CIGI is an independent, non-partisan Canadian think tank that produces research and policy recommendations on international governance challenges, with a dedicated program focused on managing global-scale risks from advanced AI systems.
CIGI is an independent, non-partisan Canadian think tank that produces research and policy recommendations on international governance challenges, with a dedicated program focused on managing global-scale risks from advanced AI systems.
People
Updated 05/18/26Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow (nonresident)
Councillor, World Refugee Council
Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $8,000,000
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- -
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) was founded in 2001 by Jim Balsillie, then co-CEO of Research In Motion (BlackBerry), with an initial private endowment of $20 million from Balsillie and $10 million from co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. In 2003, the Government of Canada matched the combined $30 million, bringing total founding capitalization to approximately $60 million. CIGI is headquartered at 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on a dedicated campus shared with the Balsillie School of International Affairs. CIGI operates as an independent, non-partisan think tank with roughly 168 staff members. It is led by President Paul Samson, who joined as CIGI's fourth president in September 2022 after nearly 25 years in senior roles across the Government of Canada, including Finance Canada and Global Affairs Canada. CIGI is supported primarily by its endowment and by ongoing grants from the Government of Canada and (previously) the Government of Ontario, along with project-specific philanthropic and government grants. CIGI's 2025-2030 Strategic Plan organizes its research across four areas: AI and transformative technology; data, economy and society; digitalization, security and democracy; and global cooperation and governance. Key programs include the Global AI Risks Initiative, the Digital Policy Hub (a fellows program launched in 2023, funded by Mitacs), the Freedom of Thought Program on digital rights, and the Waterloo Security Dialogue. The Global AI Risks Initiative is CIGI's most directly AI-safety-relevant program. It was created to advance the international governance needed to manage global AI risks, including catastrophic risks from intentional misuse of powerful AI systems and from autonomous AI systems that cannot be controlled. The Initiative is led by Executive Director Duncan Cass-Beggs, formerly head of strategic foresight at the OECD. Open Philanthropy awarded the Initiative a $300,000 grant announced in September 2024. Work under the Initiative includes research on framework conventions for global AI challenges, national security scenarios for next-generation AI, and international cooperation mechanisms for AI risk management. In 2025, during Canada's G7 Presidency, CIGI organized the Think7 (T7) process and hosted the T7 Summit at its Waterloo campus, delivering policy recommendations to Canada's G7 Sherpa. CIGI released its 2025 Annual Report in January 2026, highlighting its expanded global impact and the launch of the Canadian AI Adoption Initiative in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Living Standards and the University of Waterloo.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26CIGI believes that the most dangerous risks from advanced AI are fundamentally global in nature and cannot be managed by any single government or technical community acting alone. The causal chain begins with CIGI producing rigorous, independent research that clarifies what global-scale AI challenges actually require in terms of international cooperation, including both technical AI safety breakthroughs and governance breakthroughs. CIGI then convenes policymakers, AI researchers, civil society, and international institutions to build consensus around specific governance mechanisms. By working through multilateral venues such as the G7, the UN, and bilateral policy dialogues, CIGI aims to catalyze the creation of international agreements, treaty frameworks, and institutional arrangements that can verify AI safety standards, coordinate responses to AI-related emergencies, and create legitimate processes for making shared decisions about how advanced AI is developed and deployed. The theory holds that absent such international frameworks, competitive pressures among states and between companies will drive unsafe AI development, and that well-designed governance institutions are a necessary complement to technical AI safety work.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects
Updated 05/18/26
The Canadian AI Adoption Initiative is a joint effort of CIGI, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards and the University of Waterloo to develop policy recommendations and metrics that drive economy‑wide AI adoption and address Canada’s productivity challenges.
The Digital Policy Hub is a CIGI fellowship program that hosts emerging scholars and practitioners to develop research and policy skills on the governance of transformative digital technologies in collaboration with universities, governments and the private sector.
CIGI’s Global AI Risks Initiative develops international governance solutions and treaty concepts to manage global risks from advanced AI systems, including work on a framework convention on global AI challenges and AI national‑security scenarios.
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