What is the SWIFT Hub?
The Synthetic Waterloo Intelligent Futures Technology (SWIFT) Hub is a university-wide initiative conducted in collaboration with the Family Psycle Lab® to establish a hybrid open synthetic modelling and population simulation environment operating locally between the University of Waterloo (UW) and the SDG Idea Factory in Kitchener. Its central aim is to enable connections between researchers, students, governments, industry partners and community organizations in developing advanced “what-if” simulations that support community health and well-being. The SWIFT Hub directly advances UW’s Health Futures, while operating at the intersection of Societal, Sustainable, Technological, and Economic Futures. This is consistent with UW’s Global Futures vision of addressing interconnected, compounding challenges that shape the future of humanity and the planet. Increasingly, health outcomes are influenced not only by isolated systems, but by multiple interconnected challenges, such as economic uncertainty, climate and environmental change, technological disruption, infrastructure, and food insecurity, among other issues.
How does it work?
SWIFT is intentionally structured as a convergence hub, not a stand-alone lab or discipline-specific initiative. It brings together researchers from Arts, Health, Environment, Engineering, Mathematics, and affiliated institutions to work collaboratively on intersecting Futures that cannot be meaningfully addressed within separate disciplines. Synthetic modeling and simulation science provides a common methodological language that enables integration across diverse forms of expertise, linking health research with climate science, urban planning, economics, data science, systems engineering, and more. SWIFT will be flexibly interwoven with established university groups, positioning it at a strategic intersection of human health, the physical environment, and technology. The Hub will engage researchers affiliated with UW centres and institutes focused on mental health, healthcare systems, public health, data science, climate adaptation, and complexity.
By offering shared tools, models, and population-level data resources, SWIFT lowers barriers to collaboration, reduces duplication, and enables coordinated research agendas aligned with Global Futures priorities. Students are integral to this interdisciplinary collaboration, participating through co-op, internships, practica, and capstones. This open system, hub-based structure allows for strengthened collaboration across organizational units, while still maintaining a clear health-centred focus. SWIFT is supported by strong community partnerships, spanning government, industry, community organizations, and entrepreneurial actors. A core industry partner is RUNWITHIT® Synthetics, an Indigenous owned, women led global leader in synthetic decision intelligence, providing advanced expertise in population‑scale digital‑twin and simulation technologies.
How is the SWIFT Hub sustainable?
Presently, the SWIFT Hub is receiving funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Research Fund (ORF) and the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program. Beyond current funding, the SWIFT Hub is designed as a durable research infrastructure by strengthening researchers’ competitiveness for external research funding and cross-sector grants through the provision of university-wide synthetic modeling infrastructure. SWIFT will generate revenue through applied research contracts and fee‑for‑service engagements with public‑ and private‑sector partners seeking simulation‑based decision support. For example, through Synthetic Waterloo, partners can test and refine novel health innovations (including wearable devices, in‑home health technologies, behavioural and mental health software, digital therapeutics, pharmaceuticals, treatment alternatives, and care‑coordination approaches) under realistic social, environmental, and economic conditions. Relatedly, opportunities to simulate infrastructure investment, including housing, supply chain management, and utilities, can provide unprecedented insight into optimized building strategies before shovels are in the ground or supply trucks are on the road. By enabling foresight into potential strengths, weaknesses and challenges of projects before they are implemented, investment risks are reduced and return on investment is maximized. Contracts conducted will also be heavily integrated with student co-operative education and interdisciplinary capstone projects, allowing students to test designs, models, and prototypes within academic term timeframes as well as support student start-ups and innovation teams.
