Schwartz Reisman Institute releases 2025–2028 strategic plan
The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI) has released its new strategic plan for 2025–2028, outlining an ambitious vision for ensuring that artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies evolve in ways that support safety, ethics, and the public good.
As AI systems grow rapidly in scale and capability, SRI is sharpening its mission and expanding its global footprint to help shape a future that promotes human flourishing.
Founded in 2019 through a historic gift from the Schwartz Reisman Foundation, SRI is entering its seventh year during a period of extraordinary technological transformation. AI is now embedded across education, healthcare, communication, governance, and the global economy—and its accelerating capabilities present both unparalleled opportunities and profound risks.
“We’re living through a transformational moment ,” says SRI Director David Lie. “Advanced technologies have the potential to improve our lives in extraordinary ways, but realizing those benefits depends on our ability to build systems that are safe, ethical, and aligned with the values of a diverse global society. SRI’s new strategic plan reflects our commitment to meeting that challenge head-on.”
The 2025–2028 Strategic Plan represents the Institute’s second major planning cycle. It renews SRI’s mission under new academic leadership and builds on the foundation established in its first phase of growth.
“Our vision remains clear,” says SRI Executive Director Monique Crichlow. “SRI will continue to be a global leader, convener, and catalyst for solution-focused, interdisciplinary research that ensures advanced technologies benefit all of humanity. It’s not just about work within the university; our mandate is to ensure that the expertise within university walls reaches outward, too.”
Areas of focus
The new plan centers SRI’s work around three core areas where the Institute is uniquely positioned to drive evidence-based insight and impact:
Safe and secure AI systems: Advancing research on system safety, interpretability, pluralistic alignment, and the governance of highly capable AI systems.
Data and integrity: Strengthening trust in information systems through work on privacy, security, data provenance, authenticity, and protection against manipulation and misinformation.
Governance and social reordering: Examining how AI reshapes institutions, rights, labour, communication, and culture—and designing frameworks that safeguard democratic values and human dignity.
Strategic objectives
These areas of focus support three strategic objectives that guide SRI’s work between now and 2028:
Advance foundational interdisciplinary research on safe AI.
Drive cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research that anticipates and responds to the societal implications of advanced AI systems, including AGI and potential superintelligence. SRI will strengthen its capacity to support real-time understanding of technological change, identify catastrophic scenarios, surface mitigation strategies, nurture opportunities, and deliver solutions with real-world impact.Translate frontier AI research into real-world impact.
Bridge the gap between technical insight and societal response by turning research on AI safety and governance opportunities into accessible, actionable knowledge. Through policy outreach, public engagement, media contributions, and educational content, SRI will inform decision-making that ensures advanced AI is aligned with human values and long-term safety.Promote global leadership in shaping safe AI development.
Position SRI as a leading voice in the global conversation on advanced AI systems by expanding interdisciplinary networks and cultivating strategic partnerships. We will convene high-profile events and dialogues that engage diverse, international audiences and amplify the Institute’s voice across sectors to shape a safe future for AI development.
SRI leadership has been instrumental to the Institute’s many successes and forward-looking ambition. Clockwise from left: Associate Director and Research Lead Sheila McIlraith, Advisor Geoffrey Hinton, Director David Lie, Research Lead Anna Su (with Faculty Affiliate Wendy Wong in foreground).
The journey so far
Achieving these ambitious objectives is already well underway, with an extensive list of highlights through the Institute’s last strategic plan, from 2021 through 2024.
In the last year alone, SRI has served as a hub for academics, researchers, and luminaries in the field of technological advancement. Our annual Absolutely Interdisciplinary conference was held last May, convening researchers across multiple disciplines to tackle common problems. Special events—like the Technophilosophy September Soiree—encouraged conversation about issues that affect us all. Our biannual weekly Seminar Series continued full steam, bringing together hundreds of participants to hear lectures from diverse leaders from major institutions across the continent. We appointed eight research leads and welcomed 24 new faculty affiliates for the 2025-206 academic year, and we published policy briefs on subjects ranging from the rise of therapy bots to AI companions and Canada’s implementation of global privacy certifications. Meanwhile, our leadership received accolades on the world’s stage.
To continue this momentum, SRI’s work extends far beyond the fundamental academic research we conduct. We bring people together from around the world to spark big, forward-thinking conversations, and we use our expertise to help develop practical, human-centred solutions to the most important technology-and-society challenges we face today.
Our path forward
To realize our strategic objectives, SRI will maximize its research capacity, deepen public engagement, and scale its partnerships across sectors and borders.
This includes:
Academic appointments and research programs that cultivate a diverse interdisciplinary community, including Schwartz Reisman Chairs, research leads, graduate fellows, global fellows, and faculty affiliates.
A robust program of convening and public engagement, including the SRI Seminar Series, high-profile lectures, thematic workshops, and accessible policy- and education-focused outputs geared towards members of the public.
Strategic partnerships and proactive outreach that strengthen Canada’s global leadership on AI safety and governance, supported by new initiatives such as the Office of Geoffrey Hinton.
Together, these initiatives ensure that SRI’s research reaches policymakers, industry leaders, and the public—informing decisions that shape how powerful technologies evolve.
Impact
The 2025–2028 Strategic Plan charts a path for SRI to expand its global reputation as a trusted source of insight on the societal impacts of advanced technologies. Success will be measured not only through scholarly output, but through real-world influence: shaping national and international policy, strengthening global cooperation, and helping ensure that AI advances safely, ethically, and in alignment with human well-being.
“As transformative technologies continue to reshape our world, SRI’s mission has never been more urgent,” said Lie in closing. “The choices we make today will have profound impacts on the structure of future societies. Together with our partners across disciplines and sectors, we must work to build a future in which technology serves the public good.”
Want to follow us on our mission?
Read the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society’s new strategic plan for 2025–28.
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