Athabasca University

Athabasca University is a comprehensive public academic and research university and Canada’s open university, serving more than 35,000 students through a fully digital, flexible model. Its distributed structure connects corporate, public-sector, community, and academic partners across regions, while an industry liaison function helps organizations shape collaborations and leverage public funding. The Research Office supports partnership development, grant preparation, knowledge mobilization, ethics, data management, intellectual property, and commercialization; cloud-based infrastructure supports digital research. Funding comes through Canada’s tri-agency system—CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC—plus Canada Research Chairs and the federal Research Support Fund.