Research Centres/Institutes

There are nearly fifty distinct research centres and institutes at McGill University.

Below, you will find a sample of our most prominent, all on the cusp of groundbreaking research.

• The Life Sciences Complex is a landmark facility that encourages even greater interdisciplinary research by bringing some of the world’s key scientific talent under one roof. This speeds up the process of translating discoveries into treatments and cures, and in the process, strengthens Montreal's position as a leading hub of biomedical research in Canada and the world.
• The McGill Institute for Advanced Materials (MIAM) unites over 40 researchers from across the university who focus on nanoscience, nanotechnology and new materials. It has a particularly strong research program in the rapidly expanding area of nano-biotechnology and operates the world-class McGill Nanotools Microfabrication Laboratories, a professionally staffed clean room complex.
• The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) is a group of Quebec researchers in science, engineering, medicine and music from four institutions - McGill University, l'Université de Montréal, l'Université de Sherbrooke, and the CÉGEP de Drummondville. CIRMMT seeks to develop innovative approaches to the scientific study of music media and technology, to promote the application of newer technologies in science and the creative arts, and to provide an advanced research training environment.
• The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism is a focal point for innovative legal and interdisciplinary research, dialogue, and outreach on human rights and legal pluralism.
• The McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy is a multidisciplinary research institute that studies the impact of social conditions on health and leads programs to translate research into effective policy to improve those conditions worldwide.
• The Centre for Advanced Systems and Communications (SYTACom) has a mission to foster innovation in Quebec in the area of communications systems and technologies via advanced research and training of highly qualified personnel. To mobilize distributed expertise and promote a ‘systems’ approach, the Centre has formed inter-disciplinary teams of university researchers in signal processing, transmission technologies, networks, and software engineering and computer science.
• The Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (IPLAI) fosters interdisciplinary collaboration among scholars working in the Faculties of Arts, Education, Management, Religious Studies, and Law, as well as the Schools of Music and Architecture. It is dedicated to advancing humanities-based teaching and research in innovative and interdisciplinary ways.
• The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre is a world-renowned biomedical and health-care hospital research centre. The Institute is the research arm of the MUHC, the university health centre affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at McGill University. The Institute supports over 600 researchers, over 1,200 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows and operates more than 300 laboratories devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental and clinical research.
• The McGill Arctic Research Station (MARS) is located on Central Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian High Arctic. Established in 1960, MARS is one of the longest-operating seasonal field research facilities in the High Arctic. Current research activities include glaciology, climate change, permafrost hydrology, geology, geomorphology, limnology, planetary analogues, and microbiology.
• The McGill Institute for the Study of International Development is one of a few select North American epicentres for development research and teaching, generating impressive levels of original research, establishing new relations with the international development community, and training future generations of researchers, teachers, policymakers and development practitioners.
• The Pain Centre of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) is a bilingual hospital-based multidisciplinary pain treatment facility within the McGill Department of Anesthesia, which comprises of researchers from the Faculties of Medicine, Dentistry and Science. Through its own activities and international collaborations, the Centre focuses on new discoveries and their clinical applications that will improve the prevention and treatment of chronic pain.