Fulbright Canada News

Fulbright Canada U.S. Student Kyrin Pollock is combining marine acoustics, Inuvialuit knowledge, and multimedia storytelling to better understand the changing soundscape of Arctic waters.

Fulbright Canada’s 2026 Fall Orientation welcomed 52 Fulbright Students and Scholars and Killam Fellows to Ottawa for two days of academic presentations, thoughtful conversations and shared cultural experiences. Participants looked ahead to the year to come and began building professional and personal relationships across the new cohort.

Entrepreneurship is often associated with new products and emerging technologies, but some of its most meaningful contributions can be found in efforts to strengthen communities and improve everyday life. For Keyia Yalcin, innovation is rooted in sustainability, resilience, and local impact.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping every sector of society, from healthcare and finance to education and critical infrastructure. Yet as AI systems become more capable and more deeply integrated into daily life, they also introduce new security challenges that demand innovative solutions. For Dr. Ali Dehghantanha, a 2025–2026 Fulbright Canada Short-term Entrepreneurship Award recipient, addressing these emerging risks has become both a research mission and an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Innovation thrives when ideas are matched with opportunity, mentorship, and the communities needed to transform ambition into impact. For Lucas Chu, a 2025–2026 Fulbright Canada Short-term Entrepreneurship Award recipient, entrepreneurship is not only about building companies, but also about cultivating ecosystems where founders, researchers, investors, and innovators can collaborate to solve complex challenges and shape the future.

New binational research initiative examines the choices, barriers and opportunities shaping Canada's energy and economic future.

Fulbright Canada will launch its new Energy Security & Sustainability Initiative (ESSI) on September 3, bringing together leading Canadian and U.S. scholars to examine how to advance economic growth and affordability while strengthening energy security and sustainability in a rapidly changing North American and global environment.

Fulbright Canada celebrated outstanding Indigenous governance and innovation this week at the Victoria Forum, presenting the 2026 Honouring Nations Canada Governance and Innovation Awards to Indigenous Nations, Indigenous-led organizations and initiatives that are demonstrating the power of strong governance, visionary leadership and innovation to strengthen communities and help shape Canada’s future.

Innovation often begins with a scientific breakthrough, but its true impact is realized when that discovery reaches the people who can benefit from it. For Dr. Frédéric St-Denis-Bissonnette, entrepreneurship serves as the bridge between research and real-world application.

As emerging technologies reshape how knowledge is created, shared, and protected, innovators must find new ways to ensure that scientific progress is both efficient and responsible. Kristine Pashin is helping lead that effort at the intersection of technology, law, and public policy.

Meaningful learning often happens beyond the classroom. Whether discussing current events, exploring new ideas, or engaging with differing perspectives, students benefit from opportunities to connect academic knowledge with the issues shaping their communities. Through his 2025 Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program project, Nathan Collett created a space where students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University could do exactly that. By bringing together emerging researchers from a wide range of disciplines, his initiative fostered thoughtful dialogue, encouraged civic engagement, and built a community committed to connecting academic scholarship with the social, economic, and public policy issues shaping the world today.

For countless generations, Indigenous knowledge has been passed from Elders to youth through stories, relationships, language, and direct experiences on the land. Yet in many communities, opportunities for these intergenerational teachings have become increasingly rare. Through her 2025 Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program project, Dr. Michele Lacombe sought to help renew those connections by creating a space where Indigenous youth could learn directly from Knowledge Keepers, engage with traditional plant medicines, and deepen their understanding of culture, language, and community. The result was a transformative learning experience that brought together Elders and youth in a shared journey of discovery, healing, and cultural resurgence.

In the Inuit communities of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, language carries far more than words; it carries history, identity, culture, and the knowledge of generations. Yet as Inuinnaqtun, an endangered dialect of Inuktitut spoken by fewer than 500 people, faces an uncertain future, opportunities for young children to learn the language have become increasingly limited. Through her 2025 Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program project, Anne-Michelle Engelstad sought to help change that reality.

Dr. Diane Jakacki’s career sits at the lively intersection of early modern literary studies and the evolving landscape of digital humanities, a field she has helped shape with equal measures of technical fluency, historical insight, and collaborative spirit.

Fulbright Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of three distinguished leaders, Dr. Melanie A. Woodin, Dr. Elissa Strome, and Ms. Chantal Lamoureux, to its Board of Directors. 

Fulbright Canada, in partnership with the Maple Leaf Foundation, is proud to announce the 2026 recipients of the Community Action Program (CAP) grant, an initiative that empowers Fulbright and Killam alums to translate academic insight into meaningful, community-driven impact across Canada and the United States.

Supporting Future Leaders, Advancing World-class Research, and Connecting Communities Around the World

Honouring Nations Canada (HNC), an initiative of Fulbright Canada, is now accepting applications for its 2026 awards recognizing excellence in Indigenous governance, innovative community practice, and Indigenous ways of knowing. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2026.

Fulbright Canada is pleased to announce the launch of the 2027–2028 U.S. Scholars Program, inviting distinguished American academics, researchers, and professionals to apply for prestigious awards that support collaborative research and lecturing opportunities at leading Canadian institutions. This year’s competition underscores Fulbright Canada’s enduring commitment to advancing academic excellence and strengthening U.S.–Canada relations through intellectual exchange.

Fulbright Canada is pleased to announce the launch of the 2026 Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program (CAP), now open to applications from alumni and current participants across Canada and the United States.

Fulbright Canada is pleased to announce the appointment of a new cohort of Alumni Advisory Committee members, bringing together a vibrant group of accomplished alumni from across Canada and the United States.

The promise of AI in healthcare is immense, but its progress hinges on something far more fundamental than algorithms: access to complete, clean, and compliant medical data. That’s the challenge Ayushi Sinha, Founder and CEO of Turmerik and a 2025 Fulbright Canada Entrepreneurship Initiative grantee, is tackling head-on.

In 2025, Fulbright Canada continued to advance its mission of fostering cross-border collaboration, mutual understanding, and meaningful exchange across academic, cultural, and community contexts. Through merit-based programs, participants at every stage of their educational journey engaged with new ideas, perspectives, and communities, thereby strengthening the foundations of a more connected, secure, and prosperous world.

In today’s hyper-competitive academic landscape, success is less about chance and more about access to the correct information, expert mentorship, and holistic strategy. For Changxiao Xie, co-founder of Empowerly and a Fulbright Canada Entrepreneurship Initiative grantee, this access should not be a privilege reserved for the few; it should be scalable, strategic, and innovative.

Fulbright Canada kicked off September by bringing together the latest cohort of bright minds, big thinkers, and emerging leaders for Fall Orientation in Ottawa. Over two days, Fulbright grantees and Killam Fellows connected with one another, engaged in thoughtful discussions, and explored the capital’s most iconic sites, setting the tone for the academic year ahead.