New federated infrastructure framework enables secure, cloud-based collaboration across Canadian research institutions while keeping data under local control
TORONTO, CANADA, May 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Lifebit, a global leader in federated data technology, and the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath), Canada’s largest national population health cohort, today announced the establishment of Canada’s National Federated Research Infrastructure framework. The initiative creates a shared approach that helps researchers work together across institutions while keeping data secure and under local control.
Canada’s research community has long faced a challenge: national studies require large and diverse datasets, but individual studies must also respect participant consent, meet data governance requirements, and maintain trust with participant communities.
Previously, this meant data was siloed on physical onsite servers, making widescale study difficult. But, with this new framework, we can directly address this challenge by hosting data within secure, Canadian-based cloud environments.
“Canada does not need another pilot or prototype. We need infrastructure that works at scale, today,” said Maria Dunford, CEO at Lifebit.
For CanPath, this cloud-enabled federated approach builds on its harmonized national dataset, allowing regional cohorts to store and manage data on high-performance infrastructure while retaining full governance, oversight, and decision-making authority. It also enables secure federated analyses across Canadian and international cohorts without requiring data to be moved or centralized.
For other participating cohorts and future partners, it means they can maintain control of their data locally while still connecting to a national research network that allows approved researchers to run analyses across multiple sites. In all cases, the federated model ensures that data remains with the organization that collected it, while still enabling cross institutional studies without moving sensitive information into a centralized database.
An initial research environment is now live, including a synthetic dataset — a realistic but simulated version of data that allows researchers to test tools and workflows without using real participant information. This is an important early step that allows partners to safely prepare for collaboration before real datasets are onboarded.
Phased onboarding of participating regional cohorts within CanPath is underway and will continue throughout 2026.
“CanPath is built on a harmonized national dataset that already allows researchers to study large, multimodal health data across regions,” said Dr. Jennifer Brooks, CanPath Executive Director. “This new framework strengthens that foundation by providing a secure environment for analysis and enabling collaboration not only across Canada, but with international population health initiatives as well.”
This infrastructure is designed to support a growing network of Canadian partners, including other population cohorts similar to CanPath, biobanks, sequencing initiatives, and research networks. Built through the collaboration between CanPath and Lifebit, the framework gives organizations a shared foundation they can adopt without replacing their existing systems.
By adopting common approaches, like standardized data dictionaries, harmonized consent language, shared governance frameworks, and compatible technical standards, the CanPath–Lifebit model helps institutions across Canada collaborate more easily while maintaining control over access and governance of their data.
Early work led by CanPath and Lifebit focuses on creating shared research environments where harmonized data can be securely managed and analyzed using the tools available within the platform. The infrastructure is designed as a complete research analytics environment, rather than just a data storage solution. As onboarding progresses, participating organizations will be able to contribute to and benefit from a shared national research capability.
The infrastructure operates within secure Canadian-hosted cloud environments that meet national data residency, privacy and security requirements. Each participating organization keeps control over who can access its data and how it is used.
The initiative aims to support stronger national alignment across Canada’s research landscape by providing a shared foundation that organizations can adopt without replacing their existing systems.
“The goal is not to centralize data,” added Dunford. “It is to make collaboration easier and more sustainable across Canada’s research community.”
Looking ahead, the framework will support continued onboarding of cohorts, expanded research collaborations, and new pan-Canadian studies that draw on diverse datasets while respecting local oversight and governance models.
“We’re creating and sharing the conditions for collaboration at a national scale,” added Dr. Philip Awadalla, CanPath National Scientific Co-Director. “As more partners join, the benefits grow for researchers, institutions, and ultimately for Canadians.”
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About Lifebit
Lifebit is the global leader in federated, secure, and compliant health data intelligence platforms and trusted research solutions. We help governments, health systems, and biopharma organisations unify, govern, and unlock biomedical data for real-world research, clinical impact, and life-saving discovery.
The Lifebit Platform Solutions are trusted by leading government and enterprise institutions including the NIH, Genomics England, and CanPath, among others, securely managing over 275 million patient records across 30+ countries.
With operations across the U.S., Canada, UK, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, Lifebit powers national precision medicine programmes and enterprise data infrastructures worldwide.
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About CanPath
CanPath, the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health, is Canada’s largest population health study and a national platform for health research. Comprised of more than 350,000 volunteer participants, CanPath is a unique platform that allows scientists to investigate how genetics, environment, lifestyle, and behaviour interact and contribute to developing chronic disease and cancer. CanPath is jointly hosted by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health with national funding from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.
Learn more: www.canpath.ca
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Media Inquiries
Megan Fleming
Communications & Knowledge Translation Officer, CanPath
megan.fleming@utoronto.ca
+1 416-978-5824
Nate Raine
Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences, Lifebit
+1 818-301-9022
nate@lifebit.ai
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