Since 2016, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences has had the privilege of being a nominating partner for the Governor General’s Innovation Awards. Led by the Office of the Governor General and the Rideau Hall Foundation, this national award program celebrates excellence in innovation across all sectors of Canadian society and inspires Canadians, particularly Canadian youth, to be entrepreneurial innovators. Through our participation in the GGIAs, the Federation helps showcase our humanities and social sciences community as an important source of innovation.
Please note the Federation only accepts recommendations for the Governor General's Innovation Awards from members (scholarly associations or institutions) in good standing.
Calls for recommendations for the 2025 GGIA now closed
Federation members (scholarly associations and institutions) were invited to recommend outstanding innovators or innovations from our community for the 2025 Governor General's Innovation Awards.
For these awards, innovation is understood as addressing a pressing problem with a solution that is based on new thinking, and putting that solution into action. Innovations must have already demonstrated significant impact on the quality of life in Canada.
Selection criteria for nominees:
- Inspiration – extent to which knowledge, technology, approaches or methods have been deployed in the process of innovation
- Leadership – evidence of initiative, collaboration, risk-taking and problem-solving in the process of developing and implementing innovation
- Impact – impact the innovation is having because of its successful implementation in the sector, economy, society or culture.
- Nominees need to be living Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
For more information, browse this one-page document.
Any questions about this program can be directed to Bailee Dobson, Policy Officer, at bdobson@federationhss.ca.
Read about our winning nominees!
2025
ODARA: The Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment
2019
The SmartICE team, represented by Trevor Bell, Shelly Elverum, Jenny Mosesie, Shawna Dicker, SmartICE - making ice travel safe
2017
Dr. Marie-Odile Junker, Taking steps to preserve endangered Aboriginal languages in Canada