Monday, August 24, 2026

Previous | Next

• Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act (FITAA) registry
• Waterloo’s student rocketry team breaks a world record
• Game plan for a warmer world

Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act (FITAA) registry

This message is sent on behalf of Charmaine Dean, Vice-President, Research 

The University is aware of the federal government's new Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act (FITAA) registry, which took effect on August 4, 2026. Administered by the Office of the Foreign Influence Commissioner of Canada, the registry seeks to increase transparency around foreign influence activities. 
  
The University is actively reviewing the FITAA registry details to understand how this impacts our institution.  

In the meantime, we ask that you review the registration and compliance  section of the FITAA website and consider how this legislation may affect you. The section linked identifies that registration is required if all three of the following conditions are met : 

1. They have an arrangement with a foreign principal: 
   • A foreign principal includes a foreign power or state, a foreign entity (such as an organization or institution), a foreign economic entity, or an individual acting on their behalf 
2. The goal of the arrangement is to influence a political or governmental process in Canada 
   • A political or governmental process can include a legislative proposal, election, referendum, or government contract at any level of government 
3. The arrangement involves any of the following influence activities: 
   • Communicating with a public office holder, including elected officials and government employees at the federal, provincial/territorial or municipal levels 
   • Communicating or disseminating information related to the political or government process to the public, including on social media 
   • Providing money, services, use of facilities or items of value 

While information is currently limited, we will provide updates as they become available. In the interim, please send any general queries to safeguardingresearch@uwaterloo.ca. 

Waterloo’s student rocketry team breaks a world record

This is an excerpt from an article that was originally on the Faculty of Engineering website.

By: Charlotte Danby, Faculty of Engineering

The University of Waterloo Rocketry Team launched Polaris, a liquid bi-propellant rocket, at the 2026 Launch Canada Challenge in Timmins, Ontario this week. The student team watched as their hard work soared to an altitude of 63,497 feet, breaking the previous world record of 56,590 feet.

“Seeing the rocket launch was an experience that I cannot put into words,” says Niva Patel, a second-year Mechanical Engineering student and future technical lead on the rocketry team. “The moments before launch were the most stressful of my life, but witnessing Polaris soar into the air, hearing the callout confirming we broke the world record, and watching the parachutes deploy with the entire team cheering was unforgettable.” 

Polaris is 17 feet long and weighs 300 pounds fully fuelled. This year’s design featured an upgraded rocket recovery system and a more powerful engine.  

“It’s last year’s rocket, but better,” says Patel. "We increased Polaris’s engine thrust to improve the rocket’s initial stability and significantly optimized the vehicle architecture to maximize our altitude. To make absolutely sure we got the vehicle back in one piece, we also heavily reinforced the recovery system, engineering it to withstand ten times the expected deployment forces." 

Liquid bi-propellant rockets are harder to build than solid and hybrid ones, but they are the aerospace industry standard which makes them well worth the challenge. In 2024, the Waterloo Rocketry team built and successfully launched Borealis, the first Canadian liquid bi-propellant rocket to take to the skies.  

In 2025, the team launched Aurora which flew to 38,000 feet, making it the second-highest amateur liquid bi-propellant rocket in the world at the time. Unfortunately, the team was unable to recover Aurora and most of its flight data, but they took that as a learning opportunity to do better. Polaris descended beautifully under a drogue and main parachute – a first for the team – and was recovered safely. The team is already busy analyzing the data recorded from the suite of onboard sensors. 

Read the full story.

Game plan for a warmer world

This is an excerpt from an article that was originally on the Faculty of Environment website.

The impacts of climate change are seen in natural and human systems, and the global sports sector is particularly vulnerable. Increased incidents of extreme heat, flooding and low air quality have led to athlete illness, event cancellation and relocation. In 2018, the United Nations launched the Sports for Climate Action Framework, and approximately 300 sports organizations have committed to halving their emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2040. Despite the increased awareness and motivation, the global sports sector has been slow to adapt.

Kyara Simoes, a recent graduate from the Master of Environmental Studies program, observed that more sports events were being disrupted due to extreme weather. She was also personally impacted when warm winters made it impossible to ski, and poor air quality kept her from going for a run. She chose the Faculty of Environment for her graduate studies for the opportunity to work with Dr. Michelle Rutty and Dr. Daniel Scott, leading researchers in the human dimensions of climate change. Their work helped inform her thesis, which assessed climate change readiness of national-level Canadian sport organizations.

Simoes collected data from organizations’ publicly available sources, including strategic plans, annual reports and sustainability reports. She then completed a content analysis to determine how climate change is being integrated into each group’s operations and communications, as well as an overall assessment of their climate change readiness. In total, Simoes looked at 86 national-level sport organizations including baseball, karate, and triathlon.

The results show that only a small number of sport organizations are beginning to acknowledge climate change or environmental sustainability, and most still lack coherent or integrated strategy for addressing them. Of the organizations reviewed, only eleven mention climate change or environmental sustainability. Only five maintained a specific webpage about climate change.

Read the full story.