CSE and NSERC to fund research on exploratory analysis of unstructured data

From: Communications Security Establishment Canada

News release

Ottawa, Ontario - July 28, 2025

The Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) are pleased to announce the funding of a new research community focusing on exploratory analysis for unstructured data.

Professor Benjamin Fung from the School of Information Studies at McGill University and his team of 14 co-applicants and collaborators from 10 Canadian universities have been awarded $5.6 million over 4 years to support a large project entitled “ZenithVector: Advanced Vectorization, Embedding, and Cybersecurity Analytics Toolkit for Scalable Intelligence.”

The goal of this research community is to develop a comprehensive, multimodal solution for the exploratory analysis of large collections of unstructured data (e.g., text, code, and images). The project integrates advanced techniques to develop the building blocks necessary to understand, explore, and visualize collections of unstructured data in a way that makes sense to the human brain.

This community was created as part of the NSERC-CSE Research Communities Grants, which aim to fund research on cutting-edge technologies in areas of strategic importance to CSE and the Government of Canada.

Quick facts

  • The NSERC-CSE Research Communities Grants were created as part of the CSE Research Initiative, a funding commitment to research investment announced in Budget 2022.

  • Launched in 2024, the objectives of the NSERC-CSE Research Communities Grant on Exploratory Analysis of Unstructured Data include:

    • advancing research in fundamental algorithms and tools for exploratory analysis of large unstructured datasets
    • developing a sustainable, open-source software ecosystem for exploratory analysis of large unstructured datasets
    • growing and expanding an interdisciplinary community that includes, for example, mathematicians, computer scientists, visualization, and computer interaction experts to work together on exploratory analysis of unstructured datasets
    • establishing Canada and Canadian universities as leaders in unstructured data analysis
    • supporting the development of highly qualified personnel working in the field of exploratory data analysis

  • This is the second of 4 research communities to be created. The first one was announced in July 2024 and focuses on robust, secure and safe artificial intelligence.

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Contacts

For more information, please contact (media only):

CSE Media Relations
media@cse-cst.gc.ca

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