Centre for International Governance Innovation

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) was founded in 2001 by Jim Balsillie, then co-CEO of Research In Motion (BlackBerry), with an initial private endowment of $20 million from Balsillie and $10 million from co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. In 2003, the Government of Canada matched the combined $30 million, bringing total founding capitalization to approximately $60 million. CIGI is headquartered at 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on a dedicated campus shared with the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

CIGI operates as an independent, non-partisan think tank with roughly 168 staff members. It is led by President Paul Samson, who joined as CIGI's fourth president in September 2022 after nearly 25 years in senior roles across the Government of Canada, including Finance Canada and Global Affairs Canada. CIGI is supported primarily by its endowment and by ongoing grants from the Government of Canada and (previously) the Government of Ontario, along with project-specific philanthropic and government grants.

CIGI's 2025-2030 Strategic Plan organizes its research across four areas: AI and transformative technology; data, economy and society; digitalization, security and democracy; and global cooperation and governance. Key programs include the Global AI Risks Initiative, the Digital Policy Hub (a fellows program launched in 2023, funded by Mitacs), the Freedom of Thought Program on digital rights, and the Waterloo Security Dialogue.

The Global AI Risks Initiative is CIGI's most directly AI-safety-relevant program. It was created to advance the international governance needed to manage global AI risks, including catastrophic risks from intentional misuse of powerful AI systems and from autonomous AI systems that cannot be controlled. The Initiative is led by Executive Director Duncan Cass-Beggs, formerly head of strategic foresight at the OECD. Open Philanthropy awarded the Initiative a $300,000 grant announced in September 2024. Work under the Initiative includes research on framework conventions for global AI challenges, national security scenarios for next-generation AI, and international cooperation mechanisms for AI risk management.

In 2025, during Canada's G7 Presidency, CIGI organized the Think7 (T7) process and hosted the T7 Summit at its Waterloo campus, delivering policy recommendations to Canada's G7 Sherpa. CIGI released its 2025 Annual Report in January 2026, highlighting its expanded global impact and the launch of the Canadian AI Adoption Initiative in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Living Standards and the University of Waterloo.