A Year in Review: Extending our impact: outreach, engagement, and trainee leadership

Across 2025, the GCI extended its impact beyond the laboratory through a dynamic slate of outreach, engagement, and trainee-led initiatives that strengthened our research community and deepened connections with patients, partners, and the public. From GCI Research Day, planned and delivered by trainees and bringing together the Montreal cancer research community, to creative and interdisciplinary programming such as the Science-meets-Art exhibit, trainees played a central role in shaping how science is shared, discussed, and celebrated.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion were also placed at the forefront of engagement. Events such as Breast Cancer & RNA Therapeutics: Exploring Inclusive Research and Career Opportunities, organized in collaboration with the DNA-to-RNA (D2R) Initiative, Audace au Féminin, and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation, as well as the Community Café, created spaces where research, lived experience, and community voices intersected, reinforcing the principle that inclusive research environments are essential to scientific excellence.

Community engagement extended well beyond campus. Through participation in the Terry Fox Run and the Défi Canderel, GCI trainees, staff, and researchers helped mobilize public support for cancer research, contributing to campaigns that have generated tens of millions of dollars in support of cancer research. These efforts not only fuel discovery, but also support trainee development, enabling the GCI to attract and train the next generation of cancer research leaders.

Together, these activities reflect a vibrant research culture in which trainees are not only advancing science, but also leading outreach, fostering inclusion, and helping translate discovery into shared purpose—extending the GCI’s impact well beyond the bench.