On Wednesday, January 21, 2026, the University of Waterloo community came together online for the Global Futures launch event to explore how Waterloo is advancing Waterloo at 100 and driving impact across research, learning, and innovation.
The event opened with remarks from President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel, who announced the publication of the 2026 Global Futures 2026 Innovation Update—a collection of stories highlighting how the Waterloo community is responding to some of the world’s most complex and urgent challenges, and how that work continues to evolve. President Goel also reflected on Waterloo at 100’s five interconnected futures—societal, health, sustainable, technological, and economic—and underscored the role of Global Futures in helping the university focus efforts, work across boundaries, and build partnerships that amplify impact.
Building on the announcement of the first cohort of Global Futures Initiatives (GFIs) in September 2025, the launch highlighted how $2.3 million in funding is supporting interdisciplinary, cross-functional teams of faculty, staff, and external partners to advance integrated activities across research, education, service, and community impact.
The live program brought together initiative leads, partners, and entrepreneurs featured in the Innovation Update, who shared the stage to discuss their work and its real-world impact. This included a pre-recorded presentation from Nain Abdi, founder of Colare, on student-led innovation in engineering hiring; Dr. Brianna Weins’ work on SIGNAL (Strategies for Intersectional Gender Justice, Networked Action and Liberation); perspectives on sustainability and climate leadership from Dr. Sarah Burch and Mat Thijssen (Director of Sustainability at Waterloo); and Dr. Derek Rayside’s vision to strengthen and scale Waterloo’s interdisciplinary capstone ecosystem.
The event concluded with a moderated panel discussion that brought these voices together to reflect on what’s next for the initiatives—and how members of the Waterloo community can continue to champion Global Futures in their own work.
Watch the Global Futures Launch Video here: