A University of Calgary research centre focused on making clean energy technologies cheaper, more durable, and more efficient has received a significant boost — $4.25 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation's Innovation Fund.

The funding goes to CeFar, the Centre for Far-From-Equilibrium Nanostructured Cleantech Materials, which brings together 10 research labs across UCalgary's Schulich School of Engineering and Faculty of Science. The centre studies materials that, when driven by external forces like electric fields or temperature changes, reorganize into structures with superior properties — a behaviour researchers are harnessing to improve batteries, fuel cells, solar panels, and critical mineral extraction.

"If you want to go towards net zero, it boils down to understanding how do we actually make these technologies more accessible in terms of cost, how do we prolong their durability and how do we enhance their efficiencies," says Dr. Milana Trifkovic, who co-leads the centre with Dr. Kunal Karan.

The investment will fund new research tools that allow scientists to observe and manipulate materials at the nanoscale in real time — something that's currently extremely difficult without specialized equipment. Beyond the research itself, CeFar aims to train more than 150 students and postdocs annually, with the goal of building out Canada's cleantech workforce from the ground up.