Driving Scientific Discovery

The University of Toronto and leading Toronto hospitals have a history of delivering health breakthroughs with meaningful impact for our world.

The university consistently ranks in the top 5 globally for research output and top 10 in the world for high-performance of scientific papers.

U of T’s work is unparalleled in its breadth and depth of expertise, including in regenerative medicine, precision medicine, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Toronto’s health sciences ecosystem is unique in North America and exceptional around the world: the University Health Network and Sunnybrook Hospital are ranked as the 4th and 25th best hospitals in the world and SickKids is the world’s #1 ranked children’s hospital.

Our work supports innovation ecosystems across Canada, fostering scientific advancement, technology adoption and scale-up capacity for research and innovation.

Powering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

U of T is Canada’s top university for innovation and entrepreneurship — and home to one of the top 10 university-managed business incubators in the world.

Our community has secured over $2 billion in investment and created more than 600 start-up companies over the past decade — 230 of them in the life sciences.

We are number one in Canada for research-based startups, and 75 per cent of the inventions created at U of T involved at least one student/trainee as co-inventor.

U of T has also built an entrepreneurship network that includes a dozen specialized, industry-connected accelerators and incubators — as well as an unparalleled network of hospital and industry partners that enables training, research collaborations, knowledge translation and clinical trials.

Our work in the health sciences promotes job creation and economic development, while our health sciences ecosystem employs thousands in high-skill, high-paying jobs and contributes $2 billion annually to the regional and national economy.

The University Health Network (UHN) is the top commercialization institution in Canada for the past two years, with over $1 billion in investments and over $2.5 billion created in exit valuation of spinoffs over the past five years.

Enabling Healthy Lives

Canada’s top-ranked university and hospitals are together one of the most vibrant health sciences and biotechnology ecosystems in the world, with the research and talent to develop life-saving technologies, medicines, treatments, and innovations.

This bioinnovation ecosystem is enhanced by the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) hospital partners, unique globally in having just one medical school formally connected to 14 renowned hospitals.

This academic health sciences ecosystem represents 40 per cent of all health sciences funding across Canada, including the two top research hospitals in Canada at the UHN and SickKids Hospital, which alone constitute receive over $700 million in funding annually.