Its goal was to create a pan-Canadian cohort of professionals capable of supporting the adoption of AI across academic, industrial, and social settings. At a time when AI adoption needs to accelerate across all of society, this vision remains just as relevant today. It is a reminder that one of our most important challenges is not only developing new technologies, but building the human capacity, networks, and partnerships that will allow the whole country — and its people — to benefit from them.

Halima Bachir is a public policy and AI governance analyst at IVADO. Réjean Roy is Director of Training and Knowledge Mobilization at IVADO. Luc Vinet, CM, OQ, FRSC, is the Aisenstadt Professor of Physics at the Université de Montréal and the outgoing Executive Director of IVADO.