1. Research Excellence
  2. Leaders in Research that Protects Canadian Sovereignty and Shared Prosperity

Leaders in Research that Protects Canadian Sovereignty and Shared Prosperity

Defence and dual-use research at Queen's not only helps safeguard Canada’s infrastructure and democratic institutions, but also drives innovations that enhance the well-being and prosperity of Canadians.

In alignment, with Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy, our research community contributes to building a robust domestic defence economy while committing to dual-use research — work that advances national security while delivering tangible societal benefits.

In an era of rapidly evolving security challenges, universities like Queen's play a crucial role in creating knowledge and innovation to protect sovereignty while strengthening the systems that underpin everyday life, from cybersecurity and critical infrastructure to artificial intelligence and resilient supply chains.

 

Partnering to build

Queen’s and Simon Fraser University (SFU) have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly pursue federal support through the AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program. The goal is to join forces to shape national, sovereign infrastructure in advanced computing for Canada.

Strengthening Canada’s supercomputing capabilities

Academic research, national defence, and alliance commitments

Researcher Stéfanie von Hlatky reflects on NATO’s priorities and how universities fit into a rapidly shifting security landscape.

Reflections on a changing alliance

Celebrating 50 years of defence policy research

Kingston is a city where military history is hard to miss. The relationship between civilian and military life here stretches back centuries — a history that influenced how research around defence and international affairs developed at Queen’s.

Five decades shaping international defence policy

Simplicity and performance: the future of computing

Bhavin Shastri and team developed a powerful new kind of computing machine that uses light to take on complex problems. Built from off-the-shelf components, it also operates at room temperature and remains remarkably stable while performing billions of operations per second.

Advancing photonics research

Supporting innovation that reaches the sky

Founded in 2021, Stratotegic’s technology combines both hardware and software in a low-cost, fully autonomous high-altitude balloon (HAB) to tackle critical challenges such as wildfire monitoring and surveillance of Arctic sovereignty.

Scale Up Platform client achieves milestone launch

Featured researchers

[headshot of Ryan Grant]

Ryan Grant

is an expert in cloud computing, high performance networks, low-level hardware-software interfaces, and extreme-scale systems.

Ryan Grant's faculty profile
[headshot of Sté​fanie von Hlatky]

Sté​fanie von Hlatky

focuses on military cooperation, NATO alliances, deterrence, and gender dynamics in the armed forces.

Sté​fanie von Hlatky's faculty profile
[headshot of Bhavin Shastri]

Bhavin Shastri

is modelling light-powered computers inspired in the human brain.

Bhavin Shastri's faculty profile
[Nir Rotenberg in a research lab]

Nir Rotenberg

investigates quantum light-matter interactions within nanophotonic systems and potential applications in quantum devices and circuits.

Nir Rotenberg's faculty profile
[headshot of Michael Murphy]

Michael Murphy

studies international relations and security, science and technology policy, and Canadian politics.

Michael Murphy's faculty profile
[headshot of Ian Karlin]

Ian Karlin

is working to improve the design of supercomputers and the performance of workloads on those systems, both scientific and AI.

Ian Karlin's faculty profile